The Messianic Consciousness in Jewish Prophecy (LXXXIX) Isaiah

“I have brought them unto My holy mountain, and caused them to rejoice in My house of prayer. Their burnt-offerings and their sacrifices are for a pleasing thing on My altar, for My house 'A house of prayer' is called for all the peoples.” (56:7)

God brings the dispersed and assimilated members of His people throughout history back to His sacred mountain, which is the eternal bond with Him as the rejoicing in His house. Thus the goodness in their being and doing becomes the pleasing elevated offerings in His altar. Therefore goodness as the cause and effect of righteous deeds is the premise for all peoples to come to God's house of prayer. We call prayer the offering we elevate to Him as the goodness He wants us to be, to have and to do.

“An affirmation of the Lord God, who is gathering the dispersed of Israel: 'Again I gather to him [Israel] to his gathered ones'.” (56:8)

God reiterates His promise in the Torah “that then the Lord your God will turn your captivity and have compassion upon you, and will return and gather you from all the peoples where the Lord your God has dispersed you.” (Deuteronomy 30:3-5). He then spoke to Israel as one person, and now through the Prophet referring to Israel also in singular, mentioning his dispersed to be gathered for His Final Redemption.

“Every beast of the field come to devour, every beast in the forest. His watchmen are blind, they are all without knowledge. They are all mute dogs, they can't bark, dozing, lying down, loving to sleep.” (Isaiah 56:9-10)

The Prophet calls our attention regarding negative traits and trends in consciousness as the wild beasts that devour the goodness that makes life meaningful. These are also our inner and outer enemies that do as they please when our higher knowledge and principles become dormant as blind watchmen and mute dogs.

Isaiah also refers to the leaders of his generation that didn't care for the spiritual well being of their people, behaving as ignorant and blind guardians. The lessons from the past and the present are to keep eternally vigilant against the predicament of ego's fantasies and illusions.

“And the dogs are strong of desire, they have not known satiety, and they are shepherds! They have not known understanding, all of them to their own way they did turn. Each to his dishonest gain from his quarter: 'Come ye, I take wine, and we drink, quaff strong drink, and as this day has been tomorrow, great exceeding abundant!'” (56:11-12)

As we allow our negative trends to lead our thoughts, feelings, emotions, passions and instincts, they become the insatiable dogs that are our shepherds. There is no understanding or knowledge of what is proper and right as expressions of Love's ways and attributes. Ignorance provides its payoffs as the corrupted cause and effect of envy, coveting, greed, lust, haughtiness, wrath, indifference and indolence. These become the motivation for dishonest gains that don't last more than their fleeting moments.

Every day turns the same as yesterday and tomorrow, for they are as futile as their cause and effect. We even believe that there is abundance in futility, even if we already know that fantasies and illusions do not last. Thus we come to realize that only the goodness from Love's ways and attributes transcends, for it sustains life and transcends life.

The Messianic Consciousness in Jewish Prophecy (LXXXVIII) Isaiah

“Thus said the Lord: 'Keep ye judgment, and do righteousness. For near is My redemption to come, and My righteousness to be revealed'.” (Isaiah 56:1)

God reminds us that the common principle we share with His Redemption is righteousness, and it is the “nearness” between both. Hence He commands us to direct our judgment as discernment towards doing what is right. Again He calls our attention to understand righteousness as the cause, purpose and effect of being and doing goodness as Love's ways and attributes. Thus God reveals His righteousness in His Redemption as a fundamental principle for the Messianic Era. We bring it near as we do what is right.

“O the happiness of a man who does this, and of a son of man who keeps hold on it, keeping the Shabbat from polluting it, and keeping his hand from doing any evil. Neither let the foreigner, who has joined himself to the Lord, speak saying, 'The Lord will surely separate me from His people'; neither let the eunuch say, 'Behold, I am a dry tree'.” (56:2-3)

In this context righteousness is our happiness, for it is the goodness God wants us to be and to pursue. Interestingly, He encompasses righteousness into the Shabbat, for this day is the culmination of goodness as the eternal principle in His Creation. Keeping the Shabbat sacred is keeping righteousness in all levels and expressions of consciousness.

