Daily Prophets
Day 200
“Listen you rulers of Jacob, you chiefs of the House of Israel! You know what justice is yet, you hate good and love evil. I am filled with strength by the spirit of God and with judgement and courage to tell to Jacob his transgressions and Israel his sins. Assuredly, because of you, Zion shall be plowed as a field and Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins.(Micah 3:1,2,8,12).
Micah is so incensed at the doings of the leaders of Israel and Jacob. He is decrying their unwillingness to hear, listen and understand the call of God to them. He is bewildered by their inability to see their evil actions as evil actions. He is enraged by the leaders pretending that their wickedness is actually good for the people! Micah is calling to all of us to open up our ears and, if necessary, get new hearing aids. God is calling to the leadership to care for the people not be self-centered and selfish! God is calling to the leaders to not just know justice but to live it and practice it. Micah is so obsessed with the moral corruption of the leadership, he is unwilling to mute himself. Micah is speaking to us today as well as to the leaders 2700+ years ago.
I am sitting here thinking about what drives us to love evil and hate good while knowing what is just and right. It is our belief that we have to cheat to get ahead, I believe. It is a deep-seated lie that we just aren’t really good enough to make things happen on our own, we need to put our fingers on the scale a little, we need to find the weakness of our ‘opponent’ and exploit it/them because we have bought the lie that we are not good enough and we are constantly comparing and competing with another(s) for everything. We see scarcity where there is abundance, we see competition where there is cooperation, we see comparison where there is appreciation for the uniqueness of every human being. Power is a gift and a trap. We have to decide how we are going to use our power, honor the gift that God has given us to lead people to being one grain of sand better than yesterday or exploit the gift and trap ourselves into believing that someone is trying to take power away from us.
In describing himself, Micah is explaining to us where power comes from and what power is. Power comes from the inside out, not the outside in-which is why so many leaders feel the need to exploit another(s) to keep power and to feel powerful. Micah is telling us that power is an inside experience that comes from God/soul and is cultivated by our ability, willingness, and actions of justice, decency, kindness, truth and love. Power is the outgrowth of knowing what the next right thing to do is and the courage to do it, even in the face of fear, scorn, being judged incorrectly, even losing ones’ life. Micah could have been killed by the ruling class for what he was saying, yet he said it anyway. He is filled with the spirit of God, he says. NEWS FLASH: We are all filled with the Spirit of God and we all can use this Spirit to truly benefit another(s), God, the world and ourselves at the same time. If it is not good for all, it is not good for any. As Martin Luther King says: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” restating Micah’s words above and showing the same courage, strength and belief that Micah had as well.
Rabbi Heschel reminds us: “The prophet directs his rebuke particularly against the “heads of the house of Jacob…who abhor justice and pervert all equity” It is because “they build Zion with blood and Jerusalem with wrong” that Zion and Jerusalem will be destroyed.” My head is ringing with these words as we are seeing the same thing happening today, just as Rabbi Heschel saw it happening 70, 60, 50 years ago!! Just as he took to the streets and airwaves, so must we. Just as he organized, so must we-yet so many of us are unable to see the grey in life and our condemning those who do so coalitions are almost impossible to create, yet we must.
In recovery, we are dedicated to using the strength of spirit and the courage from God/Higher Power to promote justice and equity for all people. In recovery, we are all equal and dedicated to our purpose of “practicing these principles in all our affairs” as the 12th Step states. “These principles” being Spiritual ones. Ones that are connected to a higher logic, a higher state of being, a higher calling than the ones we used to hear and listen to before our recovery. In recovery, we know the ruin we created in the past and are dedicated to living with the strength and courage to call ourselves out and to kindly rebuke those who are harming another and practicing injustice.
I have spent most of my life decrying injustice. My home was a place of justice and decency, from grandparents to parents to aunts/uncles to cousins-we all learned the paths of justice, truth, compassion, love, etc. Yet, for a while I ran away from these paths and even after I returned to them, 32+years ago, I take detours from them. The difference now is that I take the detours unwittingly. I also know that many people have turned away from their own evil because, like me, they have heard the message of Micah and are using the strength of their spirit to bring justice and love, truth and kindness to their daily living most of their days/lives now! This is the gift of the Prophets, to remind us we can and must bring the justice, truth, love and kindness we want to see in the world. God Bless and Stay Safe, Rabbi Mark