The Messianic Consciousness in Jewish Prophecy (II) Amos

Most of the messages our Prophets delivered to the people of Israel are divided in three levels. First, the constant reminders about living separated from God's commandments, ways and attributes, and its consequences. This separation is repeatedly emphasized as the result of choosing idolatry over God's will for Israel. In this context, idolatry is the choice to follow ego's fantasies and illusions over Love's ways and attributes. The negative actions mentioned by the Jewish Prophets are the result of disregarding the Commandments that define our identity as the Chosen People. Second, the transition to the ways God wants us to follow in order to return to Him. Third, the Final Redemption after we choose to return to the Creator.

We must pay attention to the second and third levels in the messages of our Prophets. They show us the means and paths to return to God and fully embrace His plan for which Israel chose to be His partner. In order to start our transition from the negative patterns we have imprinted in our consciousness throughout centuries of generations, we have to return to the attributes that God has showed us in the Torah since the beginning of His Creation.

“For He that forms the mountains, and creates the wind, and declares unto man what is his thought, that makes the morning darkness, and treads upon the high places of the Earth; the Lord, the God of hosts, is His Name.” (Amos 4:13)

The first step to redeem our consciousness from ego's dominion is to acknowledge that we are less than dust in the vastness of God's Creation. Taking a thorough look at the world and the universe, and contemplating their endless dimensions we can't grasp with our discernment, make us humble enough to yearn for returning to our Creator. Then we realize that all we are and have come from Him, and we don't own or possess anything. Once we die we learn that what we used to possess was never truly ours, and that all was there to fulfill God's will.

God is the sole Owner of His Creation, and through what He gives us we are destined to fulfill His Commandments. Even what we perceive as divided and opposed to each other --such as darkness and Light -- serves His will. In the highest levels of consciousness God treads in His majesty to reign within us, as He also reigns over the multitudes He created. He is the God of the countless in His Creation, and such is His glory, His Name. Let's never forget that He loves all His Creation, because it also comes from His Love.

“Him that makes the Pleiades and Orion, and brings on the shadow of death in the morning, and darkens the day into night; that calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out upon the face of the Earth; the Lord is His Name.” (5:8)

In this awareness we realize that we are nothing without our Creator, and we strive to return to Him as He wants us to. In this awareness a true life means living in what He wants for us. Otherwise we remain in the fantasies and illusions of our own inventions, the idols we created under the belief that we are our own gods.

“For thus said the Lord unto the house of Israel: Seek Me, and live.” (5:4)

As we mentioned earlier, the transition from ego's fantasies and illusions to Love's ways begins when we embrace goodness and all that comes from it. God tells us in the Torah what is the meaning of goodness in His ways and attributes with which He relates to us.

“Seek good, and not evil, that you may live. And so the Lord, the God of hosts, will be with you, as you say. Hate the evil and love the good, and establish justice in the gate. It may be that the Lord, the God of hosts, will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph.” (5:14-15)

We know since we are born that goodness is what keeps us alive. Goodness belongs to Love's ways and attributes, because there is no goodness without Love. The goodness of life is Love, for which we live. Love gives sense and purpose to life. Love is what creates and sustains life, therefore life also must manifest Love as its purpose. As we pursue the goodness derived from Love, God's Love is with us. As we reject all that opposes Love's ways and attributes, we indeed are righteous.

As we love being and doing goodness, we manifest righteousness in what we are, have and do. We do justice when we live by goodness and Love's ways. As we live by goodness, God's Love is gracious to Joseph as the epitome of Israel's birthright. Joseph represents the realization of the destiny of Israel's descendants, his remnants.

“In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof, and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old.” (9:11)

In our transition from exile in ego's domains to the Redemption in Love's ways, God's Love rebuilds our permanent connection with Him. The Prophet Amos refers to this connection as the tabernacle of David, which represents the Messianic Consciousness. God reminds us that He also yearns for our return to Him after the pain and suffering we inflict on us with our separation from Him. He restores His Presence in our willingness to be with Him permanently.

“That they may possess the remnant of Edom, and all the nations, upon whom My Name is called, says the Lord that does this.” (9:12)

Once we conduct our thoughts, feelings, emotions, passions and instincts under the guidance of Love's ways and attributes, we are able to redirect our negative trends into goodness, righteousness and justice for ourselves, for others and for our surroundings. The remnant of Edom and all the nations are the negative aspects of consciousness we must direct in Love's ways. In our individual and collective transition, we leave the exile in ego's rule and start restoring the goodness of Love's attributes as the cities and vineyards in which we rejoice as our Redemption. This is the beginning of our eternal connection with God's Love.

