The Messianic Consciousness in Jewish Prophecy (CXI) Isaiah

“And ye have left your name for an oath for My chosen ones, and God the Lord has put you to death. And to His servants He gives another name.” (65:15)

Again it is stated that God's chosen will inherit the possessions of the nations, for these will disappear. Once evil, wickedness as well as negative traits and trends are completely removed from human consciousness, all that remains belongs to the goodness of Love's ways and attributes. These inherit the “desolated” places in consciousness, and as the servants of God's goodness also will have a new identity, a new name. We will know the name of our new identity once we enter the realm of the Messianic Consciousness and the Final Redemption.

“So that he who is blessing himself in the earth does he bless himself in the God of faithfulness. And he who is swearing in the earth, does he swear by the God of faithfulness, for the former distresses have been forgotten and because they have been hid from My eyes.” (65:16)

God hints to us that all our thoughts and deeds will be the blessings of His promise as His faithfulness to the goodness He wants us to enjoy and rejoice. All we are, have and do will be blessings to such extent that there will be no memory or recalling of evil or wickedness that are hidden from the goodness of God (what is in “His eyes”).

“For, lo, I am creating new heavens, and a new earth. And the former things are not remembered, nor do they ascend on the heart. But joy ye, and rejoice for ever, that I am the Creator, for, lo, I am creating Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy.” (65:17-18)

The new consciousness is born with new heavens and a new material world. Again our awareness will have no reference or recollection of the past. Nothing from our former consciousness will touch either our discernment or our heart. Our new consciousness will only be aware of our permanent connection with God, which is represented by Jerusalem.

This connection will be rebuild anew only for happiness and joy, for her people that will also manifest only the positive creative potentials of goodness, represented by the redeemed people of Israel.

“And I have rejoiced in Jerusalem, and have joyed in My people. And not heard in her any more is the voice of weeping, and the voice of crying.” (65:19)

Here we are reminded again that the new Messianic Consciousness belongs to the people of Israel, as the heralds and guides of the new and endless era God promised us as the eternal Shabbat of the last day of Creation.

“There is not thence any more a suckling [shortening] of days. And an aged man who does not complete his days, for the youth a hundred years old dies. And the sinner a hundred years old is lightly esteemed. And they have built houses and inhabited. And planted vineyards, and eaten their fruit.” (65:20-21)

No more short life in the Messianic era, for longevity is needed for knowing our Creator. Endless life to know our endless God. The knowledge to be acquired will be the houses to inhabit, and also the rejoicing of being satiated by it as grapes eaten from our vineyards.

“They do not build and another inhabit, they do not plant and another eat. For as the days of a tree are the days of My people. And My chosen long enjoy the work of their hands. They labor not for a vain thing, nor do they bring forth for trouble. For the seed of the blessed of the Lord are they, and their offspring with them.” (65:22-23)

All we learn and the fruits of our endeavors to know God will be only ours, for there will not be competition or rivalries in our knowledge of Him. We will live together with our God eternally, for He is eternal. Once more He reminds us that in our new consciousness there are no vanities or fantasies or illusions or troubles.

God's Love is fully revealed in this new consciousness, for His Love is the seed He has blessed in us and in our offspring.

“And it has come to pass, they do not yet call and I answer. They are yet speaking and I hear. Wolf and lamb do feed as one, and a lion as an ox eats straw. As to the serpent, dust is its food. They do no evil nor destroy in all My holy mountain, said the Lord!” (65:24-25)

These sweet metaphors and allegories illustrate our oneness with God. Our closeness to Him is such that before we call He answers, and before we speak He hears. Both our lower and higher aspects of consciousness will share the same interest and be fed by the same knowledge. All into and towards the positive traits and trends of the goodness of Love's ways and attributes.

Nothing in God's Creation will be able to do evil, destroy or harm, including the serpent, because in the awareness of our permanent connection with God, His holy mountain (our rebuilt Jerusalem and its Temple) there is only the goodness of His Love.

