Daily Prophets
Day 55
“I have commanded My Holy ones, I have also called My mighty ones to execute my anger on the haughty ones. Behold the day of the Lord comes…to destroy the sinners from it. I will hold accountable the world for it’s evil and the wicked for their iniquity; I will put an end to the arrogance of the proud and lay low the haughtiness of the tyrants.”(Isaiah 13:3,0,11).
In this chapter, Isaiah is letting the people of Babylon know what is in store for them if they stay on their current path. In the first verse above, God is not destroying the entire world, God is sending the people who have remained true to their covenant and stayed strong in the actions and faithfulness to wage the war against haughtiness. This seems to be the major crime here, haughtiness and arrogance.
It makes sense also. When people in power worship their power and believe it gives the “right/ok” to do whatever they want, they act with arrogance and with haughtiness. This way of being is what happened in Babylon, Greece, Rome, throughout antiquity and, I believe, why none of these civilizations remained intact till today. God’s holy ones and the strong ones will survive and carry the day, Isaiah is telling us. Not the immediate, maybe, yet they will carry the day in the end.
Isaiah is also letting us know that God does hold us accountable. Accountability is an important part of our relationship with God. It is an important part of every relationship.“Evil flourishes when good people do nothing” is a truth that comes from seeing history through the “eyes” of God and the Prophets. Isaiah is castigating and accusing Babylon regarding the evil they did and that they allowed. Arrogance and haughtiness lead to evil actions and these evil actions destroy God’s world and, in turn, the world of these arrogant and haughty people gets destroyed.
Rabbi Heschel sees these verses as both eschatological and hopeful, as I am reading him today. The hope is that: “Suffering does not redeem; it only makes one worthy of redemption; for the purpose of redemption is to initiate an age in which those who err in spirit will come to understand..”(The Prophets, pg. 119). This is in a section called “A Remnant Will Return”. This suffering was the result of our arrogance and haughtiness and it was accountability rather than “punishment” in the usual way of understanding it . This is accountability and ‘punishment’ that is meant to help us see what we have been blind to; suffer the consequences of our actions, and understand what we have to do to live in accordance with God and our Covenant.
Our political leaders need to reread this chapter as they decide on the voting rights restrictions, ways to treat immigrants, people of color and white people who don’t agree with them. When I was in prison in the 80’s, a white person who associated with a person of color was castigated, hurt, shunned for “not being down for his race”. Isn’t this the same thing these voting restrictions are meant to do? No Sunday voting because the Black Churches would organize the congregants, give me a break. These haughty and arrogant politicians are doing untold evil to our system, evil that will reverberate for decades, if not lead to the destruction of our democracy. Khrushchev was correct, the enemy is within. We The People have to call a stop to this evil and to their arrogance right now, right here. This is what we should march against, this is whom we should be recalling, the arrogant and haughty that are going to cause our destruction as they have throughout the millennia.
In Recovery, we are so aware of our arrogance and haughtiness. Accountability is an integral part of our 4th step inventory we cannot move forward without taking responsibility. We constantly are looking at our part in each and every situation in our life in order to suffer both the positive and negative consequences of our behaviors, ask for help, understand and accept instruction for amends and growth. We do this with God’s help and the help of others, sponsors, close connections, clergy, etc. We know that we have arrogant and haughty traits and we cry out to God and others to help us tame these traits and use them for good instead of for self.
I have a lot of experience with arrogance! Prior to my recovery and even still at times now, my arrogance appears as “less than”. Whenever I am feeling “less than” and act out by trying to prove I am “more than”, it is arrogant. Low Self-Esteem is saying that God made Junk when God made me. Now, that is arrogant. It is also self-defeating and a violent act towards oneself. My arrogance has led me to very good places also, it has led me to believe that redemption is possible for everyone and I get to help others see their way to it. It has led to help build an amazing organization. It has hurt some people and I am sorry for this aspect of it. It has hurt me by blinding me to the betrayal of myself, my loved ones and God. It has hurt me by blinding me to the truth of who people are and the transactional nature of relationships that I thought were soul to soul. “Hi, my name is Mark and I am a recovering Arrogant and Haughty person” is my new motto after today. How is your arrogance and haughtiness helping/hurting you and others today? Stay safe and God Bless, Rabbi Mark