Daily Prophets
Day 167
“Our Redeemer, the Lord of Hosts is the Name, is the Holy One of Israel. I was angry with My people, I defiled my heritage, I put them into your hands and you showed them no mercy. Even upon the old heavy you made your yoke. You were secure in your wickedness, you said/thought ‘no one can see me’. It was your thoughts and your wisdom that led you astray.”(Isaiah 47:4,6,10).
In the first verse above, God is reminding Babylon of Whom will redeem Israel and the other nations and Whom has been their strength as well-even though they (Babylon) was unable to acknowledge it. The reason I find this so important is because we are always willing to claim credit for our victories and blame another(s) for defeats. We seem to be unable to see the unseen assistance from God in our redemption and success and unable to accept responsibility for ignoring God’s help and turning away from God and being Godly which leads us to being unsuccessful.
God gave Babylon the job of helping bring Judah back to their senses and, instead of doing God’s bidding, they “showed them no mercy”. God seems incensed over Babylon’s lack of hearing, lack of mercy and lack of appreciation for God’s intervention on their behalf. What God sees is Babylon’s mistaken belief that they are “secure in their wickedness” has brought them to ruin, as it brought Israel to ruin, Judah to ruin, Egypt, Assyria, etc. all ruined because of being secure in their evilness! We have seen this pattern repeated throughout history up to today. What stops us from learning the lesson that God gives us over and over? Our mendacity, our self-deception, our belief that “no one can see me”, “I’m the smartest person in the room” etc. This is a deep flaw in the human being-mendacity and the unwillingness to hear, see, accept truth and act with integrity, transparency, justice, kindness and mercy. Babylon’s error is the same error that we, as a nation, commit so often-elect leaders who are so full of themselves, who lie to their constituents daily, gaslight the American people, thinking they are so clever. This behavior did not serve Germany, France, Spain, England, USSR, the Ottoman Empire, etc, yet many people believe it will serve them. We need to end this way of being-it is not what God wanted when God helped to found this country nor is it what God wants now. Caring for the stranger, the poor, the needy; living in truth, transparency, justice mercy, kindness, love and compassion are the paths that God calls for us to do. The other path, the Babylonian path leads us to ruin. Which do we choose?
Rabbi Heschel says: “Israel’s suffering is God’s grief. In reflecting on what this people has endured, His words should like pangs of remorse. Not all the evils that befell Israel go back to the will of God. The Babylonians, who in His providence became the leading power in the world…”showed them no mercy”…”(The Prophets pg.151). Rabbi Heschel is reminding us of the responsibility of power, not the privilege of power. Judah was defiled and, while it could be an admission of error, it sounds like an admission of deep sadness that it came to this. The defiling, of course, was caused by Judah’s actions which mirrored the actions of the other nations rather than mirroring the ways of God. Too many of us believe power gives us privilege and forget that power is given to us by God to be responsible, to be caretakers of our corner of the world, to ensure the continuation of God’s will and God’s plans. Yet, as Rabbi Heschel noted in his work as a social activist, people in power forget the responsibility and Rabbi Heschel worked so hard to teach us to see one cannot be a person of faith and exploit the privilege of power.
In recovery, we freely admit our errors and our remorse for using power as a privilege and acknowledge how we, “in our wickedness” used the fears of those around us and the belief in our mendacious ways to harm so many, ourselves and God. In recovery, we are aware of God being our redeemer and the power of redemption. We are grateful for forgiveness, we are grateful to live in truth and we are amazed at our ability to add to God’s world in positive ways. In recovery, we understand our place and we rejoice in our portion, without needing to prove we are the smartest, etc.
I have known since 1986 that God is my Redeemer. I realize the ways God has done this throughout the years and am grateful. I realize that I have, at times, thought I was clever and allowed my thoughts instead of God’s thoughts to rule the day and the times I was more Babylonian than Judean. And, it was only for a short period of time that my thoughts were in charge because God redeemed me through the hand/words of another(s) person. I am grateful and humbled by God’s love, care and discipline of me. I fully acknowledge being blind to God’s warnings at times and especially the last few years. In doing my own inventory, I am saddened by my inability to recognize God’s attempt to redeem me from the hands of the Babylonians around me. I have used power as privilege and know that overall-I used is as a responsibility to redeem God’s people, everyone, and am grateful to be an instrument for God’s goodness, kindness and redemptive power. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark