Daily Prophet
Day 32
“My Heart is turned within Me, my compassion grows like a flame. I will not execute My fierce anger, I will not turn to destroy Ephraim, for I am God and not man, The Holy One in your midst: I will not come in fury.”(Hosea 11:8,9)
God is sending a message of deep caring and love through the prophet’s words. This is so beautiful for us to hear. God has a ‘change of heart’, God can and does, upon reflection, new facts/changes, change God’s own Heart. Nothing is in stone. In Genesis Rabbah (the oldest commentary on Genesis), it says: “not a day passes that the Holy and Blessed One does not innovate some halakhah(law) in the heavenly court.” Hosea is reminding us of instances in Torah where God’s Heart was changed.
What changed it? Compassion and love! God’s caring for Ephraim and all humanity is so evident in these verses. God cares so much and is so hurt, according to Hosea by Ephraim’s betrayals. Yet, God’s love is not conditional, like most human love is. God’s love is so powerful that God will not destroy forever those who spurn God, unlike humans who conquer in order to destroy.
Many of us attribute vengeance and anger to God in the Jewish Bible and here, Hosea is telling us that God is not man-the attributes attributed to God by the prophets and others in our Holy Books are meant to show the deep Love and Investment that Adonai has in us, according to Rabbi Heschel. We are not talking about a god in the sky that visits earth for its pleasure like in mythology. We are talking about Adonai who is in our midst and we miss seeing and connecting with Adonai. This, I believe is what Hosea is lamenting.
Rabbi Heschel also says: “And yet the fall of Samaria was not the final phase in God’s relationship to Israel. God’s love for Israel was eradicable.”(The Prophets pg.43). I believe this deep faith is what kept Rabbi Heschel so strong and resolute after the tragedies and horrors he experienced and the ways he was treated/mistreated throughout his career. Rabbi Heschel’s love was ineradicable, I imagine, because he experienced God’s love as ineradicable. We never lose God’s love according to Hosea and Rabbi Heschel.
Rabbi Heschel also teaches this passage shows, again, God’s sensitivity to humanity. No matter what deceptions come to God, God “nevertheless goes on pleading for loyalty, uttering a longing for a reunion, a passionate desire for reconciliation.”(The Prophets, pg. 48). Again, to show the truth of the verse above the prophet is giving us the inner world of God Who is above all human traits while connecting to humans in ways they can understand.
If only our Politicians and Clergy would read this passage of Hosea and live it. They are stuck in their camps and in their extremes. The left is not showing compassion for anyone else because they are so sure they are correct. The right knows that they are correct and want to keep their power, not to help but to rule. The side that is out of power is only obstructing the work our leaders need to do, not improve it. The “progressives” of the Democratic Party are wearing the cloths of the True Believers and think that they are God’s chosen while forgetting that we all are. All of the elected officials and the people working in Government need to heed Hosea’s words: “My Heart is turned, My Compassion grows like a flame.” Turn your hearts to each other as God turns God’s Heart to all of us and grow your compassion towards each other so that it is true compassion that you turn towards us.
In Recovery, we understand the destruction that we cause and that comes back to us tenfold. I believe that the 3rd Step, “Made a decision to turn our will and life over to the care of God, as I understand God” is the turning point in our recovery. It is the reunification that God is calling for in these verses. We have lived the truth that God’s compassion grows like a flame, otherwise we would not be able to live and to be in recovery. We have been welcomed back because of God-like love and compassion by family and friends. So, our response is to reciprocate and turn over to God our power to thwart God and be unfaithful to God by using God’s power to do the next right thing.
I am a recipient of God’s “change of Heart”. I am a recipient of God’s “compassion growing like a flame”. I would not be here without both. I receive these to this day, from God through my soul and from God through others. I have been hurt and feel betrayed as people feel betrayed by me and I am not destroyed because of God’s love and compassion. God is always waiting for and open to my/our return-unlike humans who write each other off when they are no longer useful to them. I ask you to see the ways God has been compassionate towards you and the ways you have allowed others to return and asked for compassion and forgiveness from others. Stay safe and God Bless, Rabbi Mark