Daily Prophets
Day 117
“I persistently sent all My servants, the prophets to say: Turn back, every one of you, from your wicked ways and mend your deeds; do not follow other gods or serve them. Then you may remain on the land that I gave to you and your fathers. But you did not give ear or listen to Me. The family of Jonadab son of Rehab have indeed fulfilled the charge…but this people have not listened to Me.”(Jeremiah 35:15-16).
God is using the Rehabites as an example to prove to the people that staying true to the commandments is possible. Also, God and Jeremiah are reminding us that return/change is possible. Yet, the people can’t/won’t listen and act. What is the action God wants from the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem? God wants us back-God wants our return. God wants us to mend our deeds and repair the damage we have wrought from our egotistical, narcissistic ways of being. God wants us to stop thinking and playing god and start being human beings and partners.
God is calling us back, still, at the 11th hour, as Babylon is circling Jerusalem, God still wants us back-yet we can’t/won’t hear. What is the pull of these other gods we run to serve? At Sinai we said Na’Aseh V’Nishmah: we will do and then we will understand. Yet ever since then we continually try to think our way out of the doing and substitute what we decide is right, giving no consideration of God’s desires, God’s guidance and God’s call.
God’s compassion is on display in these verses as well as God’s bewilderment. God cannot understand the betrayal by the people God has cared for and revived, lifted out of slavery and delivered to their own safe space. God’s cry of pain is palpable in these verses, to me, and the people are unmoved still. Jeremiah must be beside himself as he sees the future, it is death, and the people are marching there like sheep because of their refusal to surrender to God’s will and God’s ways.
I hear the pain in God and in Jeremiah from the last verse above. A family listened to their ancestor, even though it meant hardship for themselves, living in tents, not owning a vineyard, etc. The people God saved, shepherded, and cared for, however, would not/could not hear and listen to God’s call for their salvation. How painful and sad it is for God to continually have this experience because of our stubbornness.
Rabbi Heschel teaches: “Over and above man’s blindness stood the wonder of repentance, the open gateway through which man could enter if he would. Jeremiah’s call was addressed to Israel as a whole as well as to every member of the people. Jeremiah, looking upon the garishness of Jerusalem, felt hurt by the people’s guilt and the knowledge that they had a dreadful debt to pay.”(The Prophets pgs 104/5). Rabbi Heschel is calling us all to account here. He is calling those of us who are growing the insight and vision worthy of being descendants of the Prophets and those of us who are still refusing to, believing our sight should be used for our own personal good, not the good of another(s). Each and every one of us is endowed with the ability to hear the call of God and the call of God’s prophets, whom I believe are with us today-both from the Bible and from people like Rabbi Heschel, Dr. King, Father Greg Boyle, Pastor John Pavlovitz, Rev. Mark Whitlock, Rev. Najuma Smith Pollard, etc. Yet, most of us still refuse to hear and heed. This is painful to our prophets and leaders, it is painful to God and God still provides the “open gateway” of repentance. What keeps us in blindness and defiance when we can walk through the gates of repentance and see, live, be joyous and free?
In recovery, we know the sadness of God and Jeremiah when we did not listen to the people who cried out to us to walk through the “open gateway” of repentance. We know the frustration and pain our loved ones experienced when they witnessed us following the gods of our addictions, our inappropriate behaviors, our meanness towards others for our own gain. Yet, we finally heard their call and the call of God. We call the people who point us to recovery, eskimos. They are also the prophets we listened to who brought us the words of God and the path back to God. In recovery, we keep turning back to God, to community, to family, and to our souls for strength and joy. We no longer think we know everything, what we do know is we need God, we need to walk God’s path and we need to do this individually and as part of a community.
I am aware of both sides of these verses, Jeremiah’s and the peoples. I choose to be on Jeremiah’s side, no matter the pain. Jeremiah was not perfect, nor am I. Yet, Jeremiah was doing what he could to save his people, he was connected to them and I feel the same way with my people. Their betrayal pains me, not because they hurt me (which they may), rather because they hurt themselves by betraying God’s ways. Without God, there is no turning back, no reconnection, because people believe they are connected to the greatest power in the universe, themselves. It is sad to watch and I know that I cannot wish them any harm, I have to keep hoping and praying that they will find their way back to God’s ways-irrespective of any acknowledgement to/of me. We get to return each and every day-will you return before you destroy yourself and another(s)? Stay safe and God Bless, Rabbi Mark