Daily Prophets
Day 80
“I know your stayings and your goings and comings, and how you have raged against Me. Because you have raged against Me, and your arrogance has reached My ears, I will put My hooks in your nose, and My bit between your jaws; and I will make you go back by the road by which you came. A remnant will come forth from Jerusalem, survivors from Mount Zion. The passion of God of Hosts will make this happen.” (Isaiah 37:28,29,32).
The first two verses in today’s quote are Isaiah’s recitation of God’s words to Hezekiah, the King of Judah, who is afraid of what Assyria is going to do to Jerusalem, which is under attack. While the Assyrians are trying to breach the walls of the city, they are also sending messages of doom to Hezekiah and he prays to God and seeks the counsel of Isaiah. The response by God is toward the Assyrian King, and it could be towards Hezekiah as well.
God is telling Hezekiah and all of us to stop believing the Big Lie we tell ourselves and others: we can rage against God, we can bastardize God’s words, teachings and principles, we can be arrogant, etc only for a certain period of time and then our actions will catch up with us. We will not be able to act with impunity forever. This is a message that should fill all of us with trembling awe, fear at how our actions have done these things and awe at the mercy, grace and forgiveness of God, once we repent, return and have a new response to life.
I know this to be true because of the last verse quoted above, a remnant will be saved. This remnant will be saved because of its loyalty to God and God’s Ways and Will. The remnant is us, if we choose to be part of the remaining quality that lives, loves, follows God’s Will as God has given it to us, not as some ‘religious’ leaders/people, who are actually described in the first two verses, bastardize the teachings of God, through Moses, Jesus, Mohamed, Dalai Lama, Buddha, etc.
We survive and thrive through and because of God’s passion for us and, I would add, God’s belief in us. We are all alive through the Grace of God and the Passion for life and partnership that God has towards us. It is time to heed the prayer of Hezekiah, the acknowledgement of God’s singularity, power, kindness, etc.
Rabbi Heschel teaches us that these words of Isaiah quoted above came when “the plight of Jerusalem seemed desperate…Jerusalem was alone. In that hour of distress and disgrace, Isaiah proclaimed the word of God…(The Prophets pg.76). How astute an observation-when we are at our wits end, we call out to God. For many of us it takes desperation, aloneness, distress and disgrace to return to God for guidance, assistance, strength and hope. Isn’t this sad that we can’t learn from the past errors of our ancestors and we keep doing the same things expecting different results?
This is the insanity of our political leaders, doing the same things over and over again expecting different results. The Democrats are trying to please everyone with bi-partisanship and being everything to everyone-which never works. The Republicans only want to obstruct unless they can get judges and tax breaks-which is not governing for what is needed in any given moment. One side wants can’t get along with each other and undermines the steps of progress being made and the other wants to go back to ‘the good old days’ of Jim Crow, hatred of Italians, Jews, Irish, Asians, voter suppression and see this as progress and a good thing. We, the People, have to remind the charlatans that God will “make you go back by the road by which you came” and vote the liars and deceivers out.
In recovery, we are aware of raging against God and the resulting experiences from this behavior. It is these experiences which brought us to our knees and into recovery. God, however, does not want us on our knees for long, I believe. God wants us to be that remnant that stands strong and tall, straight and clear-eyed, dedicated to fulfilling God’s Will and living well. This is the Covenant that we make with God in recovery, a covenant that God continues to keep and we continue to err and come back to. There is no perfection in recovery, only a constant search for Truth and how to fulfill God’s Will for us. We, those of us in recovery, are “the remnant” that has come forward to proclaim the kindness, forgiveness, justice, mercy, compassion, truth of God.
I had to be dragged by the hooks in my nose and the bit in my mouth into this life. I didn’t know that at the time, I didn’t know that change was possible. I knew I couldn’t keep going that way and, in my time of desperation, distress, aloneness, and disgrace, God reached out to me and I listened and followed the Call of God. I have not regretted following this call ever over these past 34+ years. I am not perfect in my ways and I have never veered from the path God has laid out. What I learned is t’shuvah, imperfection, forgiveness, mercy/grace are all part of God’s path. Are you following God’s path of Grace and Mercy? Stay safe and God Bless, Rabbi Mark