“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!”.
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