Daily Prophets
Day 49
“And God is/will be a Sanctuary, a stone of offense, a rock of stumbling for the two Houses of Israel and a trap and a snare for those who dwell in Jerusalem. So I will wait for Adonai, who is hiding God’s face from the House of Jacob and I will trust in God.”(Isaiah 8:14, 17). Verse 17 can also be read as: “I will wait for Adonai who’s Face is a Shelter for the House of Jacob and I have hope in God. (My translation)
Isaiah is calling to the people Israel to remember who is the source of their power. He is scared from what he sees, people thinking their power will come from Assyria, from other kings, wealthy, etc. The people have forgotten the first of the 10 Sayings/Commandments. It was Adonai/God who brought us out of Egypt, not human power. Isaiah is calling to the people to remember; God is our sanctuary, God is our refuge! Yet, some people refuse to acknowledge this and then God puts rocks, stones, traps and snares out to catch us, not hurt us.
This is an important point, I believe. Verse 8:14 is not about punishment for some ‘hurt’, rather it is the last resort to wake the people up. It is the logical consequence of following the path of forgetting that our source of power is God, spirit and not alliances with strongmen/women. In the city of wholeness, Jerusalem, the people have forgotten what makes them whole, God and Spirit, and bought into the lie that another human being can save them so they will surrender to the power of Assyria/another human being. How sad, how wrong and how infuriating to and for Isaiah!
Isaiah’s response in 8:17 is the only one that is appropriate for this moment. Proclaiming his belief and faith in God is the only antidote to the idolatry of the leaders and the people. My alternative translation is the message that all of us need to hear, God is our shelter and our hope is that we will listen, follow and inspire others to do the same. This is the call of Isaiah in these verses and throughout his prophecy-listen, follow and inspire others in service of God.
Rabbi Heschel, in The Prophets, speaks about verse 14 as an example of Isaiah’s desire for “historical justice”. “Historical justice is the illumination of all men, enabling the inhabitants of the world to learn righteousness.”(pg.175). What a wonderful goal, “it is not a mystical experience he years for in the night”(ibid), it is that we all learn to be decent, caring people who live God’s Will out loud, with everyone, and in all of our actions!
Rabbi Heschel goes on to teach: “Isaiah could not accept politics as a solution, since politics itself, with its arrogance and disregard of justice, was a problem(Ibid.pg 73). So, God is our solution. Do you hear this Political leaders? Do we, the people, hear this and hold our politicians responsible to Do Justly and Be Humble, as the prophet Micah teaches us? These so called ‘people of faith’ are charlatans and idolators praying at the altar of power, raping and pillaging those they deem “less than”, ie anyone not white, Anglo-Saxon protestant. They will not stop their ways until either we stop them or they bring about the ruin of all of us, just as what happened in Israel and Judah. As Rabbi Hillel says to us: “If not now, when?”(Ethics of the Fathers).
In recovery, we know that God is our sanctuary because we have tried all the other false ones and failed miserably. No amount of power, money, booze, dope, gambling could bring us the inner acceptance we so desperately searched for. We loved our addictions more than our addictions loved us, a way of being that allowed us to ignore the stones, the rocks, the traps until we were in the snare of our addiction and could not think our way out. In Chapter 5 of the Big Book of AA, it says: “Without help, it is too much for us. But there is one who has all power-that One is God. May you find Him now.” We believe Isaiah because our lives depend on this belief and we say to everyone, in recovery, in addiction and/or in denial, May you find God now and live in God’s Sanctuary.
I know this to be true, my history is one of stones, rocks, traps that I have ignored, missed until they were snares for me. This is true in my life prior to recovery and even since then. I realize all the ways that God has tried to get my attention gently and then had to escalate the intensity of the message until I received it and acted upon it. I am sad that it still takes a 2x4 at times to get my attention and grateful that I can finally wake up to God’s call instead of listening only to mine. I don’t have to wait for God, I just have to respond to God’s constant and incessant calling. When I do, life is so good! Racism is one of God’s call to us, stop it! Rabbi Heschel says: “To think of man in terms of white, black or yellow is more than an error. It is an eye disease, a cancer of the soul”(Insecurity of Freedom pg. 87). We claim to be “One nation under God with Liberty and Justice for all”, yet we are not. We cannot claim to be any of these wonderful things we wrap ourselves in when Racism, Anti-Semitism, hatred is practiced in our highest levels of government and in our courts. We have to take “shelter in God’s Face” by living God’s Will and Ways. How are you being trapped by your worship of yourself and/or other human beings? How are you taking shelter in/with God by living God’s will and Ways?