The Messianic Consciousness in Jewish Prophecy (LXVII) Isaiah

“And now thus says the Lord that created you, O Jacob, and He that formed you, O Israel: 'Fear not, for I have redeemed you, I have called on your name, [for] you are Mine'.” (Isaiah 43:1)

This is one of the transcendental messages in the Hebrew Bible, for it defines and highlights the Jewish identity. All is contained in this statement. By all we mean everything related to the existence of Israel and the connection to the Creator.

Calling Jacob as Israel by name is the way to identify what God's chosen people mean to Him. We also realize from this the meanings of God's creation and formation of Israel, which have a purpose in His plan for the world. In this realization there is no reason to fear. God is with us because we belong to Him, and in the awareness of this connection we are indeed redeemed.

“When you pass into waters, I am with you. And into floods, they do not overflow you. When you go into fire, you are not burnt; and a flame does not burn against you.” (43:2)

Even in the journeys and perils to discover, learn, live and manifest our Jewish identity, God is with us. In these process we face the seductions of ego's fantasies and illusions that trigger negative traits and trends in consciousness that divert us from the goodness of Love's ways and attributes as material reflections of God's Love.

“For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Redeemer. I have appointed Egypt [as] your atonement, Cush and Seba in your place.” (43:3)

This is another fundamental statement to herald the Final Redemption and the Messianic Consciousness. Our Redemption comes only from our Creator and none else, and this excludes intermediaries. Also the direct prophecy that the Final Redemption is manifest through Whom is the Sacred One of Israel, for the Jewish people are the destined messengers of God's Final Redemption. Egypt, Cush and Seba are mentioned as nations with different purposes in God's plan, with which the people of Israel have been related, either for negative or positive experiences.

“Since you have been precious in My eyes, you have been honored, and I have loved you. And I appoint men in your place, and nations for your life.” (43:4)

God reaffirms His Covenant with Israel as the inheritor of the Torah and its legacy for the world. In this context we are precious to Him, and by this we are honored, for God's Love is our Essence, true identity and common bond with Him. Hence God assigns different duties to the nations in order to preserve Israel's mission in the world.

“Be not afraid, for I am with you. From the east I bring in your seed, and from the west I gather you. I am saying to the north, 'Give up'; and to the south, 'Restrain not'. Bring in My sons from afar, and My daughters from the end of the earth. For My honor I have created him [Jacob], I have formed him [Israel]. Yea, I have made him.” (43:5-7)

God tells us that Israel's mission is not easy. Hence the fear of the nations' opposition and rejection of His will, and their persecution looking forward to destroy the Jewish people throughout history. In spite of our awareness of God's Presence in our lives through Love's ways and attributes, we still fear the negative trends in consciousness.

God also knows our weaknesses, and He promises to redeem us by revitalizing our Essence and identity as the seed He nurtures in order to turn it into an abundant harvest. He takes us from the corners of the world, and releases us from the oppression and constraints of evil and negativity. He will gather us all, for we are His sons and daughters that He created for His will.

“He brought out a blind people who have eyes, and deaf ones who have ears.” (43:8)

God promises to transform our consciousness from the stubbornness of our addictions, attachments, obsessions and narrow-mindedness to the total freedom of living in Love's ways and attributes, opposite to the negative traits and trends of ego's fantasies and illusions.

“All the nations have been gathered together, and the peoples are assembled. Who among them declares this, and former things causes us to hear? They give their witnesses, and they are declared righteous, and they hear and say, 'Truth'.” (43:9)

God challenges ego's materialistic desires and their negative trends as the nations that claim to be better than the goodness of Love's ways and attributes, represented by Israel's Essence and identity. Their truth can't stand, for there is nothing righteous or positive in their predicament.

“You are My witnesses, an affirmation of the Lord. And My servant whom I have chosen, so that you know and give credence to Me. And understand that I am the One, before Me there was no god formed, and after Me there is none.” (43:10)

God brings Israel, His chosen servant, as the messenger of the highest good He wants to make prevail in human consciousness. Through Israel we acknowledge God's will as the truth all are destined to believe and give credence. The truth that proclaims God's Oneness and Uniqueness, as the only Creator and Owner of all.

Once more He warns us about the idolatry of ego's fantasies and illusions, instead of the service of His ways and attributes as our true identity and purpose in life. Again, He reminds us that He as our Creator is also our One and only God and Redeemer.

“I Myself, I  am the Lord, and besides Me there is no redeemer.” (43:11)

The Messianic Consciousness in Jewish Prophecy (LXVI) Isaiah

“I am the Lord, this is My Name. And My honor I don't give to another, nor My praise to engraved images.” (42:8)

The Creator reminds us His Name to make us aware of His ways and attributes that define for us His Love. These attributes are His honor that are not meant to cohabit with anything different from them. The idols we create out of ego's fantasies and illusions to depend on do not share the same time and space of the truth with which God relates to us.

