No one likes the sacrifice.

It's not easy to give something up,

even when the thing we stand to gain is of greater value than what we must surrender.

Given its difficulty, we may decide to reject sacrifice, opt out.

But choosing not to sacrifice is an illusion.

You're always watching something burn on the altar of priority.

You're always making some kind of trade.

This is a story about the inevitability of sacrifice. It's a story about the foolishness of

near-sightedness and the wisdom of remembering that what matters most may not be what's right in

front of you.

I'm Justin Gerhardt.

Welcome to Holy Ghost Stories.

Thank you. Winter has descended on the city of Jerusalem, and with it the army of the Babylonians.

They've come in their hundreds and in their thousands, their bronze swords and spears and double axes shining in the silvery January sun.

Change looms on the horizon, not just here but around the world.

The kingdoms of Earth are shifting.

A growing appetite for new ideas, for novel religions, proliferates,

especially in the East. Soon Lao Tzu will establish a religious philosophy centered on the

Tao, the so-called impersonal source and substance of everything. Not long now and

Siddhartha Gautama, founder of Buddhism, will be born on the edge

of the Himalayas. What does Yahweh think of all of this? What feelings arise in him as he watches

the world and the hearts of its people turn.

...