Daily Prophets
Day 71
“Ah, the proud crowns of drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is but wilted flowers… In that Day, God will be a crown of beauty…for the remnant of God’s people and a spirit of judgement for one who sits in judgement and of valor for those who repel attacks at the gate. For you have said, We made a covenant with death…when the scourge passes through, it shall not reach us, for we have made lies our refuge, taken shelter in falsehood.”(Isaiah 28:1,5,15)
How could any of this happen to Ephraim, Judah? This is the question that Isaiah is answering here in these verses. He tells us that Ephraim was made up of drunkards who kept believing that they were sober and beautiful, as when they were created. This lie is one that happens so often in history, yet we seem to never learn its lesson.
“In that day” comes up again here. Isaiah is begging the people to create a world, land, space where “in that day” becomes TODAY! He is screaming at the people to make this happen by describing the joy, the connection and the love that God gives to this remnant of the people who follow God, who reconnect with God and who are interested in carrying out God’s Will to “bend the Moral Arc of the Universe towards Justice.” This remnant will repel all attacks on its sovereignty, on its dignity, on its values because of their connection to God.
What does Ephraim answer? “We made a covenant with death…”, they believe that the deals they made with Egypt, with others, with the false gods that they worship now will save them and Isaiah is telling them that this a covenant with death. The lies and falsehoods they have told themselves for years are coming to kill them and they don’t even know. This is, to me, the ultimate enslavement-believing our lies and falsehoods so strongly that we can’t see the death sentence they bestow upon us.
Rabbi Heschel, in teaching about the first verse, says:”The Northern Kingdom was doomed…, Isaiah had no role to play in its destiny. With few exceptions, his message was directed to Judah.”(The Prophets pg 63). Rabbi Heschel is reminding us to use the experience of another(s) and learn from it. We don’t need to keep repeating the errors of our ancestors or the people around us. He goes on to teach us:”The threat of scourge and doom doesn’t frighten the scoffers, nor does the prophets condemnation of their cherished beliefs as lies and falsehoods.”(ibid, pg 91). Rabbi Heschel labeled this section:”Uncanny Indifference”. He is pointing out the indifference people showed to God, to decency, to truth, to principle and the destruction that this indifference brought. In other contexts, Rabbi Heschel was calling out this indifference that he saw still being practice by the people in charge of the United States and all of us. He called indifference-evil.
Our politicians remind me of the people of Ephraim right now. They are so drunk with their own fears and power that they are trampling on the very Constitution, Declaration of Independence that they claim to love so much. Everything that made it possible for their ancestors to come here to America, everything that made America appealing to people the world ‘round, they are indifferent to now. They have made a covenant with death and are making toasts to each other at how clever they are. Unbelievable, yet true. Brian Kemp, Ted Cruz, Mitch McConnell, and others, have you no shame? Your falsehoods and lies will catch up to you, they always do and “In that day” God will exact punishment and banishment upon you-as the Prophet Isaiah is teaching us today.
In recovery, we lived the lies and the falsehoods, we made the covenant with death and almost died. We found no refuge in this way of being, eventually, and God brought us back as part of the remnant that would return to the Promised Land. We have returned to life and we are always returning to our proper place. God has given us sight to see what is just and correct, ears to hear God’s call to carry the message and courage to separate falsehoods and lies from the truth. In recovery, we have the valor, the strength to repel the attacks of lies we tell ourselves and the lies others tell us. We have the valor to stand strong with God, with our recovering community to speak truth to power and love to all.
I have, of course, been the drunkard. I also am blessed with the discernment and judgment that Isaiah is speaking of by God. I have, even in my recovery, made temporary covenants with death, falsehoods and lies-much to my own dismay and almost ruin. Because of one of the moments I made this temporary covenant, I have been banished from a place I love(d) and, while it saddens me, I am heartened by Isaiah’s words, my sobriety and my recovery will make me one of the remnants that God saves, in fact, God has saved me, given me more discernment and sight and love and acceptance. Are you going to liberate yourself from the Covenant with Death you have made this year? I pray we all allow God to restore us to freedom, health and love this Pesach. Stay Safe and God Bless, Rabbi Mark