It is also essential that God refers to the foreigner as the outsider who finds his way and reason for living part of His will. Once as outsiders we embrace God's ways and attributes, He doesn't reject us. Hence, even in the most adverse situations and circumstances, we must never believe or say that God separates from us. This also applies for those who have lost essential organs or limbs. The lack or need of them are not basis to assume God's separation, nor to assume that our cripple prevents our relationship with Him. God makes this clear through the words of the Prophet.

“For thus says the Lord, 'To the eunuchs who keep My Shabbats and choose the things that please Me, and hold fast My Covenant: I have given to them in My house, and within My walls a station and a name, better than sons and than daughters, an eternal name I give to him that is not cut off'.” (56:4-5)

As long as we maintain our bond and connection with God by being and doing what pleases Him (His ways and attributes as expressions of His righteousness) in addition to keeping His Shabbats, He also holds fast His Covenant (His bond and connection with us). This means that we are never cut off, for He has named us in eternal bond. This bond occurs in His house as the place, time and name that unite us to Him, far better than being sons or daughters, for in this bond there is no separation or cut off.

“And sons of the foreigner who are joined to the Lord to serve Him, and to love the Name of the Lord to be to Him for servants, every keeper of the Sabbath from polluting it and those keeping hold on My Covenant.” (56:6)

God reaffirms in this verse His earlier words regarding the foreigners who join His Covenant and its implications of service and love for the righteousness of His ways and attributes, included again the observance of the Shabbat. This is the basis of the love of God as our reason to exist, for by loving Him we realize the His Love is our Essence and true identity.

The Messianic Consciousness in Jewish Prophecy (LXXXVII) Isaiah

“Forsake does the wicked his way, and the man of iniquity his thoughts. And he returns to the Lord and He pitied him, and unto our God for He multiplied to pardon. For not My thoughts are your thoughts, nor your ways My ways. An affirmation of the Lord. For high have the heavens been above the earth, so high have been My ways above your ways, and My thoughts above your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:7-9)

The first of these two verses reaffirms the eternal grace, compassion and loving kindness that encompass God's Love to liberate, to redeem and transform our consciousness from the negative traits and trends to the goodness of Love's ways and attributes. He reminds us that our negative ways and iniquities are destined to be forsaken as we return to Him.

In our return His forgiveness heralds the expansion of our consciousness to learn His revealed and concealed ways and attributes. Thus we understand that His thoughts are not our thoughts, and our ways are not His ways. Hence the imperative to know Him as He wants us to in the final stage of His promised Redemption.

“For as the rain comes down and the snow from the sky, and doesn't return there but waters the earth, and makes it bring forth and bud, and gives seed to the sower and bread to the eater. So is My word that goes out of My mouth. It turns not back unto Me empty, but has done that which I desired. And prosperously effected that for which I sent it.” (55:10-11)

God wants us to be aware that His will has a purpose, beyond the evident sustenance for His Creation. He indicates that such purpose will flourish as He desired, and tells us that we are the bearers of the seed, the field and the harvest that will be multiplied in quantities only possible to be conceived in the Messianic Era. God is the sower and the harvester of His entire Creation.

“For with joy ye go forth and with peace ye are brought in. The mountains and the hills break forth before you with singing, and all trees of the field clap the hand. Instead of the thorn come up does fir, instead of the brier come up does myrtle. And it has been to the Lord for a name, for an eternal sign. It is not cut off!” (55:12-13)

Once more God refers to the new consciousness He is planting in us, filled with joy to live and peace as plenitude to be raised. Mountains and hills as values and principles to be delighted in, and trees as all good deeds that become a celebration of life.

The lower levels and negative trends in consciousness as thorns and briers will be turned into strong and fragrant plants and trees as constructive and positive deeds. These as expressions of the goodness of God's Love will be eternal, and never ending.

The Messianic Consciousness in Jewish Prophecy (LXXXVI) Isaiah

“Ho, every thirsty one, come ye to the waters. And he who has no money, come ye, acquire and eat, yea, come, acquire without money and without price, wine and milk. Why do ye weigh money for that which is not bread? And your labor for that which is not for satiety? Hearken diligently unto Me, and eat good, and your soul does delight itself in fatness.” (Isaiah 55:1-2)

God reminds us again that He is not only our Creator but our sustenance, to Whom we don't have to pay for support. These verses make us aware that our purpose in life is to know the source of His sustenance (“the waters”) by knowing Him.

