The Messianic Consciousness in Jewish Prophecy (CXV) Isaiah

“And I, [know] their works and their thoughts, I come to gather all the nations and tongues. And they have come and seen My glory. And I have set among them a sign, and have sent out of them those escaping unto the nations (Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, drawing bow, Tubal and Javan, the isles that are far off) who have not heard My fame nor seen My glory. And they have declared My honor among nations.” (66:18-19)

The Creator will reveal His power also among the nations that never believed in Him as the God of Israel. They all will declare that He indeed had announced His Redemption before He revealed it to His Prophets.

“And they have brought all your brethren out of all the nations, a present to the Lord. On horses and on chariot, and on litters and on mules, and on camels unto My holy mountain Jerusalem, said the Lord. As the sons of Israel bring the present in a clean vessel into the house of the Lord.” (66:20)

This verse is a clear reference to the in-gathering of the Jewish exiles. After the final confrontation of the nations against Israel, God's revealed Presence will make the nations recognize Israel's mission in the world as defined in the Torah, and reiterated by the Jewish Prophets. Thus the nations will bring the remnants of the Jews as a present to God.

Once all the Jews gather in their land, they will bring their offerings to the Temple of Jerusalem, the holy mountain of God's house. These offerings will be presented in the clean vessel of the new consciousness He will give us.

“And also of them I take for priests, for Levites, said the Lord. For, as the new heavens and the new earth that I am making are standing before Me, an affirmation of the Lord, so remain does your seed and your name.” (66:21-22)

God will reestablish the daily offerings in the Temple of Jerusalem through the Levites and priests as of before. New offerings by the new consciousness under new heavens and in a new earth before the Creator. Again, He reaffirms it, along with His promise to make Israel His eternal nation endlessly from generation to generation.

“And it has been from month to month, and from Sabbath to Sabbath, come do all flesh to bow themselves before Me, said the Lord.” (66:23)

The Sabbath is also reaffirmed as the time and space of uniting with our God, and as the eternal bond between He and Israel.

“And they have gone forth, and looked on the carcasses of the men who are transgressing against Me. For their worm dies not, and their fire is not quenched. And they have been an abhorrence to all flesh!” (66:24)

Humankind will see the remains of men and nations as the negative traits and trends that oppose and transgress against the goodness God's Love wants to make prevail in His Creation. They will be removed from human consciousness, and such removal will be permanent and a non-dying worm, and as fire that is never extinguished.

They will be alien as an abhorrence to all flesh, for only goodness will prevail as the promised destiny God decreed for His Creation since the beginning of time. This destiny was transgressed by our ancient ancestors, but God will restore it as He affirms it.

This is the Seventh Day of God's Creation that He left for the last, as we celebrate every Friday evening to welcome it.

“For that is the source, from which to bless. From the beginning, chosen before time. Last in deed, but first in [God's] thought.” (From the Jewish prayer book)

The Messianic Consciousness in Jewish Prophecy (CXIV) Isaiah

“Do I bring to the birth and not cause to bring forth? Said the Lord. Am not I He who is causing to beget? I have also restrained, said your God. Rejoice ye with Jerusalem and be glad in her all ye loving her. Rejoice ye with her for joy, all ye are mourning for her.” (Isaiah 66:9-10)

God creates, controls and conducts His entire Creation, and wants the children of Israel to rejoice in their connection with Him that is Jerusalem, those who love her. All of the Jews who have mourned for Jerusalem must be happy and rejoice in her, for she is destined to be rebuilt along with her Temple forever. Let's all Israel rejoice in God's word and promise.

“So that ye suck, and have been satisfied from the breast of her consolations. So that ye wring out, and have delighted yourselves from the abundance of her glory. For thus said the Lord: 'Lo, I am stretching out to her peace as a river, and as an overflowing stream the honor of nations. And ye have sucked, on the side ye are carried, and on the knees ye are dandled.” (66:11-12)

The breast of Jerusalem's consolations is precisely the new consciousness that will come forth for our Redemption. Its unfathomable qualities will satiate our yearnings of the knowledge of God in which we will delight eternally in its endlessness. The expansion of our consciousness as an overflowing stream of peace as completion and totality.

The nations as our lower traits and trends will honor this new consciousness by carrying us and supporting us in our assimilation of knowing the revealed Presence of God in us.