“Behold, the former things have happened, and I declare new things. I tell you about them before they come up. Sing to the Lord a new song, and His praise from the end of the earth. Ye who go down to the sea and all that is therein, the islands and their inhabitants.” (42:9-10)

Again God opens our eyes to finally learn from our own history in the material world. Thousands of years has passed living in the fantasies and also nightmares of ego's fantasies and illusions. God created us with free will to choose, yet we don't seem to have learned from our wrong choices. These are “the former things” that have happened before the Messianic Consciousness is fully manifest. God tells us in advance that goodness is destined to prevail in spite of our negative choices, and invites us time and again to choose goodness as our eternal Redemption. He calls on us who have already gone down “to the sea and all that is therein, the islands and their inhabitants”.

“The wilderness and its cities do lift up the voice, the villages that Kedar inhabits. Sing do the inhabitants of Sela, from the top of mountains they shout. They give honor to the Lord, and they declare His praise in the islands.” (42:11-12)

Let's call up from the desert of our negative ways and trends in darkness, and from the desolation of our addictions, attachments, obsessions, depressions and frustrations, and ascend to the higher realms of consciousness to return to our permanent connection with God. We do this by being and doing goodness as our common bond with Him. From this place we honor Him and celebrate His ways and attributes as the islands we must unite as one firm land we will make eternal.

“The Lord as a mighty one goes forth. He stirs up zeal like a man of war. He will raise a war cry. Yes, he will shout aloud. Against His enemies He shows Himself mighty. I have been silent a long time. I have been quiet and restrained Myself. As a travailing woman I cry out, I desolate and swallow up together.” (42:13-14)

God calls on the “man of war” in us to shout aloud against the traits and trends that keep us captive in their darkness. The Creator tells us that captivity in the darkness we chose to live is not forever, for ego's fantasies and illusions are temporary. One day He will wake us up as He fulfills His promise to eliminate darkness and evil altogether. He compares this process to a woman giving birth, who cries during her delivery and at the end she will be joyful.

“I make waste mountains and hills, and all their herbs I dry up. And I have made rivers become isles, and ponds I dry up.” (42:15)

We must understand these metaphors as the changes our consciousness must assimilate in order to enter the Final Redemption. Their common denominator is goodness to be established completely and permanently in all aspects and dimensions of life. This is the culmination of God's Love for us, after blinding our eyes to the truth of goodness. Now He takes us in the paths of goodness we never waked before. A whole new awareness of what goodness is, where only Light shines. Plain places without ups and downs. Goodness as the truth that never has forsaken us.

“And I have caused the blind to go, in a way they have not known, in paths they have not known I cause them to tread. I make a dark place before them become Light, and unleveled places become a plain. These are the things I have done to them, and I have not forsaken them.” (42:16)

Let's bear in mind that God refers to the Messianic Consciousness not as an individual but a collective awareness. He points out to Israel as the people from whom this consciousness will sprout, and their king messiah as the focal point that leads all aspects and dimensions of life in the direction of God's Love as the primordial focal point in all levels of consciousness.

“Those who trust in engraved images, who tell molten images, 'You are our gods' will be turned back. They will be utterly disappointed. Hear, you deaf, and look, you blind, that you may see.” (42:17-18)

Again the Creator warns us about ego's fantasies and illusions as the idols that will disappear when we choose to open our eyes and ears. Those who live by their own beliefs, ideologies, addictions, obsessions and attachments are not satisfied or content with the goodness opposed to their wrong choices. We meet people who don't believe in goodness as the truth and freedom in human consciousness. These are the ones who need to learn this once they realize that disappointment is part of the outcome of fantasies and illusions, for truth does not belong to them.

“Who is blind, but My servant? Or who is as deaf as My messenger whom I send? Who is as blind as he who is at peace, and as blind as the servant of the Lord? You see many things, but don't observe. His ears are open, but he doesn't listen.” (42:19-20)

The Creator makes a reference to the people of Israel, His chosen servant, who have been blind and deaf for most of their years in the material world. Our repetitive disregard of the Torah and our Covenant with God is manifest through assimilation to other nations, exiles and the Diaspora. These are the result of our blindness and deafness regarding our Essence and true identity as the chosen people. Idolatry is the cause and effect of our separation from God's ways and the bond we share with Him.

“The Lord is pleased for the sake of his [Israel's] righteousness, making the Torah great and glorious. And this is a people seized and spoiled, snared in holes all of them. And in houses of restraint they were concealed, they have been for a prey, and there is no deliverer. A spoil, and none is saying, 'Restore'.” (42:21-22)

At the same time, God recognizes Israel's moral and ethical contributions to the world, which He calls his righteousness. God tells us that He is pleased with it, for it has make the Torah great and glorious for all the nations. In spite of this, He points out what Israel has received in exchange. He says that there is none who wants to restore this truth, and help to acknowledge Israel's preeminence as the bearer of God's light for the world.

