Daily Prophets
Day 120
“Then the officials said to the king: Let that man be put to death…King Zedekiah replied, he is in your hands, the king cannot oppose you in anything! Then the king instructed Ebed-melech…Take with you 30 men from here and pull the prophet Jeremiah up from the pit before he dies. King Zedekiah sent for the prophet Jeremiah… then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, if you surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon, your life will be spared and this city will not be burned down.” (Jeremiah 38:4,5,10,14,17)
We are once again given a glimpse into the inner workings of a country and a people who believe the lies they tell themselves and will not tolerate anyone veering from the party line they want spoken and believed. The officials in the first verse are pressuring Zedekiah and, as is wont to happen, Zedekiah caves into them. Even though he knows that killing Jeremiah is disastrous and wrong, he is afraid to lead from truth and strength. Zedekiah is unable to access his soul strength so he can stand up to the lies and the deceptions of his court.
Yet, he undermines the very people he gives power to. He is called to account by Ebed-melech, whose name literally means: servant of the king. Zedekiah’s servant is the only one of his court who truly serves the king and the people. I find it remarkable that the servant of the king has more inner strength and less fear to speak and act in truth than the king does. While Zedekiah does the right thing and saves Jeremiah, he does it only after his servant persuades him to.
Ebed-melech is a hero in this chapter and I am thinking of all the people who worked hard to get leaders to do the next right thing throughout history. I am thinking about what it takes for a leader to accept guidance and rebuke from underlings as loving and helpful. I am thinking about the strength of Lyndon Johnson in getting the Voting Rights bill of 1965 passed and signing it as a man of the South. I am thinking about the strength of Robert F. Kennedy in caring about the poor and the needy and leading the charge to care for them. I am thinking of Rabbi Heschel, Dr. King, Father Berrigan, et al, who risked everything, career, freedom and their lives to lead us to a more moral and spiritual path of living. I am thinking about what is happening today and how far from this type of leadership some of our elected officials are.
The last verse above speaks to the wisdom of Jeremiah and the deafness/fear of Zedekiah. He sends for Jeremiah to hear truth, which Jeremiah is afraid to speak to him because Zedekiah keeps abandoning him to the self-deceiving officials. Yet Jeremiah is compelled to speak truth because he has no choice. The prophet cannot deceive anyone, much less the powerful, because they carry the words of God. Jeremiah gives Zedekiah the solution and the consequences for following God’s solution as well as the consequences for ignoring it again. We know what happened, the king and his court followed their own solution and the Temple was destroyed and Jerusalem was burned to the ground.
Rabbi Heschel teaches:”A ruler of good intentions, not entirely unresponsive to the warnings fo the prophet…Zedekiah felt himself helpless among his headstrong officials, and he was under their domination.”(The Prophets pg 135). I appreciate Rabbi Heschel’s compassion towards Zedekiah and he is pointing out to me the truth: the road to hell (destruction) is paved with good intentions! Zedekiah’s impotence points to how corrupt the kingship had become. Rather than accepting his place as a descendant of King David and his calling to lead according to God’s will, not the will of the “headstrong officials”, Zedekiah capitulates. We see this so often, leaders who know better, who hear and see truth, capitulate to the loudest and lowest common denominator to hold onto their positions of power.
In recovery, we surrender our need to deceive and demonize truth speakers. We know that we have to join in searching for, accepting and living a life of truth and decency. We realize that our continued recovery is directly linked to our continued spiritual growth and we cannot grow spiritually through self-deception. We also know that we cannot try and play/placate opposing forces within us nor outside of us. In recovery, we rise above our baser instincts to hear the words of the prophets of the Bible and the prophets/guides who speak directly to us. We, in recovery, know that God speaks through other people so we have attuned our ears in order to hear the message.
I have been attuned to and heard God’s call as well as the call of Jeremiah and the other prophets for years. In the past 32+, I have acted on these calls instead of ignoring them as I did in the past. I am not always correct and the message is not always clear, yet I know the message is right and true. I have given in to the officials in my midst and, many times it has been disastrous. I have also been headstrong and, on occasion, this has also been disastrous. I know that I am able to hear the call, act on the call and, more and more let go of self-deceptions to take the next right action. I do not capitulate often and my fierceness in serving God has done much more good than bad. I am content with me and my living, are you? Stay safe and God Bless, Rabbi Mark