The Messianic Consciousness in Jewish Prophecy (CX) Isaiah

“Thus said the Lord: 'As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one has said, “Destroy it not for a blessing is in it”, so I do for My servants' sake, not to destroy the whole. And I have brought out from Jacob a seed, and from Judah a possessor of My mountain. And possess it do My chosen ones, and My servants do dwell there.” (65:8-9)

God reminds us our essence and true identity, for these are His blessing as the seed of Jacob from whom we come. He tells us that there is a new consciousness awaiting in who we truly are. God does not destroy the goodness He planted in us as His servants. The seed of God's Love is in Jacob as Israel, manifest by its regency through Judah who represents the destined reigning Messianic Consciousness.

It is manifest as we rebuild the awareness of our permanent connection with God, represented by “possessing His mountain”. Here the Creator makes clear that this promised Messianic Consciousness is possessed by His people Israel who are “His chosen ones and His servants who dwell there”.

We have remarked and emphasized many times that the Messianic Consciousness is a collective consciousness shared by the Jewish people to lead the nations in the Final Redemption, and anchored by the Jewish king messiah.

“And Sharon has been for the habitation of a flock and the valley of Achor for the lying down of a herd, for My people who have sought Me.” (65:10)

God refers to plains and valleys in the land of Israel where all the dispersed Jews will be together gathered by our collective will and determination to return to our land as also the dwelling of our essence and true identity. This returning process as the result of seeking back to God's ways and attributes as the planted seeds of His Love in our consciousness.

“And ye are those forsaking Lord who are forgetting My holy mountain, who are setting in array for Gad a table, and who are filling for Meni a mixture.” (65:11)

God again admonishes us for forgetting our permanent bond with Him by feeding our consciousness with the idolatry of ego's fantasies and illusions. Our “mixture” of offerings to lust, coveting, envy, anger, haughtiness, indifference, indolence is what we set in array for our desires and illusions, represented by the idols mentioned in this verse.

“And I have numbered you for the sword, and all of you for slaughter bow down. Because I called, and ye have not answered, I have spoken, and ye have not hearkened. And ye do the evil thing in My eyes, and on that which I desired not [ye have] fixed.” (65:12)

God decreed that He will remove negative traits and trends in consciousness as the ones numbered for the sword and for slaughter, which are represented by the nations. These do not respond to the goodness God wants us to make prevail in the material world. Hence they are evil in His eyes, for they do the opposite of goodness.

“Therefore, thus said God the Lord: Lo, My servants do eat, and ye do hunger. Lo, My servants do drink, and ye do thirst. Lo, My servants rejoice, and ye are ashamed. Lo, My servants sing from joy of heart, and ye cry from pain of heart. And from breaking of spirit ye do howl.” (65:13-14)

The same message is reaffirmed when the time comes for the Messianic Consciousness to be manifest. Our consciousness is going to be fed by the knowledge of God, for which we serve. In a deeper understanding, in the Final Redemption also the lower aspects of consciousness (represented by the nations) will crave and thirst for the goodness they used to despise. The people of Israel as God's servants are destined to inherit the fully revealed goodness that He wants us to spread in the material world.

Our coveting will be for goodness, our lust for goodness, our envy for goodness, our pride for goodness, our anger for goodness. For in goodness our hunger and thirst are satiated, and in goodness is our happiness and rejoicing.

The Messianic Consciousness in Jewish Prophecy (CIX) Isaiah

“I have been inquired of by those who asked not, I have been found by those who sought Me not. I have said, 'Behold Me, behold Me,' onto a nation not calling in My Name. I have spread out My hands all the day onto an apostate people, who are going in the way not good after their own thoughts.” (Isaiah 65:1-2)

These verses, as well as all verses of the Hebrew Bible have multidimensional meanings. Our first thought is about God's unconditional Love for His entire Creation. Should we ask for the air to keep us breathing? The sun finds us all every morning even if we don't look for it. However, in regards to God's Redemption which is the context of Isaiah's messages, there is an ethical understanding here.

Those who are, have and do goodness do not have to inquire or ask for God's goodness, for the latter is already with them. Likewise, by being and doing goodness we find His goodness, hence there is nothing else to seek. The Creator reaffirms His Redemption, and asks us repeatedly to behold it not even by calling His Name. God's Redemption is the goodness of Love's ways and attributes that is destined to lead and rule all aspects and dimensions of consciousness and life.