“As one whom his mother comforts, so do I comfort you. Yea, in Jerusalem ye are comforted. And ye have seen and rejoiced has your heart, and your bones as tender grass do flourish. And the hand of the Lord has been known unto His servants, and He has been indignant with His enemies.” (66:13-14)

God's Love will be totally revealed to us as He promises in these verses. We will be comforted in unfathomable ways to be known through our new consciousness in which evil nor negative traits and trends exist no more. This reminds us Moses' plea to the Creator, quoted by king David.

“Let Your work be revealed unto Your servants, and Your splendor (lit. way) on their sons.” (Psalms 90:16)

In order for this to happen, the “indignation” of God with His “enemies” also has to occur, for this new consciousness does not cohabit with anything different from God's promise for the Messianic era.

“For, lo, the Lord in fire comes, and as a hurricane His chariots to refresh in fury His anger. And His rebuke in flames of fire. For by fire and by His sword the Lord does judgment with all flesh. And many have been the Lord's pierced ones'.” (Isaiah 66:15-16)

We must understand that God's Love is as fire, the catalyst that will transform our current consciousness tampered by darkness and negativity into the golden and uplifting qualities of Love's ways and attributes as the material manifestation of God's Love.

Fire and sword are the proper allegories to make us aware of God's power to make His will prevails. He has done it before with His messengers and Prophets that He transformed to serve Him as He pleases.

“Those sanctifying and cleansing themselves at the gardens, [one] after one in the midst, eating flesh of the swine. And of the abomination, and of the rat, together are consumed. An affirmation of the Lord.” (66:17)

Idol worship as ego's fantasies and illusions derived from negative traits and trends will disappear from human consciousness. Those are the lower ideas, ideologies, thoughts, feelings and emotions we make lead our lives as the gardens devoted to idolatry. The swine, the abomination and the rodent as symbols of the abject consciousness will cease to exist, as God affirms it.

The Messianic Consciousness in Jewish Prophecy (CXIII) Isaiah

“I also, I fix on their vexations and their fears I bring in to them. Because I have called, and there is none answering. I spoke, and they have not hearkened. And they do the evil things in My eyes, and on that which I desired not, [they have] fixed.” (66:4)

Here is another reminder that even our worst nightmares are part of God's creation. He takes credit for our vexations and fears as we trapped our consciousness in ego's fantasies and illusions. Hence we see that our own creations come back to us as the natural outcome of cause and effect.

God calls on us in the innermost goodness of our existence, to point out our stubbornness that even if we are fully aware that our happiness and fulfillment are in Love's ways and attributes, we don't choose back to them. We rather live in what is contrary to our essence and true identity, that which is evil in God's eyes. We entrapped ourselves in the fixation of fantasies and illusions.

“Hear a word of the Lord, ye who are trembling unto His word. Said have your brethren who are hating you, who are driving you out, because of My Name: 'Honored is the Lord, and we look on your joy', but they are ashamed.” (66:5)

The Prophet refers in this verse to those who emulate and delight themselves in the ways of the nations, Jews and non Jews. Isaiah warns those who live by and in God's ways, attributes and commandments, the ones who tremble at His word to be aware of those who hate them and want to drive them out of their land.

This is what the nations as negative traits and trends want by keeping us away from what is opposite to them. We see this in the international alliance that pretends to restrain the Jewish presence in the land of Israel, to divide Jerusalem and to oppose the reconstruction of its Temple.

The message is for the Jewish people to trust or follow the ways of our enemies, for ultimately these are the ones that will be ashamed of their antisemitism when the Final Redemption arrives. They call on the Name of the Lord, but they hate us. The same goes for those among our brethren, the self-hating Jews that serve and feed the hatred of the enemies of Israel.

“A voice of noise is from the city, a voice from the temple, the voice of the Lord giving retribution to His enemies. Before she is pained she has brought forth. Before a pang comes to her, she has delivered a male [Israel]. Who has heard anything like this? Who has seen anything like these [the children of Israel]? Is earth caused to bring forth in one day? Born is a nation at once? For she has been pained, Zion also has borne her sons.” (66:6-8)

Jerusalem is reaffirmed as the time and space of the awareness of our permanent connection with God. In the Temple where we bond with our Creator, He speaks to us and His voice is His will. From the Temple as the highest level of consciousness we initiate the transformation required to enter in the Final Redemption and the Messianic era. In the awareness of our connection with God we remove the dark side of our consciousness where our enemies dwell.

