Daily Prophets
Day 77
“Come near Nations and hear, give heed people. Let the earth and those in hear; the world and what it brings forth. My sword shall be seen in the sky; it shall come down upon Edom… for justice. For it is God’s day of vengeance/vindication, the year of reward for Zion.”(Isaiah 34:1,5,8).
Isaiah is not just trying to get the nation of Judah to hear, revere, and respect God and God’s Will, he is trying to get the whole earth to do this. He is calling on all of us, every nation, every person to hear, heed and realize what their negative ways are bringing upon themselves. He is working hard to wake the people up, evidently they no not what they are doing.
Isaiah is telling us that the ‘sword’ of God shall be seen, much like the rainbow is seen, I guess. Even seeing this ‘sword’ will not be enough to get people to change, seems to be Isaiah’s message/prophecy. Isn’t this sad? No matter how true something is, there are people who just won’t acknowledge these truths and they will cause their own ruin and the ruination of another(s).
It is interesting that the only nation mentioned here is Edom. I am understanding this to mean Edom, more than most, broke faith with God and with the way of Esau-who was welcoming, caring, compassionate and faithful. After all, he took care of his mother and father even after they gave away his blessing.
The last verse today, about God’s vengeance/vindication is problematic for most people. How can God, full of compassion wreak vengeance? I understand this phrase to explain the experience of God’s compassion coming to an end. Isaiah is telling us that eventually, after all the warnings, all the signs, all the speeches to return to God; the people’s continuing to not heed any of this will lead to their destruction. We have seen this happen throughout history.
The outcome will be the reward of Zion. Zion in this phrase represents all of the people in the world who remained loyal to the Will of God and survived the catastrophic events of their time. These people will be rewarded with a place to live safely, physically and spiritually; in a land/world of people who renew the covenant with God and live by it.
Rabbi Heschel’s description of the Prophet as a man who has a deep love, painful rebuke, powerful dissent and unwavering hope describes Isaiah in these verses to me. Isaiah is pained by what is going on and what is going to happen and rather than staying silent, he is rebuking the people and saying NO, stop being this way. His love comes through in his hope that the people will hear the message and change their ways.
Our politicians need to heed the words of God as well. Their willful blindness to the havoc they wreak with their Big Lies and Little Lies, their obstructionist ways of legislating and their breaking the covenant of democracy will lead us all to ruin. Yet, they persist and we keep voting them in! Whom is being dumber? Our Declaration of Independence says “we hold these truths to be self evident”, our political leaders seem to be saying “we hold the lies we tell to be truth”! We, the People must stand up for God and Truth otherwise we will participate in our ruin and the ruin of all of us. One person, one vote applies to all people in this country-not just to white men who vote for one party.
In recovery, we have seen the ‘sword’ of God in the sky and repented. We are the people who have taken stock of the ways we turned our backs on God and caused heartbreak, sadness, death and ruination for everyone in our lives when we were not in recovery. We have “come near” to God and God’s words, teachings, and messages. We have heeded God’s call to us and returned to God, God’s Will and God’s Ways. We are the examples of the compassion and grace that God shows to all of us. We carry this message to everyone and continue to try and find ways for people to hear us. Being in recovery is the reward for our turning back to God. Each day, we dedicate ourselves to living in God’s world rather than our selfish one, and we are graced and blessed with a day of wholeness and reward.
In my life, I have experienced God’s ‘vengeance’ and God’s reward. In fact, it took the vengeance to wake me up to see the ‘sword’ and change. I had to almost lose everything dear to me in order to “come near and hear and heed” God’s call. I know and understand all the ways that I have not seen the ‘sword’ in the hands of others and, arrogantly, believed that I would not wounded by another human being. How foolish and stupid as well! I don’t need God to wreak vengeance on those that have harmed me anymore. I don’t need them to acknowledge their part in our mutual ruin anymore. I realize and realized that my knowing, acknowledging my part and returning to God’s Will and Ways is enough and, this is truly the reward. Where are you, heeding the call or not? Stay safe and God Bless, Rabbi Mark