Our Sages teach that even if there is no God, we all are compelled to be and do goodness as a moral and ethical imperative for humankind. God chose Israel as His people to be and manifest goodness as the material manifestation of God's Love. He loves Israel to be the ethical expressions of Love, and permanently sustains us with His Love, which we ignore in order to embrace the negative traits and trends of ego's fantasies and illusions.

Our apostasy lies on living in the futility of our own materialistic desires and inventions, and not in Love's ways and attributes.

“The people who are provoking Me to anger, to My face continually, sacrificing in gardens, and making perfume on the bricks. Who are dwelling among graves, and lodge in reserved places, who are eating flesh of the sow and a piece of abominable things, their vessels.” (65:3-4)

We have mentioned frequently that idolatry is the result of all we desire out of beliefs or feelings of lack. Our sense of individuality is driven most of our lives by the ephemeral futility of ego's fantasies and illusions, for these are the vessels that are never filled or satisfied. Yet in Love we lack nothing, for Love fulfills all our real needs.

God's anger is our separation from His ways and attributes which are expressions of His Love. In His ways we are truly satiated, filled and satisfied even beyond our own comprehension; for His ways transcend limitations. We must be aware that His ways are our essence and true identity materially and spiritually. As we separate from them and pursue our own fantasies and illusions, we devote our creative potentials and strength to live in denial.

We spend our life in the “gardens”, “perfumes”, “bricks”, “graves” that represent the temporary sensual pursues as well as the hardships that that consumes our flesh. Thus we realize that their negative predicament are the abominable things and their vessels by which we are dead, even if we believe we are alive and walking.

“Who are saying, 'Keep to yourself, come not near me, for I have declared you unholy'. These are a smoke in My anger, a fire burning all the day.” (65:5)

This verse continues the previous statement regarding the idols we create out of our materialistic fantasies and illusions. These feed our selfishness, keeping us separated from our essence and true identity that comes from God's Love.

Our negative traits and trends declare us better than others, and others unholy. Our own evil doesn't let us get close to Love and keeps us far from God. These negative trends are the smoke of our distance from God, which we make constant and difficult to end.

“Lo, it is written before Me: 'I am not silent, but have recompensed; and I have recompensed into their bosom. Your iniquities and the iniquities of your fathers together who have made perfume on the mountains, said the Lord. And on the heights have reproached Me, and I have measured their former work into their bosom'.” (65:6-7)

God serves “measure for measure”, for He is not indifferent or silent regarding either the nations or Israel. He continues referring to our idolatry of pursuing the fleeting selfish fantasies and illusions (“perfumes”) out of our beliefs (“mountains”) by “making perfumes on the mountains”.

The “heights” are the higher levels of consciousness from where we dare to reproach our Creator, for we should reproach ourselves. God “recompenses” us by bringing our attention and awareness to the works of our hands.

The Messianic Consciousness in Jewish Prophecy (CVIII) Isaiah

“And we are as unclean all of us, and as a garment passing away, all our righteous acts. And we fade as a leaf all of us. And our iniquities as wind do take us away.” (Isaiah 64:6)

This verse completes the message of the previous one regarding the futility of evil and ego's fantasies and illusions, in which even our good deeds become irrelevant as a “garment passing away”. The rest of the verse is eloquent enough to make us realize the predicament and consequences of ego's fantasies and illusions.

“And there is none calling in Your Name, stirring up himself to lay hold on You. For You have hid Your face from us, and You melted us away by our iniquities.” (64:7)

In our negative traits and trends we distance from God's ways and attributes. The fantasies and illusions derived from ego's beliefs and feelings of lack are the ones that prevent us from calling on goodness and Love's ways and attributes as the material manifestation of God's Love from which all Creation holds on.

We separate from God's Love as His face before which all our materialistic fantasies and illusions melt away along with us.

