Daily Prophets
Day 177
“…Reviving the spirits of the lowly and reviving the hearts of the contrite……For their sinful greed I was angry; They went on backsliding in the way of their own heart…I will guide them…peace, wholeness to the far and to the near said God and I will heal them. There is no peace, says God, for the wicked.”(Isaiah 57:15 17-19,21)
Second Isaiah is reminding us of how we caused our own exile and how God is going to help us leave our exile. Nonbelievers use these words of the Prophets to make fun of people of faith saying:”Why didn’t your God save you from ___?”, missing the point of what the exile was about. Exile happens when we allow our spiritual life to fade away, when we engage in activities that may help our bottom line/net worth and kill our spirit/humanity. What was happening in Israel and in Judah was a slow death of spirit led by people in power through their lies, their deception, their grab for power, their false testimony, their false rituals, their abdication of God and disdain for God’s will/way. This is, I believe, the reason God is reaching out to the “contrite and lowly in spirit”, these are the people who want to return, who are aware of their part in their exile from their land and from God. I pray that some of the people in leadership throughout the country; in government, in business, in non-profit, read the Prophets and learn how to rectify the pain they cause and return to the mission of helping each other instead of trying to ruin one another.
God will not always be angry because we will wake up and return! This is the call of the prophets, return and stop your backsliding. It is our hearts that take us out, the prophet is saying. They do this because we allow our desires, our false egos, our inauthentic needs to rule us. We see this all the time, companies protect their shareholders at the expense of the consumer, clergy preach that they alone know God’s ways and have even bastardized (again as in days of old) Christ’s words, the words of the Torah, the Koran, etc to serve their own selfish desires for power. Anointing Donald J Trump or anyone else as God’s messenger is arrogant, rude and an affront to God, yet many clergy did and many others called to their flock to follow and believe, to not get vaccinated for the Covid-19 virus, etc. This is not God’s will as God gives us the wisdom and the spirit to find cures and ways to put diseases into remission, yet these charlatans, in the clergy and in government and in the streets, want power so badly they are willing to watch their flock die.
When we return, even a little, God is here to guide us, love us, greet us and heal us. As the title of Rabbi Heschel’s book states: God in Search of Man. This is more than a philosophy to me, it is an accurate description of the relationship between humanity and God-God is searching always which is why God is near to us when we seek God. God is still hovering over the earth and our lives as God was in the first chapter of Genesis. It is us who have myopic vision and an inability to connect. Still, God is here to guide us, to love us, to heal us and to bring us to peace and wholeness. We have to decide to take God’s “outstretched arm” and we have to decide to let go of our wickedness, our hubris, our mendacity and our greed.
There is no peace for the wicked seems like a pipe dream to some of us because we see wicked people ‘get ahead’ all the time, enjoy perks, get invited to all the ‘right’ affairs, revel in their ill-gotten gains, take advantage of the poor, the needy and the stranger. What they don’t have is any true peace, they are always needing more and more and they are always afraid someone will take their stuff away from them. They also fear being found out and shamed in public, having to experience the consequences of their behaviors, and, for some, the fear of meeting God and having to face themselves. These harsh words are not a final decree, as Rabbi Heschel teaches:”Indeed every prediction of disaster is in itself an exhortation to repentance”(The Prophets pg. 12). God doesn’t want our death, God wants our living well, living authentically and living together in truth, kindness, etc.
In recovery, we seek and find the peace that we thought our backsliding and greed would bring. We are so aware of God’s saving power, God’s awesome love and guidance and how are spirits are revived each and every day. We respond to these gifts from God by serving God’s needs and desires, not our selfish ones. We, as the Rabbis taught, “nullify our will…so God’s will becomes our will”, “turn our will and our lives over to the care of God” as AA teaches us. We had no peace in our backsliding and in our greed, now, in many instances we have less material things, we have peace in our daily lives, not looking back over our shoulder-rather looking forward with hope and joy.
I have been the wicked person, I have been the contrite and the lowly in spirit and I have experienced God reviving my soul, my spirit and lifting me up from my contriteness. I am grateful for repentance/tshuvah and I have experienced a new freedom because of my recent past error, I don’t need the forgiveness of another(who want to punish) because God has forgiven me, God is guiding me and God is reviving me. I don’t have to twist myself like a pretzel to please the one who believes I have harmed them beyond repair, nor do I have to seek out the ones who turned away-the power of God’s guidance and revival is freedom. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark