Daily Prophets
Day 109
“The nation or kingdom that does not serve King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon-doesn’t put its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation I will visit, declares God, with sword, famine, and pestilence, until I have destroyed it by his hands. Give no heed to your prophets…who say to you, ‘Do not serve the king of Babylon…I will drive you out and you shall perish. But the nation that puts its neck under the yoke…will be left by me on its own soil to till it and dwell on it, declares God.”(Jeremiah 27:8-11).
Jeremiah is walking around with a yoke on his neck, directed by God, to show the people that having this yoke, while constricting, still allows one to move about and do the bidding of God as well as Nebuchadnezzar. He is telling the people and the other nations, Edom, Tyre, Moab, Ammon, Sidon, to submit to Babylon and live in their lands and the yoke will not last forever. Do not revolt against Babylon’s supremacy, accept it and live with it.
I find this so interesting. Part of the T’Shuvah God is proposing to the people, for their abandonment of God, is a loss of power to another king. This king is being sent/allowed by God to take over the lands and the people will be able to stay in their homes, till their soil, and live their lives pretty much intact. A tribute will be made to the king of Babylon and, it seems, that is the only difference. Self-rule will be suspended for a period of time, 70 years is Jeremiah’s prophecy.
God is giving us the gift of servitude to another king so we can see what it is like when we serve a master other than God. God is giving us a softer landing than total destruction and exile, if we choose the yoke. I would argue wearing the yoke of Babylon is in preparation to accept, again and anew, the Yoke of Heaven, the Yoke of God, the Yoke of Torah. None of these yokes are punishing, they all are aids to help us live well and the yoke of Babylon is the preparatory yoke to teach us how to live well while yoked. If we can till the soil and dwell on the land while yoked to Babylon, how much the more so can we live well when yoked to God?
And, we have to make the choice not to fight, otherwise our destruction is guaranteed. God, through Jeremiah, is giving the reality of our situation: you can suffer for 70 years under the thumb of a foreign king (as part of your t’shuvah) or you can cause your own destruction by trying to fight against Babylon and God. I liken it to ‘you did the crime of abandoning God, now you have to do the time’-while others say: ‘Its not a crime to abandon God and I will fight this case to the end’. The end is destruction.
Rabbi Heschel teaches: “Patriots in Judah… were clamoring for revolt, encouraged by …false prophets who announced that exile and the rule of Babylon would soon end. Emissaries from five kingdoms in the area came to Jerusalem to organize the rebellion. At that moment, Jeremiah, at the command of God resorted to a strange and bold act.He harnessed a wooden yoke to his neck with thongs and bars…The acceptance of Babylonian overlordship, unlike the submission to Assyria which Isaiah had called upon the people to reject, did not involve the danger of complete expulsion and national extinction.”(The Prophets pg 135-136). Rabbi Heschel is reminding us, I believe, of the danger of false prophets, soothsayers, diviners, etc. because they appeal to our desire to be deceived and our desire to believe in our own superiority. Jeremiah, seeing the need for bold action, took it and called out to the assembled leaders to stop their lying ways and return to God, stop trying obstruct God’s plan for you and cause your own destruction. It is so sad that people throw off the Yoke of God for the yoke of mendacity, the yoke of a “strongman” leader, the yoke of authoritarianism, the yoke of hatred, the yoke of fantasy.
In recovery, we are aware of the yoke we were under in our old ways of living. We lived under the yokes of mendacity and victimhood, hatred of self and another(s) and despair and anxiety. Once we decided to accept the Yoke of God, we could breath a sign of relief, we could see a future of light and bright. In recovery, our powerlessness and our reconnection to God enhance our living, not harm it. We get to live in ways we only dreamed of prior to being in recovery. We get to connect with people in authentic and real ways, we drop the pretenses and facades we used to put up and our entire being changes. In recovery, under the Yoke of God, our eyes soften, our hearts open, and our souls receive and give love, direction, kindness, truth and compassion. We have returned from our exile and we are once again living in our proper places and doing the work that God created us to do. Yes, we put ourselves into Exile and God brought us back, so being Yoked to our Redeemer becomes a privilege, not a burden.
I had rejected God’s offer of exile many times before I accepted the reality that I had to be outside of the camp in order to return. Since December of 1986, I have known that the Yoke of God is the one I have to wear and succumb to each and every day. I get to serve God and I don’t always do it right, my Yoke has many cracks in it and I haven’t taken it off. I love the wisdom of Rabbi Heschel in reminding us to throw off the Yokes of mendacity, ego, etc. This is the challenge I face each and every day. I wear these other yokes for a minute and God reminds me to return to the Yoke of Heaven so I and others can live well. What are you Yoked to? Stay safe and God Bless, Rabbi Mark