“But now, Lord, You are our Father. We are the clay, and You our potter. And we all are the work of Your hand. Be not wroth, O Lord, very sore, nor for ever remember iniquity. Lo, look attentively, we beseech You, Your people are we all.” (64:8-9)

The Prophet appeals to God's Love and power to redeem our consciousness from evil and negative traits and trends. For He is our Creator because He is our Father. As the Creator He is, He is our Maker and it is up to Him to transform our consciousness by removing the root of all our iniquities. Isaiah includes in this prayer all the descendants of Israel our forefather.

“Your holy cities have been a wilderness, Zion a wilderness has been, Jerusalem a desolation. Our holy and our beautiful house, where praise You did our fathers, has become burnt with fire and all our desirable things have become a waste.” (64:10-11)

God's holy cities are the principles and values with which God bonds with us. Among these Zion as Jerusalem the most important, for it represents the awareness of our permanent bond and connection with God. Both are the sacred time and space in which we celebrate our Love and God's Love bonding forever.

“Will You refrain Yourself for these things, O Lord? Will You hold Your peace, and afflict us very severely?” (64:12)

The Prophet appeals once more to the compassion and grace of God's Love to redeem us from the fantasies and illusions that separate us from Him. In our separation from God's Love we lose peace as the encompassing and integrating quality that makes us complete and wholesome in our consciousness and in life.

Our affliction is the outcome of losing peace as the delightful reward for living in Love's ways and attributes, for Love is the essence and true identity that God's Love gives us to be, have and manifest in all dimensions of life.

The Messianic Consciousness in Jewish Prophecy (CVII) Isaiah

“Did You not rend the heavens? You did come down, from Your Presence did mountains flow. (As fire kindles stubble, fire causes water to boil) To make known Your Name to Your adversaries, from Your Presence do nations tremble.” (Isaiah 64:1-2)

The Prophet once again proclaims God's dominion over His Creation in these verses that evoke the times of the Exodus from Egypt. These are the introduction for us to assimilate that God's Redemption is imminent, as evident as His power.

Here we reflect on the metaphors indicating that God not only creates but also sustains what He creates. As fire's power to transform stubble into ashes and water into steam, God's will fulfill His promise to transform the negative trends and traits in consciousness (His “adversaries” and the “nations”) into the positive qualities that will rule all aspects and dimensions of life in the Messianic era.

“In Your doing fearful things we expect not. You did come down, from Your presence did mountains flow. Even from antiquity men have not heard, they have not given ear. Eye has not seen God saves you (Israel). He does work for those waiting for Him.” (64:3-4)

The Prophet states something that most believers fear from the Creator, and it is destruction. It is not an unfunded fear, considering the Torah's narrative on the Flood, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the plagues in Egypt among others. What they do not consider are the moral and ethical reasons behind such episodes.

They also may argue that in similar or worse conditions in human history, the “hand of God” has been apparently absent. We have referred to this in other commentaries in this blog, saying that God's Creation is, has been and will be good, and the choices and the negative deeds we allow have consequences. Therefore, before pointing out to God or blaming Him for the negative happenings in this world, we first must examine what we have made of it.

Once we assimilate in the possible deepest level that “wickedness causes the death of the wicked” (Psalms 34:21), we will understand what the Torah means by divine destruction. Let's focus in what Isaiah wants to point out by saying that we don't expect “fearful things” in God's “doing”.

The Prophet mentions God's power to put His Creation in movement through His Love, and since ancient times humankind rather ignore it. This includes God's salvation of Israel as it happened in Egypt. Isaiah evokes God's Love as the source and sustenance of His Creation as the premise to “wait for Him”. Earlier the Prophet also states God's power to redeem Israel in the end of times.

“You [Israel] have met with the Rejoicer and the Doer of righteousness. In Your ways they remember You. Lo, You have been wroth when we sin, by them is continuance, and we are redeemed.” (64:5)

The Prophet recalls Israel's encounter with the Creator after the Exodus from Egypt, which we are commanded by Him to remember daily and never forget. Then he speaks in first person plural as the people of Israel, while mentioning the “continuance of them” in a possible reference to the nations or those among Israel who persist in sinning.

We can infer from this verse that sin implies a learning process by which we end up pursuing our redemption from it. In this sense the redemption from sin is our redemption from evil and its negative traits and trends in consciousness.