Aramaic Word Study – Wake Up – ‘Er ער  Ayin Resh

Colossians 4:2: “Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving;”

I remember as a child in the third grade just before Thanksgiving our teacher during our music class introduced us to a classic song that was not of the Jimmy Crack Corn genre’.  The song was a slow-moving, rather boring Dutch Hymn traditionally sung on Thanksgiving: “We Gather Together.”  The class hated this song as it wasn’t exactly the rock and roll they were used to. However growing up in a home where we went to church every night of the week and twice on Sundays, I thrived on the old “boring” hymns.  Today, I still long to hear that famous melody put to the words: “We gather together to ask the Lord’s blessings, He chastens and hastens His will to make know. The wicked oppressing now cease from distressing, sing praise to His name He forgets not His own.”  

That song has just as much meaning for us today in this country as it did for the Protestants Christians of Holland at the end of the seventeenth century. The author is unknown but what is known is that the hymn was written to celebrate their freedom from their Spanish overloads politically and from the Catholic church religiously. Many Christians suffered persecution and were put to death during the eighty-year war 1568-1648 which comprised the Dutch Revolt against the Habsburg King Philip II of Spain. The Northern providences (present-day Netherlands) quickly sided with the Protestant reformation and revolted against the Southern provinces (present-day Belgium and Luxembourg) which remained loyal to Spain, the Holy Roman Emperor, and the Catholic Church.  By 1568, around 50 years after the start of the Reformation, the Catholic church began a counter-reformation which resulted in a bloody war for almost a century between Christians, Catholics against the Protestants. Actually, this Dutch Revolt was the seedbed of the democracy that began to spread throughout Europe leading to the establishment of democratic governments in England, America, France, and other European nations. After the fall of Rome, the Catholic Church had gained control of Europe resulting in all Europe paying homage to the church such that the Pope ruled the people’s religious life and the Holy Roman Emperor ruled the civil life.  However, the Holy Roman Emperor had to be sanctioned by the Pope, so it was really a church rule of Europe. Thus, when the reformation began, the rule of the Holy Roman Emperor went out the window along with the Pope, and this lead to a war of the nations under the guise of religion. 

Hence, Christians suffered greatly under the absolute rule of the Catholic Church until the Dutch Revolt Ended. The eventual outcome of the Dutch Revolt actually was decided in 1609 when the combatants agreed to the Twelve Years Truce, however, the war between the Provinces of the Netherlands (Dutch Republic) and the Kingdom of Spain did not officially end until both parties agreed to the Peace of Munster which was a part of the Peace of Westphalia in 1648.  

The persecuted Christians prayed for over eighty years for peace and religious freedom. Many lived their whole lives never knowing what religious freedom was like. For practically the entire Protestant Christian population when their religious freedom came in 1648 it was a new and wonderful experience such that the hymn “We Gather Together” practically became their anthem.  

We in this country have known nothing but religious freedom and now we fear that this freedom is being threatened. The Dutch Republic gained its freedom through continuing in prayer and watching the same with thanksgiving (Colossians 4:2).  Prayer I understand but what is this watching the same all about and watching with thanksgiving?  Some commentators say this means to watch for any laziness in your prayers but I am not sure if that fits with the following phrase “with thanksgiving.”  

The word for continue in Aramaic is emen which is the word for trusting. Paul is exhorting Christians to trust in their prayers. Do you really trust in your prayers?  Sure, we must trust in God to answer our prayers, but do we really trust our prayers. Are we confident that our prayers are in the will of God and part of God’s plan, that we are praying for heaven’s sake not just our own? Do we trust that we are worthy for God to hear our prayers?  The Protestant Christians in the Netherlands trusted in their prayers for 80 years and saw a result of their prayers in religious freedom that was not only for their generation but for the next 400 years into our generation.  Do you trust in the effectiveness of your prayers?  Paul exhorts us to not only trust in God but trust in our prayers, have confidence that our prayers are being heard.

Next, we are to “watch the same.” Now, what does that mean? Maybe the commentators are right, maybe we are to watch for any laziness in our prayers.  There is no question to that truth.  However, the Aramaic word watch is ‘er which means to watch or be alert, but it is in an Aphel form so it is more correctly rendered as “wake up.”  This is followed by the pronoun ‘ant which is you.  Hence, we could render this as: “Trust in your prayers and then you will wake up into thanksgiving.”  

As we face the fears that the Dutch Reformers had four hundred years ago in persecution we must pray, but we must like our forefathers in that distant land, pray to trust in the power of our prayers. When we do we will wake in thanksgiving for the answer to those prayers as God makes a way for us to continue in our religious freedom. 

Don’t ever fear the loss of your religious freedom so long as you trust your prayers are worth being heard by God. Wake up to thanksgiving for the religious freedom that we now have and still enjoy. Remember it was the prayer of Christians who prayed for 80 years for religious freedoms that gave birth to the religious freedom we enjoy today.  Their prayers are still being heard.

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Thanks & Blessings, it means a lot to me!