“Who is there among you who will give ear to this? Who listens and hears for the time to come? Who has given Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to the spoilers? Is it not the Lord, He against whom we sinned? Yea, they have not been willing to walk in His ways, nor have they hearkened to His Torah.” (42:23-24)

Once more God reminds us that our captivity among the nations is the consequence of disregarding and ignoring our Jewish identity and walk in the paths of ego's fantasies and illusions, instead of God's ways and attributes. We rather believe in the natural order of cause and effect, and not recognize that all that happened to us in the darkness and exile among the nations are the outcome of our separation from God. This separation is indeed the rejection of our Essence and true identity, as our permanent bond with Him.

“Therefore He poured the fierceness of His anger on him [Israel], and the strength of battle. And it set him on fire all around, but he didn't know. And it burned him, but he didn't take it to heart.” (42:25)

Centuries of persecution, looting, massacres, oppression, discrimination, humiliation and unceasing hatred have not served for us to return to God, whose Love chose us to be His messenger and servant with the mission to make goodness prevail over evil, and Light over darkness. The Creator through His Prophets repeats us that His ways and attributes have been, are, and always will be our liberation and eternal Redemption.

The Messianic Consciousness in Jewish Prophecy (LXV) Isaiah

In this chapter Isaiah refers once more to the Messianic Era through God's words. We have repeatedly remarked that it is related to the bond of Israel with the Creator. This means that Israel is the bearer of this new consciousness, as stated in the Torah and reiterated by the Jewish Prophets. Israel is the chosen one to be the means toward the Final Redemption, and no other nation. This is clearly indicated in the Hebrew Bible. In this context we assimilate that the Messianic Consciousness is manifest to humankind through Israel.

Thus we understand the Jewish king messiah as the focal point from whom this new and final consciousness will expand and encompass all aspects of life, individually and collectively. Therefore, when God refers to the Jewish messiah, He makes him part of Israel. This king is not separated from his people, for he is destined to gather and unify his Jewish brethren. Also to establish them all in their ancestral land, and initiate with them the Final Redemption as promised by God.

“Behold, My servant, whom I uphold. My chosen, in whom My soul delights. I have put my Spirit on him. He will bring justice to the nations.” (Isaiah 42:1)

These words illustrate the closeness of the Messianic Consciousness to God's Love. God addresses the Jewish king messiah as the servant in whom He upholds His will. Let's be aware that his primordial duty is to serve God and His will. This is the kind of servant God wants from all of us. People in which He upholds His will, as agreed in the Pact between Israel and God. He chooses Israel as His partner to fulfill His will for the material world. Hence He accepts us as His desired people He has blessed, and on whom He has put His Spirit. Thus we fulfill His commandment to be the Light for the nations.

Again we realize that being the Light for the nations means to do what is right for them. It is about to do goodness for the sake of goodness, as the essence of God's will for the material world. In this context, to be and to do goodness are the ways to do “justice” among the nations, which represent negative trends and traits in consciousness. We are commanded to transform them into positive and constructive qualities in all dimensions of life.

“He does not shout, nor raise his voice, nor cause it to be heard in the street. He doesn't break a bruised reed. He doesn't quench a dimly burning wick. He will bring justice to truth.” (42:2-3)

This new transcendental consciousness approaches life only by and through positive traits for the sake of goodness. Hence there is no need to shout this out or being arrogant to communicate the goodness inherent to Love's ways and attributes. As we allow these to guide our discernment, thoughts, mind, emotions, feelings and instincts, their expressions and outcome will also be positive. From this we realize that violence and ruthlessness are not part of Love's attributes, for the latter are the means to make goodness prevail as the truth that is expected as the result of doing justice. Thus we assimilate the meaning of “bringing justice to truth”, for truth comes from goodness and falsehood comes from evil.

“He does not become weak nor bruised, until he sets justice in the earth. And the isles wait for his instruction with hope. Thus says the Lord God, He who created the heavens and stretched them out. He who spreads out the earth and that which comes out of it, He who gives breath to its people and spirit to those who walk in it.” (42:4-5)

Being and manifesting the truth should not imply being hurt or damaged in our quest to make it prevail, for truth defends itself. It doesn't need advocates or supporters, similar to the sun and the air. Truth doesn't need us, we need the truth. God reminds us this to make us aware that while we live in the truth He established as our lifestyle, we are exempt from living in the realm of negative traits and trends. As we settle in the truth, justice is served.