As we have indicated often, in our Jewish tradition wine represents happiness and milk vital sustenance. Our connection and relationship with God is free of charge, for everything comes from God and He is accessible always and everywhere. Hence He questions our interests and motives in the material world, pointing out to our real needs in contrast to ego's fantasies and illusions.

Should we work to pay for what is not our basic needs? And what are those things that are not basic and not fulfilling? God repeats that His guidance is our complete satisfaction and satiety, for His counsel is goodness. Thus we realize that our material fulfillment (“fatness”) must be consonant with our soul's delight.

“Incline your ear, and come unto Me. Hear and your soul does live, and I make for you an eternal Covenant, the loving kindness deeds of David that are steadfast. Behold, I have given him for a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander to the peoples.” (55:3-4)

These are two of the emblematic verses heralding the Final Redemption and the Messianic Era. Our transition from the mirages of ego's fantasies and illusions towards Love's ways and attributes begins with hearing (understanding) and attaching our hearts to the Creator.

Here our true life begins to transcend through the eternal Covenant of living in God's Love, which become manifest as the strong and constant goodness of loving kindness. This committed and determined Love is the cause, means, purpose and end of the Messianic consciousness represented by kind David, as the regency of Love in all aspects and dimensions of life.

“Lo, a nation you do not know you call. And a nation who does not know you does run unto you, for the sake of the Lord your God and for the Holy One of Israel, because He has beautified you. Seek the Lord while He may be found, call you on Him while He is near.” (55:5-6)

The Messianic consciousness is the promised new permanent awareness that embark us into the endless journey of knowing the Creator. This nation we don't know and doesn't know us will lead our consciousness for the sake (“in the name”) of God and His Love for Israel, the chosen nation He has beautified.

Israel is referred again as the positive creative potentials destined to rule and guide all levels and facets of life. Thus we realize that the pursuit of goodness is the way to seek God, the way to call on Him, the means and the nearness to find Him.

The Messianic Consciousness in Jewish Prophecy (LXXXV) Isaiah

“For, the waters of Noah is this to Me in that I have sworn. The waters of Noah do not pass again over the earth, so I have sworn. Wrath is not upon you, nor rebuke against you. For the mountains depart and the hills remove, but My loving kindness from you departs not. And the Covenant of My peace removes not, said has your loving One, the Lord.” (54:9-10)

God compares His promise not to bring back again the Flood over the earth to not removing His loving kindness from His people, nor His Covenant of peace, for He loves us. God's Love never departs from us. He doesn't judge us in wrath or rebuke after decreeing His Redemption.

“O afflicted, storm-tossed, not comforted! Lo, I am laying with cement your stones, and have founded you with sapphires. And have made of agate your towers, and your gates of carbuncle stones. And all your border of stones of delight, and all your sons are taught of the Lord, and abundant is the peace of your sons.” (54:11-13)

The goodness from which God created us is our essence and true identity, and also our common bond with Him. Goodness is afflicted and shaken in discomfort when negative traits and trends take over our consciousness. Once again God reaffirms that goodness will prevail forever by making it rule and direct all levels and expressions of consciousness. These are the precious stones as the higher traits and trends that are our delight. As evil is removed from our consciousness, only goodness leads our discernment, thoughts, emotions, feelings, passions and instincts towards the knowledge of God.

This necessary premise in the prelude to learn from the fully revealed Presence of God. Then the sons of Jerusalem will learn from the total awareness of their connection with God, and abundant peace will be their harvest. All the inner and hidden dimensions of the Torah will be fully revealed in our Final Redemption.

“In righteousness you established yourself, be far from oppression, for you feared not, and from ruin. For it came not near unto you. Lo, he does diligently assemble without My desire. Who has assembled near you? By you he fell!” (54:14-15)

Righteousness is the goodness God established for us as the foundation of all aspects and expressions of life. In goodness there is no oppression, fear or ruin that could come to us. If evil comes is not by God's desire, but by our own choice. In His Redemption, God gathers and assembles us around and near Him. Our full awareness of this dissipates all evils, and in this realization wickedness ceases to exist.

“Lo, I, I have prepared a blacksmith, blowing on a fire of coals and bringing out an instrument for his work. And I have prepared a destroyer to destroy. No weapon formed against you prospers, and every tongue rising against you in judgment you condemn. This is the inheritance of the servants of the Lord and their righteousness from Me, says the Lord!” (54:16-17)

God tells us about the strength and determination of the new consciousness He reserves for us in His Final Redemption. He refers to it as a blacksmith that feeds the transforming fire that will remove all evils from us. Thus we understand that God's Love is the fire that transforms our consciousness as we allow Him to rule and conduct all aspects and dimensions of life. This happens when we embrace Love's ways and attributes as the material manifestation of God's Love.

Love is the prepared destroyer to destroy all that is different from its ways and attributes. In this awareness there is nothing that could be against us. As we embrace God's Love as our Essence and true identity, we come to the realization that we are His children and His servants, and that the goodness of our righteousness comes from Him. Thus says the Creator of all.

The Messianic Consciousness in Jewish Prophecy (LXXXIV) Isaiah

“Sing, O barren, she has not borne! Break forth with singing, and cry aloud, she [that] has not brought forth! For more are the sons of the desolate than the sons of the married one, says the Lord.” (Isaiah 54:1)

The Creator refers to Jerusalem as the barren one, for it has been abandoned and desolated for a long time. He reminds us that she is the city as the principle and the foundation of our bond and connection to Him. She is the goodness we share with our Creator, with which we grow and multiply. She is barren as long as we don't let her bear children as the good deeds expected from goodness as our essence, cause and motivation.

The Jewish people are also the sons that abandoned her, and left her barren ever since. God's fulfills His Redemption by gathering back her children to her land. These are the sons that are more numerous than the sons of the “married one” that represent the nations. God's Redemption is the singing and crying aloud, for is the culmination of God's Love for His Creation.

“Enlarge the place of your tent, and the curtains of your tabernacles they stretch out. Restrain not, lengthen your cords, and your pegs make strong.” (54:2)

God's promise is fulfilled by commanding us to expand our consciousness into the goodness of Love's ways and attributes as the rulers of every aspect of life in the Messianic Era. This expansion includes our intellect, discernment, thoughts, feelings, emotions towards new dimensions revealed to us by God's Love.

“For right and left you break forth, and your seed do nations possess. And desolate cities they cause to be inhabited. Fear not, for you are not ashamed or blush, for you are not confounded. For the shame of your youth you forgot, and the reproach of your widowhood you do not remember any more.” (54:3-4)

As our awareness expands in all possible ways and means to acquire a higher knowledge of the Creator, every trait and trend in our consciousness will serve this end. These are the nations that our seed (our creations as well as our children) will possess. Our once abandoned and desolated creative potentials under the influence of negative traits and trends will be occupied and conducted by the goodness God will make prevail in the material world.

This will lead us to excel in our creativity to generate greater goodness among the diverse and multifaceted expressions of human consciousness. In order to fully achieve this destiny, evil and negativity will cease to exist. Therefore there won't be fear, shame or suffering, for there won't be affliction or confusion. God also reaffirms His promise by even making us forget the negative experiences we have lived throughout long centuries, that are our reproach and widowhood.

“For your Maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is His Name. And your redeemer is the Holy One of Israel, 'God of all the earth' He is called. For as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit called you has the Lord, even a youthful wife when she is refused, said your God.” (54:5-6)

God recalls His eternal Love for His chosen people that He gathers in the complete realization of our permanent connection with Him, making Israel His “wife”. He reminds us that our husband is the Creator of all, the Lord of multitudes, for His Creation is without measure: “He does great and unlimited things, and wonderful things without number.” (Job 9:10). He is the Holy One of Israel and God of all the earth to make us aware that our Redemption comes directly from Him. He also knows our grief and abandon as the result of our separation from His ways and attributes.

