Daily Prophets
Day 56
“For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob and will still choose Israel and set them up in their own land. That you will take up this proverb against the king of Babylon and say, How has the oppressor ceased; the golden city ceased! God has broken the staff of the wicked and the scepter of the rulers. Who struck the people in anger with a continual stroke who ruled the nations in anger with unrelenting persecution.”(Isaiah 14:1, 4-6)
The prophet is reminding us that the remnant of Jacob/Israel will return and God’s mercy will prevail. I love that Isaiah mentions both Jacob, the trickster, and Israel, the wrestler. Israel is chosen to have their own land and carry the message of God throughout the world. Jacob, the one who tries to outmaneuver everyone, will be given mercy. The nightmare of exile will end! We get to return to God, which being held accountable does, we have to also show mercy to self and to another(s). This is what the first verse is telling me.
Verses 4-6 foretell the fall of Babylon and what will happen, eventually, to all oppressors. These kings and rulers who turned wicked and used their power for their own self interest and were cruel and oppressive to their people, will fall. These words are so revealing in how oppressors work and yet, people still follow them! It is a wonder that people take the anger and persecution in stride. This seems to be the ultimate inner slavery that people fall into.
Because of this propensity to fall into the inner slavery of accepting the anger and persecution of ‘the ones in power’, the first verse is crucial to our understanding of how to leave this inner slavery. We have to always remember that God will have mercy on us, show us grace and redeem us.
Rabbi Heschel writes that the first verse is about the sorrow in God’s anger. Even as God holds us accountable and is ‘angry’ at our breaking the covenant, “God’s affection for Israel rings even in the denunciations(The Prophets pg. 103). He goes on to say the anger “is an instrument of purification and its exercise will not last forever”(The Prophets pg.104) Rabbi Heschel teaches us that Verses 4-6 above remind us that too often we worship might rather than God: “Why were so few voices raised in the ancient world in protest against the ruthlessness of man? Perhaps it is because they worship might…The prophets repudiated the work as well as the power of man as an object of supreme adoration(The Prophets pg.202). I am so disturbed by Rabbi Heschel’s words because they still apply, to all of us. In this moment of searching our souls and selves to find and root our own prejudices and “eye diseases”, being reminded of our inaction and worshiping of might causes me to shake and tremble at my core.
Yet, our politicians still don’t shake and/or tremble at their core. They are still worshiping power and might. Some of them are supporters of the people who tried to make our ‘golden city’; Washington DC, cease to exist. Many of them are set on obstructing to ways of helping the needy and poor rather than offer realistic and caring alternative measures. Still more of them are interested in looking good for the camera and proposing measures that go too far. They are forgetting that the only true power is God and we are but servants of The Most High. These people are seeing themselves as kingmakers and rulers for their own interests rather than the interests of the people whom they serve and God who breathes life into all of us. We, The People, have to hold them accountable before they destroy the democratic way of being that has endured for over 244 years!
In recovery, we are aware of God’s grace each and every day. The Serenity Prayer, as written by Reinhold Neibuhr begins with “God grant us the Grace…”, which many of us in recovery use as a mantra one-many times a day. We have worshiped power and might, in fact many of us thought we were the mighty in our rebellion and destruction. In recovery we acknowledge God’s power and our desire, intention and actions to carry out God’s will rather than our own. We know that we have been chosen as well to “carry the message” to other people who are in need of recovery. We get to be agents of God’s message of mercy and love. This is the gift of recovery and we honor it each and every day.
In my life, the mercy that God has bestowed upon me has been/is endless. In my pre-recovery days I was like the rulers of Babylon, oppressing others with my cons and schemes and working to get everyone to dance to my tune out of their love and concern for me. In my recovery, I have also oppressed others at times with my ways of getting things done and my lack of intuiting how to speak to them in a way they could hear. I have also oppressed others with my anger and passion. God’s mercy, however restores me and reminds me of my worth, my uniqueness and the Divine need I was created for. I have to extend the same mercy and grace to another(s), rejoicing in their wins and helping them to fail forward. How are you oppressing yourself and/or another(s)? How are you showing mercy to yourself and another(s)? Stay safe and God Bless, Rabbi Mark