Daily Prophets
Day 124
“And they said to Jeremiah the prophet…pray for us to the Lord, your God…That the Lord your God may show us the way where we may walk and the thing that we may do.Then Jeremiah the prophet said to them..I will pray to the Lord, your God, according to your words…And it came to pass after 10 days that the word of God came to Jeremiah”(Jeremiah 42:2,3,4,7).
The people who chased Ishmael back to Amnon, who sought revenge for Gedaliah’s death come to Jeremiah to find out what to do. They are afraid of the Babylonia’s response to Gedaliah’s death and they are headed to Egypt. First, however, they decide to check it out with Jeremiah, the prophet.
The first two verses above give us a hint as to what is to come from all of this. These people lived in Judah, they were Jews and worshiped at the Temple. Yet, when they come to Jeremiah, they say “the Lord, your God, not the Lord, our God. While it may seem like a slight difference or a grammatical mistake in the writing, I believe it is very telling.
Whenever we use 2nd person pronouns, as in families one parent says “your child”; as with “your team”, “your group”, “your community” “your people” “your God” in conversation/dialogue with another member of the same group/family/community/faith-we are separating ourselves, we are setting ourselves above another(s) person and we are setting up the rejection of whatever is said by the “you” we are speaking with.
The Jews are asking for Divine Guidance, yet they are not owning their relationship with God. It is a subtle action by this remnant of Judea to sound good while planning to do what they want to do no matter what Jeremiah reports God says. They know the “way to walk and the thing that we may do” from all of Jeremiah’s earlier prophecies, from the Torah God gave us at Sinai, from the call of their own souls; yet they want to hear it from God-this seems much like the Korach story in The Torah.
Jeremiah, gives them a subtle and necessary rebuke in his response. Rather than rejecting this obvious slight to God and to himself, Jeremiah reminds the people that God is God of everyone, especially them! “I will pray to the Lord, your God, according to your words” is telling the people God is not outside of them, God is not a possession that anyone can ‘own’, rather God is calling to all of us and God is everyone’s guide and source of wisdom, strength and love, as I understand this verse today.
Rabbi Heschel teaches: “Implored by the people to pray for guidance, Jeremiah, on one occasion we know of, had to wait ten days for the word to come to him.(42:7)”(The Prophets pg. 548). Reading and re-reading these words remind me that our prophets were following in the ways of Moses and Bilaam, both of whom were prophets of God and both of whom called out to God and waited for a response, they did not give in to the pressure of the people’s impatience, they did not give into their own anxiety, they stayed loyal to God’s ways and God’s time. So many people want a quick answer and the answer they want to hear. In today’s living, waiting 10 minutes for an answer is too long and not many people want a response, they just want to know the answer so, if it is not to their liking, they can reject it and seek another answer from someone else. Jeremiah does not let the crisis of the moment become his emergency.
In recovery, we know that quick fixes and answer shopping does not work out well for us in the long run. We know that separating ourselves from our peers, our family, our fellow workers, our fellow alcoholics/addicts, our fellow humans is a recipe for disaster and will lead us out of recovery. The steps of AA are in the plural because the founders of AA, Dr. Bob and Bill W, knew that community was a basic foundational principle for recovery and returning to society after isolating and abandoning family, friends, etc. In recovery, the me turns into we through our inner work, our inventories, our amends, “our conscious contact with God, as we understand God” and our being of service to another(s). As Johann Hari says: The opposite of addiction is not sobriety, it is connection.”
I have been both the people and Jeremiah. I have gone against the saying of Hillel, “do not separate yourself from the community”. In my pre-recovery days that is all I did. My recovery has been about connection and community, God and service. Blaming another for whatever happens harms me and them. Being responsible for my part and allowing another(s) to be responsible for theirs whether they accept it and acknowledge it or not. I know that God is God of all people, there is not “My God is better than your God” comparison that can happen and me stay in recovery. People either know my heart and my soul, my kindness and love or they don’t. I give these freely to all I encounter, sometimes in non-traditional ways. I am not seeking a quick fix nor an easy answer anymore-I wait for God to respond to me and I wait for the people who know me and honor this knowing to respond. Slow and steady is the path of connection to God and joy. Stay safe and God Bless, Rabbi Mark