“In a small moment I have forsaken you, and in great mercies I do gather you. In overflowing wrath I hid My face for a moment from you, and in endless loving kindness I have loved you, said your redeemer the Lord!” (Isaiah 54:7-8)

God calls our separation from Him as His own. Let's always be aware that our estrangement is from us, not Him. Hence in His eternal loving kindness He gather us back to the permanent awareness of our connection with Him. Thus He fulfills His Redemption for us.

The Messianic Consciousness in Jewish Prophecy (LXXXIII) Isaiah

“It has been exacted, and he has answered. And he opens not his mouth as a lamb to the slaughter he is brought. And as a sheep before its shearers is dumb, and he opens not his mouth.” (53:7)

We have said that goodness is the expression of Love as the material manifestation of God's Love. Goodness is not haughty, and does not boast or pretend. Like truth, goodness does not need to defend itself. Thus we understand that the shearers of goodness find it dumb. Such is the way of ego's fantasies and illusions before Love's ways and attributes.

Ego's materialistic desires find no reason or meaning in goodness. Likewise, in spite of Israel's contributions to humankind, he has been silenced and slaughtered without even defending himself. Oppression in his land (by Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome), exile (Egypt, Babylon, the Diaspora), persecution and extermination (by Muslims “holy” wars, Christians Crusades and Inquisition, Pogroms, the Holocaust).

“By restraint and by judgment he has been taken, and of his generation who does meditate that he has been cut off from the land of the living? By the transgression of my people he is plagued. And it appoints with the wicked his grave, and with the rich are his high places. Because he has done no violence, nor is deceit in his mouth.” (53:8-9)

Humankind has not meditated quite enough about removing goodness from life. How can we find a transcending meaning in existence without living in goodness? Goodness is the cause, reason and purpose of life! How can it be cut off from life? At the same time the Prophet points out the consequences of restraining or removing goodness from human consciousness.

Goodness fails and dismays by negative traits and trends. These are the plagues we bring to Love as our Essence and true identity. Our transgressions lead us to share the same grave with the wicked. Goodness as our richness shares the high places with those who are also good. As long as we allow goodness to conduct all aspects and dimensions of life, there will never be violence or deceit.

“And the Lord has delighted to bruise him, He has made him sick. If his soul does make an offering for guilt, He sees seed, -- he prolongs days. And the pleasure of the Lord in his hand does prosper.” (53:10)

This painful metaphor must be understood in the proper context, which is that God does not delight Himself by inflicting pain on others. God takes for Himself the pain and suffering of His people. He takes Israel's oppression by the nations as His own, for in every defeat, humiliation and affliction, Israel's mission remains and transcends. For every sacrifice Israel does, there is a planted seed aimed to protect the goodness in life. God find pleasure in goodness, and makes it prosper despite the opposition of negative trends in consciousness.

“Of the labor of his soul He sees, he is satisfied. Through his knowledge he gives righteousness, the righteous one My servant to many. And their iniquities he does bear.” (53:11)

God sees the goodness Israel provides to humankind, by which he is pleased. Israel's knowledge and wisdom come from the Torah and his bond with the Creator. Anything opposite to that, Israel has to bear until the cause of evil will be finally removed from the face of the earth.

“Therefore I give a portion to him among the many, and with the mighty he apportions spoil, because that he exposed to death his soul. And with transgressors he was numbered, and he the sin of many has borne. And for transgressors he intercedes.” (53:12)

God is Israel's portion. This premise justifies Israel's mission in the world as stated in the Torah. Hence the “spoil” Israel gets is with the “mighty”, for God is the strength with which Israel prevails. This in addition to Israel's facing death in his endurance to maintain the Covenant with God. This endurance have also faced Israel's own transgressions as well as others' transgressions for which he is counted as bearer of their sins.

Therefore Israel is the middle man between sin and redemption from sin, the catalyst from the materialistic consciousness to the spiritual awareness that makes us realize our true identity and purpose in life. As we indicated earlier, Israel represents our highest level of consciousness from where we are able to transcend the lower traits and trends that separate us from the goodness of Love's ways and attributes as material manifestations of God's Love.

Again we must remark that the Final Redemption and the Messianic Era promised in the Torah (Deuteronomy 30:3-10) and reiterated by the Prophets will manifest through Israel, the people of the Covenant with God. It has been decided and decreed by God.