Daily Prophets
Day 164
“Do not be frightened, do not be shaken…I told you and you are my witnesses. Remember these things, Jacob, for you, Israel, are my servant: I fashioned you, you are my servant-Israel, do not forget Me. I wipe away your sins like a cloud and your transgressions like a mist. Come back to me because I redeemed you.”(Isaiah 44:8,21,22).
The prophet is addressing the fear and doubt that most of us have at any given moment. The prophet is addressing the people who wonder about God, who worship false idols and the such. He is also reiterating to the people Israel God is calling them to service and will redeem them. Hearing a call from God is frightening and exhilarating. It is also reassuring and calls into question our ‘hearing’. The prophet was sure of God’s call and therefore not afraid to speak God’s words and here he is letting all of us know God’s call to us is to serve and to testify to God’s kindness, greatness, love, justice, etc.
The second verse above is all about remembering where we came from. It is so important to the prophet and to God that we not forget again, where we come from and where we are going. We come from Abraham who was a servant of God as he was described by Malki-Tzedek in Genesis. Abraham, whom God chose to “go to himself and for himself” to be a partner with God and to argue with God, is the forefather of all western religions. We come from a family tree of serving God, however imperfectly and every time we forget this and become selfish and self-serving; taking advantage of the poor, the needy, the stranger; we fail and we fall prey to another country.
We are the servants, the witnesses and the promoters of God’s vision for humankind. This is the role that God has chosen for Israel, for believers, yet we continue to think that we are smarter than God, that our intellect can communicate with God and know what God is saying, when God speaks to us through our souls and through other people. We are constantly forgetting God and God’s will, God’s path, God’s call. We ignore it and try to use the name of God in vain for our own selfish, power-hungry ends. Yet, each time in the history of Israel and of the world, we destroy ourselves and another(s), on a personal level as well as on a national level. DO NOT FORGET GOD is the watch phrase Second Isaiah is giving to us-everything bad stems from our forgetting of God. We do this by giving lip-service instead of real service to another human being.
The last verse above is a show of God’s love and, as Rabbi Heschel teaches: “There was no rejection on His part, He did not divorce His people. There was no detachment of personal alienation…”(The Prophets pg.153). This is the gift of unconditional love, as I understand the phrase. God is not saying it is okay for us to serve ourselves and abuse another(s) as we had done in the past, rather God’s love is so great that while we experienced the consequences of our actions, we were not thrown away. We were not used, abused and discarded by God as we have done to another(s). No, God allowed us to clean ourselves up some and then did the rest. Rather than hold a grudge, God is welcoming us back and letting go of the past errors. God wants our return, God wants to redeem us, God is loving us more than we can love ourselves at times. God is teaching us how to be with each other as well.
In recovery, we let go of enough fear and doubt to have our being changed. We realize our judgmental behaviors have kept us stuck and in ruin. We slowly begin to accept truth and God’s kindness/unconditional love through another(s). We engage in service so we can leave our own self-centeredness and belief that we are the smartest person in the room. We no longer go along to get along, we begin to stand for and with God as a trusted servant. We realize not only that our sins have been wiped away by our amends/tshuvah, we become aware of the changes in us and how we have been redeemed and redeemed ourselves. We once again are able to participate in God’s world as a servant of the Universe, helping to make the world a little better each day through our positive actions and continuing to see our imperfections, repair the damage and grow one grain of sand better every day.
I have been fearful and shaken by so many events in my life and prior to my recovery these events pushed me farther and farther away from God. They were the catalysts for more and more drinking, stealing, disconnecting, and selfishness. Today and for the most part for the last 34+ years, events that shake me up and make me tremble, have been the catalysts to move closer and closer to God and another(s). Beginning with my last arrest in 1986 till my latest soul-shaking experience of betraying myself, God and being betrayed by another(s), being tossed out without a conversation and being convicted without an opportunity to defend nor confront my accusers, I run to God faster and faster each time. I know that most human beings do not have the strength to serve God by being open to another’s return, yet I am grateful for those who do. I also know that I have, over the years, always welcomed the tshuvah/amend of another with joy and reciprocity. I am grateful for God’s redeeming power and love. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark