The Messianic Consciousness in Jewish Prophecy (XLI) Isaiah

“The burden of Egypt. Behold, the Lord rides upon a swift cloud, and comes unto Egypt; and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at His presence, and the heart of Egypt shall melt within it.” (Isaiah 19:1)

The Prophet continues referring to the burden of the nations as negative traits and trends in consciousness. Egypt represents the most abject tendencies in passions and instincts triggered by ego's fantasies and illusions. Hence Egypt is the worst of slavery from which our ancestors needed God's direct deliverance. As we have mentioned often in the commentaries of our blog, Egypt was the most depraved nation in ancient times and we were slaves amid that corrupted environment. Through the Prophet, the Creator promises to remove such burden from our consciousness.

“And I will spur Egypt against Egypt; and they shall fight every one against his brother, and everyone against his neighbor; city against city, and kingdom against kingdom.” (19:2)

God's ways and means to remove negative traits as idols we create out of ego's lust, greed and coveting are particularly peculiar. Again we assimilate that wickedness destroys the wicked as the result of the confrontation between the cause of evil and the effect of evil. Thus we understand Egypt against Egypt, brother against brother, etc. This is a complex metaphor that sounds more like a paradox. We basically fight against ourselves.

Our envy fights our greed, and our coveting fights our lust. These suppose to be part of the same team! How come are they fighting each other? Let's take a closer look at this. Again, the warning echoes in our consciousness: the wicked is killed by his wickedness. In this scenario there is no free will, for there is nothing positive in what we think, feel or experience. The Creator wants to us to learn the lessons from living the negative trends in consciousness out of ego's fantasies and illusions.

“And the spirit of Egypt shall be made empty within it; and I will make void the counsel thereof; and they shall seek unto the idols, and to the whisperers, and to the ghosts, and to the familiar spirits.” (19:3)

It is quite evident that we can't get rid of our obsessions, attachments, and bad habits, simply because we are addicted to them. The Prophet speaks of God emptying the vessel of what we have filled with traits that keep us captive under lower passions and instincts. Though in that process our addictions again fight back looking for more fantasies and illusions as idols, whisperers, ghosts and spirits. In the following verses (19:4-16) the Prophet speaks metaphorically about the destruction of the negative traits Egypt represents.

“And the land of Judah shall become a terror onto Egypt, whensoever one makes mention thereof to it; it shall be afraid, because of the purpose of the Lord of hosts, which He purposes against it [Egypt].” (19:17)

It takes our higher consciousness to fight our battles against lower thoughts, emotions, feelings, passions and instincts. That is the land of Judah as the terror onto Egypt. In the context of our Final Redemption, terror means the reverence Judah will inspire onto Egypt to become a cooperative trait instead of a destructive one. Our higher consciousness will perceive, think, feel, speak and do in harmonic consonance with the ways and attributes of God's purpose for His Final Redemption.

“In that day shall there be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to the Lord. And it shall be for a sign and for a witness unto the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt; for they shall cry unto the Lord because of the oppressors, and He will send them a savior, and a defender, who will deliver them.” (19:19-20)

An altar implies offerings. In this sense the altar is the means by which we connect with God. Egypt will make offerings to Him, meaning that what once was the trigger of a negative action will become the motivation of a positive deed. All aspects, levels and dimensions in consciousness with the potential to express wickedness or goodness will be harmonically united toward being and doing goodness as the common denominator in the Final Redemption. In sum, our lives will become altars by which we elevate the goodness in us to the goodness of our Creator.

The Messianic Consciousness -- as the means to deliver God's Plan for the Final Redemption -- is the savior and defender, by which we transform all negative traits and trends in consciousness into positive qualities and expressions of life.

“And the Lord shall make Himself known to Egypt, and the Egyptians shall know the Lord in that day; yea, they shall worship with sacrifice and offering, and shall vow a vow unto the Lord, and shall perform it. And the Lord will smite Egypt, smiting and healing; and they shall return unto the Lord, and He will be entreated of them, and will heal them.” (19:21-22)

The Prophet tells us that God is our only Redeemer, for He is our Creator. All dimensions of consciousness, including “the burden of Egypt”, will know Him when we begin to embrace His ways and attributes as our Essence and true identity. In this redeeming awareness we will fulfill His will. He will ease and loosen our negative addictions and attachments in a process we will experience as beating and healing at the same time. In our connection with God's Love through His ways, He will heal us from our own inventions out of ego's fantasies and illusions.

“In that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria; and the Egyptians shall worship with the Assyrians. In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth.” (19:23-24)

One of the qualities of the Messianic Consciousness is its ability to integrate all facets and dimensions of life, as well as all traits and trends in consciousness, into a harmonic functional unity with the common purpose of fulfilling God's will through Love's ways and attributes. Thus we realize that Love is what unites, integrates and harmonizes all. In this realization we all become blessings in the midst of the earth. Here Israel represents Love's ways and attributes as God's Love inheritance to human consciousness. Thus we understand that God's inheritance for the world are Love's ways and attributes as the material blessings of His Love.

“For that the Lord of hosts has blessed him, saying: 'Blessed be Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance'.” (19:25)

The Messianic Consciousness in Jewish Prophecy (XL) Isaiah

“For you have forgotten the God of your redemption, and you have not been mindful of the Rock of your stronghold; because you had been planted as pleasant saplings, but you sow strange shoots.” (Isaiah 17:10)

There is a lot to reflect on our estrangement from God. As we have mentioned several times, the essential message our Prophets make us aware is the consequences of living disconnected from our Creator. Again we are summoned to a “reality check” in order to make an inventory of what we are, believe, and pursue in this material world. As we live in ego's fantasies and illusions, indeed we forget not only Who created us but the realization that He also is the One that bring us back to Him, our Redeemer. We haven't been mindful of our Essence and true identity as the stronghold from which we face all facets and dimensions of life.

We come from the goodness and loving kindness of God, hence we are good and destined to be and do good as pleasant saplings. Though we have free will to make choices -- preferable good ones --, we turn ourselves into strange shoots. Time and again our Creator confronts us to be mindful about who we truly are, our connection with Him, and the destiny He wants to share with us.  

“On the day you were planted you flourished, and at dawn your seed flowered; but your branch is removed on a day of affliction and acute pain. Woe to the tumult of the many nations, who are as tumultuous as the tumult of the seas; and to the uproar of the nations, who roar like the uproar of powerful waters!” (17:11-12)

We are destined to flourish and flower by, in, with and for the goodness from which God created for us to be and transcend. The goodness of Love's ways and attributes as the material manifestation of God's Love. Then the extension of our negative choices turns back to us, as the natural course of cause and effect. This extension is the branch that must be cut off in a painful transition from darkness to Light. We have referred often to the pain and affliction we suffer as we detach ourselves from addictions, obsessions, habits and trends that harms and damages the goodness in who we are. We know these acute pains and affliction as withdrawal effects.

In this painful withdrawal process our negative attachments and addictions fight back. These are the nations that invaded and afflicted the goodness from which we live. Nations as strong beliefs, ideologies, thoughts, emotions, feelings, passions and instincts embraced by ego's fantasies and illusions of pride, greed, lust, and coveting. The latter are triggered by even stronger nations such as consumer society, fashion trends, political correctness, light culture, and vanities that seduce us and control all aspects of life. Indeed very powerful roaring waters!

“The nations roar like the roar of many waters but He shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like dust before a stormy wind. At evening time, behold their is terror; before the morning dawn he [the Assyrian enemy] is no more. This is the portion of them that spoil us, and the lot of them that rob us.” (17:13-14)

The Prophet denounces the harm and destruction (the roar of many waters) the nations inflict on us, which God's compassion will remove as chaff before the wind. We have said that mountains and hills also represent strong beliefs (in this case negative ones) that in this metaphor will be wiped out from our consciousness. Our affliction takes place in the darkest moments, the evenings and nights when we feel the pain of our estrangement from Love's ways and attributes, after embracing ego's fantasies and illusions. This affliction caused by an invading nation (Assyria) representing a particular negative trend in consciousness that spoils and robs the goodness in us.

“Woe to the land of the buzzing of wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia. That sends agents by the sea, even in [fast] vessels of papyrus upon the waters! Go, you swift messengers, to the nation that is dragged and plucked, to the people that inspired awe from their beginning onward; a nation that is detested and trampled, whose land the rivers [their kings] ravish!” (18:1-2)

Other nations join the invading crusade against us as the nation that is dragged and plucked, detested and trampled, looted and ravished even by rulers of far away countries (beyond the rivers of Ethiopia). Let's be aware that our nation represents the goodness in life and the positive traits and trends in human consciousness, which are our Essence and true identity.

“All you inhabitants of the world, and you dwellers of the earth, when an ensign is lifted up on the mountains, you will see; and when the horn is blown, you will hear. For thus has the Lord said to me: 'I will be at ease, and I will look after My dwelling place, like crisp warm after the rain, like a mist of dew in the heat of the harvest'.” (18:3-4)

God promised through the Prophet that He redeems us from the negative trends in consciousness. He does it as we begin to choose goodness as the common denominator of His ways and attributes. These are the ensign lifted up on the mountains we see, and the sound of the horn we hear. The special mountain that represents our permanent connection to Him awaits for us, and that is His dwelling place. God's words through the Prophet are allegorically filled with the warmth of His Love, which is also the goodness of the harvest we reap out of it. Hence it's our job to rebuild His dwelling place among (in) us as the eternal bond with Him.

“For before the harvest, when the blossom is over, and the bud becomes a ripening grape, He will cut down the young branches with pruning-hooks, and the shoots will He take away and lop off. They shall be left together unto the ravenous birds of the mountains, and to the beasts of the earth; and the ravenous birds shall summer upon them, and all the beasts of the earth shall winter upon them.” (18:5-6)

In this harvest God's Love will remove what we don't need anymore. All from which we have learned enough to finally choose the goodness of Love's ways and attributes over ego's fantasies and illusions, amid the negative trends in consciousness. We already learned that the wicked is killed by his wickedness, for evil belongs to evil: “(...) that wicked man shall die in his iniquity (...) (Ezekiel 33:8, Psalms 34:22).

Ravenous birds and beasts also belong to their own kind, and devour which is dead, for death is their food. God will redeem the goodness in who we are, as is also written, “and the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.” (Ecclesiastes 12:7). As we just mentioned, we learn from our dark moments, as it is also reminded: “Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.” (Job 42:6).

“At that time shall an offering be brought to the Lord of hosts, the people that are dragged and plucked, the people that inspired awe from the day it came into being and onward; the nation that is oppressed and trampled, whose land is ravished by rivers, to the place of the Name of the Lord of hosts, the mount Zion.” (Isaiah 18:7)

In our Redemption from God's Love, our goodness is vindicated. In total freedom from negative traits and tendencies, our goodness begins to fulfill its destiny: “Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore will I deliver him; I will set him on high, because he has known My Name. He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble, I will rescue him, and honor him. With long life will I satisfy him, and make him to behold My redemption.” (Psalms 91:14-16).

Our Essence and true identity return to the Creator to bond eternally with Him in the place of His Name. This is Zion, the Temple of Jerusalem, as the eternal time and space where we are destined to be with Him.

The Messianic Consciousness in Jewish Prophecy (XXXIX) Isaiah

In the entire chapter 15 the Prophet denounces the burden of Moab, and the burden of Damascus in chapter 17. Allegorically, Isaiah reiterates the desolation of living the predicament of ego's fantasies and illusions, and the particular trait represented by Moab: haughtiness (Isaiah 16:6). Arrogance is the cause of separation from God's ways and attributes, when her voice seduces us to be a god of our own existence.

Pride is the "I am better than you" which leads us to the remaining negative trends in consciousness. Our separation from God marks the beginning of ego's dictatorship. In the midst of our fantasies and illusions, goodness and righteousness cease to exist. The Prophet still calls for common sense to stay in spite of arrogance.

"Bring yourselves in counsel, do judgment. Make as night your shadow in the midst of noon. Hide the outcasts, do not betray the wanderer. Let My outcasts dwell with you [Moab]; as for Moab, be you a hiding place for them from the face of a destroyer. Finished has been a destroyer, consumed the oppressors down out of the land." (16:3-4)

Discernment still works in haughtiness to seek justice as righteousness, and be able to do the right thing as judgment. When we are before the glare of negative trends, our shadow must be our protection. This powerful metaphor reveals that, in spite of living in our own negative trends, our goodness remains in what we essentially are, hidden in the shadow of our material existence.

In the shadow of what we do are hidden the good qualities as outcasts and wanderers. Even our negative trends can lead us to avoid our own destruction by that which desolates goodness in life. God's Love reaffirms His promise to help us remove the negative trends in consciousness, and replace them by Love's ways and attributes as we begin to make goodness prevail in all aspects of life.

"And established in loving kindness is the throne, and one has sat on in truth, in the tent of David, judging and seeking justice, and hasting righteousness." (16:5)

The message is clear. The throne is the highest level of consciousness from which we are destined to discern, think, speak and do under the regency of loving kindness. For in loving kindness life is created and sustained, as well as all God has created: "He loves righteousness and justice. The earth is full of the loving kindness of the Lord.", "The earth is filled with Your loving kindness, Lord; teach me Your decrees." (Psalms 33:5, 119:64), "Loving kindness and truth preserve the King, and His throne is upheld by loving kindness." (Proverbs 20:28). As God's Love directs His Creation, we also must make loving kindness the conductor of all aspects and dimensions of life. This is what the Messianic Consciousness is about when we enthrone Love's ways and attributes as the destined regents in life.

"The fortress also shall cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus; and the remnant of Aram shall be as the glory of the children of Israel, says the Lord of hosts." (17:3)

As we indicated in previous commentaries on the Messianic Consciousness in Jewish Prophecy, Ephraim represents both Israel's birthright and the dispersed and assimilated Tribes of Israel. He represents all the captive Jews among the nations, which are the burdens in human consciousness. Ephraim will be delivered as God promised. The remnant of Jews in exile among the nations will be gathered by Him, and returned to their land with glory. God has spoken.

"And it shall come to pass in that day, that the glory of Jacob shall be made thin, and the fatness of his flesh shall wax lean." (17:4)

Living in exile among the nations overshadows our Essence and true identity. Being part of what is not us weakens our consciousness. This is the outcome of living ego's fantasies and illusions instead of living Love's ways and attributes. Our goodness is diminished and our free becomes limited. The day is always today, every moment when we have to face our exile in the negative trends or our freedom in the goodness of who we truly are.

"And it shall be as when the harvester gathers the standing grain, and reaps the ears with his arm; and it has come to pass as the gathering of ears in the valley of Rephaim. Yet there shall be left therein gleanings, as at the beating of an olive-tree, two or three berries in the top of the uppermost bough, four or five in the branches of the fruitful tree, says the Lord, the God of Israel." (17:5-6)

The Prophet refers again to the day when we will confront what is right and wrong, positive and negative, useful and useless, productive and destructive, and harvest what we have planted. The metaphor makes us aware that ultimately what we will reap is what we will need to sustain ourselves. That which is not useful or nurturing won't feed us. Let's reflect on what we gather from our actions, as seeds we plant that one day we their fruits we will reap.

"In that day shall man see his Maker, and his eyes shall see the Holy One of Israel. And he shall not regard the altars, the work of his hands, neither shall he look to that which his fingers have made, either the Asherim, or the sun-images. In that day shall his strong cities be as the forsaken places, which were forsaken from before the children of Israel, after the manner of woods and lofty forests; and it shall be a desolation." (17:7-9)

As we remove ego's fantasies and illusions along with negative trends and their outcomes, we will see what has been remnant in our consciousness. As we end our exile and return to our land, our Maker waits for us. We will see Him, for seeing is knowing. That day the idols we have made with our hands, as the fantasies and illusions created with our actions will be no more. Only goodness we will see and goodness we will know.

The Messianic Consciousness in Jewish Prophecy (XXXVIII) Isaiah

The Creator through the Prophet reiterates His promise to remove the burden of Babylon, continuously described as negative trends in human consciousness. Later He will refer to other neighboring nations as similar burdens that will cease to exist as a premise for the Final Redemption and the beginning of the Messianic Era.

"Prepare your slaughter for his children for the iniquity of their fathers; that they rise not up, and possess the earth, and fill the face of the world with cities. And I will rise up against them, says the Lord of hosts, and cut off from Babylon name and remnant, and offshoot and offspring, says the Lord. I will also make it a possession for the bittern, and pools of water; and I will sweep it with the besom of destruction, says the Lord of hosts." (14:21-23)

The Prophet invites us to review ideas, beliefs, habits, addictions, and attachments, as well as thoughts, emotions, feelings, passions and instincts. These are either the ways and means of our freedom, or the heralds of our doom. Either the air and breath that guide us to our Creator, or the burdens that push us down to the negative realms in consciousness. As we arrive to the critical point when the destructive burdens are too heavy to bear, we compel ourselves to make our own individual inventory and begin to remove them from our life.

We prepare the slaughter as the removal of the negative outcome (the children) of the negative choices (the fathers) we make from ego's desires, fantasies and illusions. As we have repeated often, we can't get rid of negativity once we make it a choice and not a reference to chose goodness. For that we need help from the Creator to deliver us from something stronger than our will and determination to detach from negative addictions, obsessions, and habits we embraced as part of our consciousness. These are the negative patterns that possess the earth as cities covering the world of our life. God tells us that He will rise up against them to remove them forever.

"The Lord of hosts has sworn, saying: Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand. That I will break Assyria in My land, and upon My mountains tread him under foot; then shall his yoke depart from off them [Israel], and his burden depart from off their shoulder." (14:24-25)

The Creator knows the limits of our strength, weakness and capacity to endure the consequences ego's fantasies and illusions. At the same time He makes us responsible for our choices as a learning process to redirect our consciousness, to make goodness the premise to enter the Messianic Consciousness. Also the premise to enter new dimensions in God's Plan for His Creation.

"This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth; and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations. For the Lord of hosts has purposed, and who shall annul it? And His hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?" (14:26-27)

The Prophet proclaims the imminence of God's will, as He presents new ways to approach life in all its facets and dimensions, without the burdens of negative and destructive trends in human consciousness.

In the four next verses (28-31), the Prophet refers to Philistia also as an afflicting burden, similar to Babylon, Assyria, Moab and Egypt among others, from which the goodness in consciousness will be rescued, nurtured and preserved forever; after the destruction of their peoples, which represent their negative qualities.

"What then shall one answer the messengers of the nation? That the Lord has founded Zion, and in her shall trust the afflicted of His people." (14:32)

The Creator makes us aware of His connection with us, also as our permanent bond with Him, which is Zion as the Temple of Jerusalem. He founded this connection as the time and place when and where we are completely free from anything different to His ways and attributes. These are our trust and refuge, once we embrace them instead of the affliction under materialistic fantasies and illusions.

We are God's people as the goodness of Love's ways and attributes that will prevail and rule when evil and wickedness are finally removed from the face of the earth, as well as from human consciousness.