“And I will turn the captivity of My people Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them.” (9:14)

King David also reminds us the blessings of the goodness of Love: “He loves righteousness and justice. The Earth is full of the loving kindness of God.” (Psalms 33:5), “For the Lord is righteous, He loves justice; the upright will see His face.” (11:7), “The Earth is filled with Your loving kindness, Lord; teach me Your decrees.” (119:64), “Loving kindness and truth have met, righteousness and peace have kissed.” (85:10)

The Messianic Consciousness in Jewish Prophecy (I) Micah

“And in the end of days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established as the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above [all] the hills; and peoples shall flow onto it.” (Micah 4:1)

We must understand and assimilate Jewish prophecy as a two-fold matter of fact that works inwardly and outwardly, individually and collectively. There is a place in the world and a place in consciousness that converge and become one. This place is mount Zion, the Temple of Jerusalem located in the land of Israel. It is the focal and anchoring point where we become aware of God's Presence in us individually and collectively as Israel in this world.

This preamble is the introduction to understand the Messianic consciousness according to Judaism. Thus we realize that the most important of all mountains and hills is our connection with the Creator of all. In this awareness all levels of consciousness are gathered together and flow united onto His Presence.

“And many nations shall go and say: 'Come you all, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us His ways, and we will walk in His paths'; for out of Zion shall go forth the Torah, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.” (4:2)

We tap into the Messianic consciousness when our discernment, thoughts, ideas, beliefs, habits, customs, attachments, feelings, emotions, passions and instincts all gather together naturally in an unforced process toward the individual and collective unity necessary to embrace our Creator in the place He established for us. Once every level, aspect and dimension of consciousness are harmonized under the guidance and direction of Love's ways and attributes, we continue our Redemption process through the knowledge of God's ways and attributes. The convergence point of this encounter is Zion as the highest awareness of God's Presence in our life, from where His knowledge unfolds, and from Jerusalem where His guidance is revealed.

“And He shall judge between many peoples, and shall decide concerning mighty nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” (4:3)

In this convergence point we embrace God's Presence, and His Love transforms the negative qualities of all levels, aspects and dimensions of consciousness into positive, uplifting, constructive and enhancing qualities. What we used to inflict against ourselves and others is turned into ways and means to elevate consciousness through the knowledge of God. In His knowledge there is no violence or wars, conflicts, disputes, contention, argument or controversy. Love, as the material manifestation of God's Love, will rule all aspects of our lives through God's ways and attributes.

“And he shall stand, and shall feed his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the Name of the Lord his God; and they shall abide, for then shall he be great unto the ends of the Earth.” (5:3)

The Messianic consciousness unfolds through the person assigned by God to be the reference for us to follow the redeeming paths established by Him. God's Love is our strength, and His Name and Majesty are manifest in our knowledge of Him. The Jewish Messiah reveals God's Redemption for every single trait of our consciousness. This encompasses all aspects of life, which is also the earth in which we dwell in the material world.

“And it shall come to pass in that day, says the Lord, that I will cut off your horses out of your midst, and will destroy your chariots. And I will cut off the cities of your land, and will throw down all your strongholds. And I will cut off all witchcraft out of your hand; and you shall have no more soothsayers. And I will cut off your graven images and your pillars out of your midst; and you shall no more worship the work of your hands.” (5:9-12)

God's redeeming Love will be revealed as we transform the negative trends of consciousness through the goodness of Love's ways and attributes. God is the One who directs this process. He will remove ego's materialistic fantasies and illusions that pull us as chariots with the strength of horses. He will remove negative attachments and habits as cities and strongholds entrenched in our consciousness. He will remove false beliefs and conceptions that enslave us into greed, lust, envy, avarice, indolence, indifference, and negligence.

These are false ideas which make us believe we can control and manipulate others at their expense. These also are the idols in which we become and make others turn to. The idols made out of our own actions, the work of our hands. God's redeeming Love will remove them all from our consciousness as soon as we allow Love to guide and direct all facets of life.

“Who is a God like unto You, that pardons the iniquity, and passes by the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He retains not His anger for ever, because He delights in loving kindness. He will again have compassion upon us, He will subdue our iniquities. And You will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. You will show faithfulness to Jacob, compassion to Abraham, as You has sworn unto our fathers from the days of old.” (7:18-20)

Only the greatest Love of all, God's Love, transforms the wickedness we have created in our lives. Let's be aware that we have been the creators of the evils we suffer in the world. There is hunger because we allow hunger. There is violence because we incite violence. There is hatred because we instigate hatred. There is wickedness because we foster wickedness. In this predicament, only as we engender Love and live by its ways, means and attributes, we will usher the Messianic consciousness individually and collectively. We will be redeemed from all our iniquities and negativity, as we begin to live in Love's ways as our Essence and true identity. Love as the material manifestation of God's Love.