The Messianic Consciousness in Jewish Prophecy (III) Joel and Hosea

We have said that the messages of the Jewish Prophets have three levels to discern on. In Joel the first level related to our estrangement from the Creator is harsh in its words. This harshness indeed is what we experience while we live without bonding with God. However, He doesn't forget His Covenant with Israel.

“And you shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God, and there is none else; and My people shall never be ashamed.” (Joel 2:27)

We also have said that our Final Redemption arrives when we make the choice to return to His paths and Commandments by embracing goodness and Love's ways and attributes as the material manifestation of God's Love. As we allow Love to guide all aspects and facets of live, His Love is fully revealed to us.

“And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out My Spirit.” (3:1-2)

Then there will be no fantasies and illusions that blur our discernment, thoughts, beliefs, ideas, emotions, feelings, passions and instincts. All these belong to the flesh, to the material consciousness God imprinted on us. God's Spirit, His Love, will fill them all. All we are, have and do – our sons and daughters – will finally serve the purpose of our true Essence and identity. Prophecy is what makes us see with clarity. What we have learn (our old men) throughout life and our history will have multiple dimensions we never imagined before. New thinking and new expressions (our young men) will see and approach life and the world with different vision. All our talents, skills, traits and qualities (our servants and handmaids) will be filled with God's ways, means and ends.

In order to enter the dimension of God's Spirit we must leave behind our old, useless and negative ways. These are the lovers, wives and husbands we have been attached to for too long, and far from who we really are. God's Love speaks to us every moment to make us aware of our true Essence and identity. God constantly reminds us who He is for us. He is our Creator whose Love forms and sustains everything. Through the prophecy of Hosea, God lovingly calls us to return to Him.

“Plead with your mother, plead; for she is not My wife, neither am I her husband; and let her put away her harlotry from her face, and her adulteries from between her breasts” (Hosea 2:4)

Our mother is our consciousness, and particularly the aspect of it that knows we belong to our Creator. In this context, the awareness of our permanent connection with God is represented by Jerusalem. Here the Prophet allegorically calls her our mother. As long as we allow ourselves to be “married” and “whore” with the lower aspects of consciousness and ego's materialistic fantasies and illusions, we know that the goodness of Love's ways and attributes are far from us. We have indicated often in our commentaries in this blog that in the same way that God doesn't dwell with anything different from His ways and attributes He shows us in this world, the same thing goes for Love's ways and attributes. This means that neither He is married to our prostituted consciousness or our prostituted consciousness to Him. In His loving kindness and compassion God never forgets or annul His Covenant with us. We return to the Creator when we let Him help us clear our consciousness from what we don't need.

“Lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born, and make her as a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst.” (2:5)

We take the first steps back to God when we remove the negative ways and ego's fantasies as the garments that keep us attached, addicted and bound to what denies our real freedom, which is with God. Once we empty all that denies Love's ways, we will thirst for God's ways as our true home.

“And I will not have compassion upon her children; for they are children of harlotry. For their mother has played the harlot, she that conceived them has done shamefully; for she said: 'I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink'.” (2:6-7)

If we don't yearn to be in our true home, and take the steps to our way back, we still remain in the realm of ego's fantasies and illusions. These are the children of the negative aspects of consciousness, the result of cohabiting with anything different from Love's ways and attributes. We live in ego's illusions believing they sustain and nurture our life. It's exactly all the way around. We feed them with the energy that comes from our true Essence and identity, the Soul our Creator gave us to live. We waste our Love and goodness to feed ego's fantasies and illusions.

“And she shall run after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them, and she shall seek them, but shall not find them; then shall she say: 'I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it better with me than now'.” (2:9)

The recognition that God's Love is our true Essence and identity has the power to compel our consciousness to return to Him.

“For she did not know that it was I that gave her the corn, and the wine, and the oil, and multiplied unto her silver and gold, which they [the children of Israel] used for Baal.” (2:10)

Let's remind ourselves that the Tribes of Israel are diverse traits and qualities imprinted in the consciousness of every Jew. The Torah, which defines our Jewish identity, tells us that all the Tribes must be united to serve God in their individual ways and capacity. We honor our identity by serving God's ways and not ego's fantasies and illusions. These are the idols, the Baal and Baalim, in which we waste our vitality (corn, wheat), our well being and happiness (wine), our intellect and knowledge (oil), and the goodness of life represented by silver and gold.

“And I will visit upon her the days of the Baalim, wherein she offered unto them, and decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and went after her lovers, and forgot Me, says the Lord. Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly unto her.” (2:15-16)

As we leave behind all our material fantasies, desires and illusions, and embrace Love's ways and attributes, God's Love will call us tenderly and speak to our heart. Once our Love embraces God's Love, He will fill all aspects, levels and dimensions of consciousness with His Redemption. Here the Messianic consciousness begins to manifest in us.