In this connection God gives retribution to our enemies that are also His enemies as the negative traits and trends He does not want in our lives. This removal is indeed a painful process as the pains of a woman in labor.

The Prophet refers to both Jerusalem as our highest awareness of God's Love, and Israel as the bearer of the new consciousness promised by Him. Coming to the Messianic era is a lengthy and painful process that ends as the joyful birth of a male. Hence the allusion of the earth and all that lives in it were not created in one day, and the nation of Israel that did not come to be at once.

The birth of the Final Redemption occurs as nothing previously seen or conceived, for it will be eternal. Hence its arrival requires enough time for us to learn and assimilate the goodness of Love's ways and attributes as the rules and conductors of every aspect and facet of life. These are the sons of Zion/Jerusalem, for from the awareness of our permanent connection with God all goodness is brought forth. Thus we also assimilate that Zion's sons are all the children of Israel.

The Messianic Consciousness in Jewish Prophecy (CXII) Isaiah

“Thus said the Lord: 'The heavens are My throne and the earth My footstool. Where is this, the house that ye build for Me? And where is this, the place [of] My rest?” (Isaiah 66:1)

God ask us about our bond and connection with Him, which are the foundation of our Jewish identity. The heavens represent a dimension that is beyond human understanding, for from there the Creator directs all that we perceive through our senses and conscience. The material creation is ruled by a force that transcends its limitations by time, space and vital essence. This force emanates from the Creator, and we call it here His Love. Thus we understand that the material world is His footstool, the latter as the “place” under His rule.

The Jewish people are God's messengers to make His will in the Torah prevail as He commands it. Hence He asks for our Covenant with Him that rests in the inner chamber of the place we build for Him, that represents the awareness of our permanent connection with Him. This question is about us, our Jewish identity, and the reason and purpose of our lives in world.

God asks us to return to Him, to reestablish and implement goodness as our common bond with Him. He asks us to fulfill the destiny the Torah commands us to be, have and manifest, for that is the place of His “rest”. Here we also see another clear reference --also beyond our comprehension-- to the Sabbath as a fundamental principle of the connection of Israel with God.

The answer to God's question-request is to return to His ways and attributes as our essence and identity, for by doing this we do His will. Hence the building of the Temple of Jerusalem is the material manifestation of our willingness and determination to fulfill His promised Final Redemption, and the advent of the Messianic era.

“And all these My hand has made, and all these things are, an affirmation of the Lord! And unto this one I look attentively, unto the humble and bruised in spirit, and who is trembling at My word.” (66:2)

The Creator reminds us that all that exists is the works of His will, including His Redemption as His greatest gift for eternity. For this we have to rid ourselves from the fantasies and illusions we create out of ego's beliefs and feelings of lack that lead us to haughtiness, anger, envy, lust, coveting, indifference and indolence.

In order to permanently dwell in the realm of Love's ways and attributes that characterize the Messianic era, we must empty the vessels of our discernment, mind, feelings and emotions, from negative traits and trends, and turn them into vessels of humbleness.

Only then we can fill them with Love's ways and attributes, for these only dwell in the vessels of humbleness and in the reverence we owe to our Creator. Again let king David remind us about this.

“The boastful do not stand themselves before Your eyes. You hate all workers of iniquity.” “(...) Because the wicked boasts of the desire of his soul, he blesses the covetous and despise the Lord.” (Psalms 5:5, 10:3)

The bruises of our heart and soul are the negative traits and trends we inflict in our consciousness, and in our pain and suffering we atone to finally realize that Love's ways and attributes are the true home of our happiness and joy. God sees the bruises of our afflictions and appreciates the atonement that brings us back to humbleness as the vessel for His Redemption. Humbleness enables us to tremble before God's Love and His word.

“Who that slaughtered the ox smote a man, who that sacrificed the lamb beheaded a dog. Who that is bringing up a present, the blood of a sow, who that is making mention of frankincense, is blessing iniquity. Yea, they have fixed on their own ways, and in their abominations their soul has delighted.” (Isaiah 66:3)

God warns us about playing games with ourselves, and turning hypocrisy into a lifestyle. He reminds us that Judaism as our true lifestyle opposes praying to Him while living by and in negative traits and trends. Bringing sacrifices and offerings to Him does not give us license to transgress His Commandments. This is tantamount to becoming like the “nations” that fix their own ways and rules, and delight in them.

This warning is part of the same message God gives us if we want His Redemption. Only if we are able to remove what keeps us in our own daily hell, we will be also able to enter the heaven-like times of the Messianic era.

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.

The Messianic Consciousness in Jewish Prophecy (CVI) Isaiah

“And they have rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit, and He turned to them for an enemy, He Himself has fought against them. And He remembered the days of old, Moses, His people. Where is He who is bringing them up from the sea, the shepherd of His flock? Where is He who is putting in its midst His Holy Spirit?” (63:10-11)

The Prophet again confronts us for our separation from God's Love, and for turning Him into an enemy. We still blame Him for the outcome of our rebellious heart. We have to understand that our enemies are those who live for ego's fantasies and illusions, and the negative traits and trends in consciousness. Those are the “nations” and “peoples” that want to destroy the righteous goodness of Love's ways and attributes, which are our essence and true identity.

As soon as we turn away from God's ways and follow the fate of the nations, these become our mortal enemies, for they exist to destroy all that opposes their predicament. As we fall down to envy, lust, indolence, indifference, haughtiness, wrath and coveting, by default these become our mortal enemies, for they pursue the destruction of what are opposite to them.

The Prophet prays for God's presence in our hearts, and to allow His attributes to lead all aspects and dimensions of our consciousness.

“Leading by the right hand of Moses, the arm of His glory, cleaving waters from before them to make to Himself an eternal Name. Leading them through the depths, as a horse in a plain they stumble not. As a beast into a valley goes down, the Spirit of the Lord causes him to rest, so have You led Your people to make to Yourself a glorious Name.” (63:12-14)

The Prophet evokes the Exodus from Egypt and the mighty hand of God's Love to redeem us from the lowest of human condition. Isaiah calls for God's promise to also redeem us in this last exile among the nations.

“Look attentively from the heavens, and see from Your holy and beautiful habitation. Where is Your zeal and Your might? The multitude of Your bowels and Your mercies towards me have refrained themselves. For You are our Father, for Abraham has not known us and Israel does not acknowledge us. You, O Lord, are our Father, our Redeemer forever is Your Name.” (63:15-16)

The Prophet continues praying for our Final Redemption, and calls for God's attention regarding His destroyed Temple, His beautiful habitation in which His Name was proclaimed for the sake of the world. Isaiah appeals to God's zeal and dominion, and deplores His absence from our hearts. Representing Israel, he prays for their Redemption after the destruction of the First Temple.

Isaiah admits to God that we are strangers to the elevated character of Abraham and his grandson Israel, who have no resemblance to us. Hence he appeals to God's abundant loving kindness and compassion to be our sole Redeemer.

“O Lord, why do You make us to err from Your ways, and harden our heart from Your fear? Return for Your servants' sake, the tribes of Your inheritance.” (63:17)

The Prophet denounces our weak character that leads us to the wrong choices, and separates us from the righteousness of God's ways and attributes. Isaiah dares to make God responsible for our voluble nature, and our stubborness to disrespect His will. Hence the necessity to transform our consciousness in order to make us successful in our destiny to reveal and proclaim God's kingdom in the material world.

“For a little while did Your holy people possess [Your Sanctuary], our adversaries have trodden down Your Sanctuary. We have been from of old, [while] You have not ruled over them, not called is Your Name upon them!” (63:18-19)

Isaiah refers to Israel's enemies as also God's enemies, and blame them for the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem that represents God's Presence in the world. Although we know that our enemies are the consequence of our negative traits and trends out of ego's fantasies and illusions, the Prophet blames them for their relentless opposition to the Torah's plan for humankind.

While we, in spite of our stubborness to separate from God's ways, proclaim His Oneness and attributes as the ones that must prevail, the nations reject His Oneness and ignore His laws and commandments. Hence they do not call God's Name upon them.

This Name represents His abundant loving kindness, grace, compassion, righteousness and truth that He wants us to recognize as our essence and true identity.