Those of us who isolate ourselves in the quest for the truth we want to reign in our individual and collective consciousness, are the isles that “wait for his instruction with hope”.Goodness is the instruction God established in His Creation, and the Messianic Consciousness sets this same instruction as a Divine decree: “Thus says the Lord God, He who created the heavens and stretched them out”. Hence we understand what our Sages say when they teach that the goodness of the Messianic Consciousness is the Spirit of God that “hovered over the face of the waters.” (Genesis 1:2).

“I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness, and holds your hand, and sustains you, and makes you a Covenant for the people, as a Light for the nations. To open the eyes of the blind, to bring out of prison the bound one, from the house of restraint those sitting in darkness.” (Isaiah 42:6-7)

God calls us through righteousness, holds our hand and sustains us, for righteousness is part of Him. Hence righteousness is a common bond He established for us, like the Covenant with Israel as the gift to transform the collective consciousness of humankind. The righteousness we call goodness is what opens our eyes in our blindness, the captivity in the constrains of ego's fantasies and illusions, and the negative traits and trends we call darkness.

The Messianic Consciousness in Jewish Prophecy (LXIV) Isaiah

“I give in the wilderness the cedar, the acacia, and myrtle, and oil-tree. I set in the desert the pine tree and box-wood together. So that they see and know, and regard, and act wisely together. For the hand of the Lord has done this, and the Holy One of Israel has created it.” (Isaiah 41:19-20)

The Prophet continues quoting God as the One who transform our consciousness as He transforms His Creation according to His will. He constantly reminds us that He gives and He takes: “The Lord has given and the Lord has taken. Blessed be the Name of the Lord.” (Job 1:21).

With this premise God challenges the nations to bring their gods and idols and prove the veracity of their beliefs and their alleged truth and power:

“Bring near your cause, says the Lord [to the nations], bring forth your mighty ones [reasons], says the King of Jacob. Let them announce, and declare to us what shall happen. Declare the former things, what they are, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or show us things to come.” (Isaiah 41:21-22)

Are these gods able to speak Prophecy? Can they learn from the past in order to predict the future? Again we must understand idols as the product of material fantasies and illusions we create in order to fulfill ego's pretension to turn ourselves into gods of our own inventions.

“Declare the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that you are gods. Yes, do good, or do evil, that we may be dismayed, and see it together. Behold, ye are of nothing, and your work is of nothing, an abomination fixed on you.” (41:23-24)

Can these gods or idols be wise enough to match God's powers? Can ego really turn ourselves into one like God? These reflections lead us to the premise that only God's ways are the ones for us to follow, for He is our Creator.

“I have stirred up one from the north, and he comes. [Another one] From the rising of the sun he calls in My Name, and he comes in on rulers as on clay, and as a potter treads clay.” (41:25)

Here the Prophet makes another reference to the Messianic Era. God presents two opposite qualities represented by “the north” and “the east”. We have mentioned frequently that our Sages relate the north to darkness and evil, opposite to the east as Light and goodness symbolized by the rising sun. The second calls in God's Name through Whom he conceives human consciousness and the material world. This one who calls in God's Name is the Jewish king messiah, who is destined to transform the rulers of the nations as a potter that treads clay.

As we have indicated often, the Jewish king messiah is the anchor, the focal point, the paradigm, the banner, the reference for the transforming power of goodness in all levels, aspects and dimensions of human consciousness. His reference is God's Name, Whose ways and attributes we see in the goodness He bestows for His Creation.

“Who has declared it from the beginning, that we may know? And before, that we may say, 'He is right'? Surely, there is no one who declares. Surely, there is no one who shows. Surely, there is no one who hears your words.” (41:26)

God asks again to the nations who is in charge, and they with their idols can't respond or declare what is right, for they are not able to declare, show or demonstrate: “(...) ye have served there gods, work of man's hands, wood and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.” (Deuteronomy 4:28), “They have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes, but cannot see. They have ears but cannot hear, and noses but cannot smell. Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them.” (Psalms 135:16-18).

God tells us in His Torah that He is the Creator of all, and He rules over all His Creation. Hence He decrees His Final Redemption and the Messianic Era.

“I am the first to say to Zion, 'Behold, look at them'; and I will give one who brings good news to Jerusalem. When I look, there is no man; even among them there is no counselor.  And I ask them, and they return word: Behold, all of them are vanity, nothing are their works, air and emptiness their molten images!” (41:27-29)

God invites us to look at the idols we create out of our own fantasies and illusions. As we finally become fully aware of the vicious circle in which we have entered our consciousness by negative traits and trends in what we think, feel, speak and do, we compel ourselves to return to our Creator and His Love. He awaits for our return and has new directions for us.

These directions are delivered by the transforming power of God's Love, represented by the one He sends to give us good tidings “to Jerusalem”. In contrast to the idols of ego's fantasies and illusions which can't deliver good news for our complete and eternal freedom. They don't have messenger or counselor, for “all of them are vanity, nothingness are their works, air and emptiness their molten images!”.