Daily Prophets
Day 87
“Run to and fro in the streets of Jerusalem, see and know, please, in the broad open places if there is a man who does justly and practices faithfulness, and I will pardon it. As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit; therefore, they have become big and grown rich. They have become fat and sleek, they judge not with justice, the cause of the orphan, they do not judge the right of the needy. Shall I not punish them for these things? Says God, shall not My soul be avenged?(Jeremiah 5:1, 27-29)
Jeremiah is explaining how much God wanted to be wrong about Judah, about the people God raised up from Egypt. God is so desperate to not destroy Judah that for the sake of one righteous person, God is willing to spare Judah the fate it has sought through its evil ways. There is a deep pleading with Jeremiah that I hear from God in this first verse above.
Jeremiah is as dismayed at his inability to find the one man to save the city as Abraham must have been to not find 10 to save Sodom. I am shaking at the impact of this verse-we can be redeemed by the actions of one person and it takes everyone going along with the wicked/evil/indecent person to cause our destruction. We all have it within our power to be redeemers, yet we choose to go along with, not stand up to and fear the power of the autocrat, the hater, etc. How sad and strange.
God’s response is one of defeat, anger and sadness. Whenever we get too big, out of proper measure, we become deceitful in order to hold on to what we have and gain more. Once we taste the gains of our deception, we continue to deceive in order to get more and more. The great deception, of course, is that God doesn’t care, God doesn’t live, God is irrelevant. These ‘holy people’ engage in the most unholiest practices-self-deception, deception of another(s), and perversion of justice.
On this last point, God is not willing to let it slide. Abraham called God, Judge of the world and asked God to do justly; God asks the same of the Judah and us. Yet, like Judah before us, we refuse to judge with justice at times, we judge with self-interest. The cause of the orphan and the needy are second or third behind our self-interest and the interests of our cronies/friends/co-conspirators. This is too much for God. The decision is not God’s but man’s, it is our decision to pervert justice that leads to our destruction.
Rabbi Heschel teaches:”Jeremiah depicted the dramatic tension in the inner life of God.”(The Prophets pg.137). What an amazing concept to me, just as we have an inner life, so too does God. Rabbi Heschel’s comment here is so radical and yet so profound and simple. God wrestles with what the next right thing to do is because of God’s unending mercy, compassion, kindness and love. While it would be easy to just follow a formula-this violation gets this penalty, Jeremiah is telling us, as I understand Rabbi Heschel, that God doesn’t believe this is justice. Justice that doesn’t include righteousness, faithfulness, love, redemption, is not justice at all.
“Jeremiah, looking upon the garishness of Jerusalem, felt hurt by the people’s guilt and by the knowledge that they had a dreadful debt to pay.”(Ibid. pg. 132). The prophet is pained and hurt, not for himself, but for God. Jeremiah is going “to and fro” for the sake of both the people and God. He is overwhelmed, I believe, by the destruction that the people are bringing upon themselves and the hurt that God experiences both by having to bring this destruction and the faithlessness of God’s people. We are all God’s people, we all need to look inside ourselves and redeem ourself and each other to bring us back to justice, kindness, faithfulness, love, truth, etc.
In recovery, we are now the people that Jeremiah was looking for in the first verse above. We have been the people in the other verses, we have courted, married and reveled in our negative behaviors and deeds and thoughts. We have perverted and polluted everything within our reach. Now, however, we have resown our covenant with God, we have resown our covenant with family, friends and people in recovery. We welcome being held accountable, we seek out ways to ‘carry the message’ and we are dedicated to seeking justice for the poor, the needy and for God. We are no longer willing to defile ourselves and ignore God’s call, we are dedicated to doing justly and staying true and faithful to God.
I, too, have lived both sides of this equation. My maturity and recovery began in 1986 when I did not blame anyone or God for my arrest, I took it as a sign. I no longer seek to pervert justice, I no longer seek to “get mine” at your expense. I no longer need to be right at any cost. I no longer engage in self-deception and deception of another(s) knowingly and when I realize I am, I do T’Shuvah for it. I no longer need to take advantage of anyone nor do I need to hold on when it is time to let go. Nothing is worth returning to the days of treachery, unfaithfulness and harlotry that I practiced. Hanging with God and people who serve God and wrestle with their inner lives is so much better than hanging with drunks and thieves. How are you being faithful to God today? Stay safe and God Bless, Rabbi Mark