Daily Prophets
Day 201
“In days to come, the House of God shall stand…the people shall gaze on it with joy, many nations shall go and say: Come let us go up to the Mount of God, to the House of Jacob that God may teach us God’s ways and that we walk in God’s paths. For instruction shall come out from Zion and the word of God from Jerusalem.” (Micah 4:1-2)
I am going to look at Chapter 4 for a few days, as there is so much here and I want to do it justice. Micah, who usually is railing against the people, who is angry with them on God’s account and, as Rabbi Heschel writes: “apparently regarded the purpose of his mission to be to “declare to Jacob his transgressions and to Israel his sin”, is delivering messages of hope to the people in Chapter 4.
The hope begins with the opening verse of the chapter, “In days to come…” is a statement that all is not lost, there is a future and redemption is going to happen. I am trembling with this message from Micah, as it has proven to be true and it is important for us to remember this message today. Rather than give in to the despair and the hopelessness many people are experiencing with the Pandemic, the polarization of our country and the power grab of the minority, we have to remember what Micah is saying: In days to come we will see the House of God and gaze upon it with joy. The earth is the house of God, the people we see everyday in our homes, work, on the streets, in the stores, etc, are the people who, if they are willing to take off their blinders, are going to be in joy instead of fear and hatred. This is the promise of Micah’s words today, I believe.
We get to gaze upon God and hear God’s words with every interaction we have every day, if we are willing to see another human being as a Divine Reminder, Divine Need and a Divine spokesperson. We have to make this choice to see ourselves and everyone else as created in the Image of God with a word of God, a teaching of God, a mission from God that makes our world a better place to live. We, when we choose to, can “go up to the Mount of God, to the House of Jacob” to learn God’s ways, to walk in God’s paths, bring this word to life and make the choice to serve God and another(s) human being. We do this by respecting every person we encounter and affording them the dignity they are entitled to; by seeing them as Images of God, no matter how they act. We have to take a journey to the House of Jacob, I believe so we can learn how to wrestle with our own negativity, our desire to get over and take advantage, learn to leave our lies and our deceptions so we can truly experience our dignity, our connection to God, our connection to humanity. We have to make the journey, it is not going to just happen to us, we have to be involved in our own redemption, in our own recovery.
The last sentence is the sentence we say every Shabbat and Holiday when we take the Torah from the Ark. From Zion, from Israel, from the Castle of God, Instruction/Torah will come is another translation of the first part of this sentence. It calls us to hear the word of God directly from the Castle, the house, the dwelling place of God. I hear this call as the run up to God’s Press Conference to us. This press conference is being held daily, running 24/7 and calling us to learn how to live with each other, learn how to live in ways that are compatible with being a partner of God, learn how to answer the call of our own soul and our own uniqueness. From the City of Wholeness, Jerusalem, the word of God comes to us. This instruction/Torah and these words are the paths we have to follow (paths because each of us hear them in our own manner and each of us have our own path) in order to bring wholeness to our individual being and to our corner of the world. It is going to take all of us to listen to the Call, to go up to the Mount of God, to wrestle with ourselves and each other to achieve more wholeness to make these “days to come” happen! Will each of us do our part?
In recovery, we are living these “days to come” right now. We saw/see the light and joy in the eyes and being of people in recovery and we wanted/want this same light and joy. We took the steps to get into our own recovery in our own way and we continue to hear God’s call, the call of our higher power, our higher consciousness, and follow it’s teachings and the paths it leads on. We are able to experience joy and satisfaction, wholeness and serenity being on the paths that God has laid out for us. In recovery, being of service, continuing to learn and live God’s ways, and keeping hope alive are the paths that we follow and share with another(s) who are on this journey with us.
I heard the call in December of 1986 and I continue to go to the House of God to hear more and more instruction. I find that the instruction forces me deeper into my self and scrutinize my ways more and more each year. God’s instruction/Torah is not a ‘one and done’ experience for me. Each year, I have to see, hear and act on the new instruction that God is giving me and search myself, especially at this time of year, for the subtle ways I miss the mark and the subtle ways I hit the mark. I have to take credit for my positive actions as well as my negative ones. I hear Micah calling all of us to see the good we bring, not just the bad in these verses. I can acknowledge that the search for God’s wisdom never ends, we are never THERE, we are always on the road, never arriving. God Bless and Stay safe, Rabbi Mark