The Messianic Consciousness in Jewish Prophecy (XLIV) Isaiah

“For in this mountain will the hand of the Lord rest, and Moab shall be trodden down in his place, even as straw is trodden down in the dunghill.” (25:10)

We have said that Jerusalem represents the awareness of God in our consciousness. Its holy mountain -- Zion -- and the Temple of Jerusalem both represent our permanent connection to the Creator, and neighboring nations as negative trends and traits. The last verse (Isaiah 25:9) quoted in our previous commentary refers to rejoicing in our Final Redemption, after the complete removal of evil from the face of the earth. The following verse cited above refers to the Final Redemption also as the permanent connection with God, as the mountain where His hand will rest. This in contrast to the high mountains of neighboring Moab that will be brought down.

As the Prophet reiterates, Moab represents haughtiness and arrogance. These negative traits are the false feelings of power and strength out of ego's desires to control and dominate all aspects of life. These, as well as other negative traits, are indeed high fortresses and strong walls in our consciousness that we can overcome only with God's compassion and loving kindness.

“And when he [Moab] shall spread forth his hands in the midst thereof, as he that swims spreads forth his hands to swim, his pride shall be brought down (made humble) together with the cunning of his hands. And the high fortress of your [Moab's] walls will He bring down (humble), lay low, and bring to the ground, even to the dust.” (25:11-12)

The Hebrew Prophets refers to the typical stubbornness of pride as the crown of our self-proclamation as gods in the unleashed fantasies and desires of ego's illusions. As we embrace God's decreed Redemption by enthroning Love's ways and attributes in all levels of consciousness, He makes us humble by bringing down our haughtiness.

Humbleness is the vessel where God bestows the total freedom He wants us to live without the burdens and chains of negative traits and trends that inflate ego's illusions of grandeur. There is a cunning quality in our pride that lure us to think, speak and act with strings attached. Arrogance and haughtiness as the ways and means that turn us into control freaks.

“In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah: 'We have a strong city, walls and bulwarks do He appoint for redemption'. Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation that keeps faithfulness may enter in.” (26:1-2)

God's ways and attributes are the strong cities, fortresses, walls and bulwarks He gives us to redeem ourselves from our own idols. The Prophet calls on the nations to re-direct their predicament into the goodness of Love's ways and attributes as the heralds of our Redemption. Israel is the righteous Nation as the bearer of the goodness God wants to make prevail in the material world. At the same time it is a call to our free will to lead us through Love's ways and attributes toward Jerusalem as the city where the Creator dwells permanently in us.

“The mind stayed on You, You kept [it] in perfect peace; because it trusted in You.” (26:3)

This verse reminds us that the choice is ours. As long as we keep our awareness focused and mindful of God's will for us, He gives us His Covenant of Peace. This mindfulness is the outcome of our trust in His compassion and loving kindness as the pillars of our Redemption.

“Trust ye in the Lord for ever, for the Lord is God, an everlasting Rock. For He has brought down them that dwell on high, the lofty city, laying it low, laying it low even to the ground, bringing it even to the dust.” (26:4-5)

We have mentioned many times that we are defenseless before our own addictions and attachments. Trusting God means to follow His ways and attributes, and make them the guide and direction to the goodness in life. The way out from our exile and captivity in ego's fantasies and illusions is changing the negative, stagnating and destructive ways in which our consciousness gets trapped. Trusting God is trusting the goodness He wants for us, the rock on which we remain firm toward the destiny He gives us as His people. The goodness of Love's ways and attributes bring down what denies our Essence and true identity. Thus humbleness and selflessness are the ground and the dust where only goodness exists.

“The foot shall tread it down, even the feet of the poor, and the steps of the needy. The way of the just is straight. You, Most Upright, makes plain the path of the just.” (26:6-7)

The feet take us to our destination, and even those who are not rich in Love's ways and attributes can also become aware of these as our path to return to God's Love. This is also the path of the just, straight directly back to our Creator, from Whom we came to exist. God's Love makes plain our way back to Him as we choose to discern, think, speak and do what is right and just.

“Yea, in the way of Your judgments, O Lord, have we waited for You; to Your Name and to Your memorial is the desire of our soul.” (26:8)

The Messianic Consciousness in Jewish Prophecy (XLIII) Isaiah

We must understand Jewish prophecy as something previously decreed by our Creator. Thus we grasp that the Shabbat was the first in the thought of God, and was the last in His Creation. The Shabbat already existed before all that is, as well as the Torah and Israel. Based on this principle our Sages say that God, the Torah, the Shabbat and Israel are One. Hence, as God announces His promises through His Prophets, these are already in motion. It means that they already exist in our consciousness. We just have to become aware of them. Thus we understand why the Prophet is delivering his messages in past tense.

We learn from this that in our connection and relationship with the Creator there is no time or space. All exists at the same time, and we have to assimilate this even if our consciousness is restricted by time and space. Time and space simultaneously combined are the context of life in the material world, and this does not mean we intrinsically belong to those restricting dimensions. Sooner or later we will become aware that our connection with the Creator, who is undefinable as unrestricted, also brings us to the realm where there is no time or space. Thus we understand transcendence, for transcendence is the context of our bond with God. At this point we realize that what truly transcends in our awareness of life in the material world is Love as our common bond with God.  

“He has swallowed up death for ever, and the Lord God has wiped away the tear from off all faces; and the reproach of His people He turned aside from off all the earth, for the Lord has spoken.” (Isaiah 25:8)

This verse makes us understand what we just indicated. This is the beginning to assimilate the meaning of our Final Redemption, and start living the Messianic Consciousness. This occurs as we also begin to remove the negative trends in consciousness, and the attachments, addictions, obsessions and patterns that keep us far and away from who we truly are. All these represents death or lead us to death, as the opposite of the goodness in life. Once we begin to recognize our Essence and true identity as the goodness that transcends time and space, we become immediately aware that death never existed. Tears (suffering), as the negative result of fantasies and illusions out of ego's beliefs and feelings of lack, are all removed as if they have never existed.

There is also something very important to reflect on this verse, for it refers to Israel as the chosen nation to represent and deliver the will of God for the material world. Israel will be finally recognized and acknowledge as what has been and is for the rest of the nations. All againstness, insult, mockery, humiliation, oppression and vilification as "reproach" of Israel will disappear from human consciousness. This means that humankind will begin to assimilate the goodness of Love's ways and attributes as the entire reason and purpose of God's will for life in the material world, as we know it and experience it. In this sense, as we have mentioned many times, Israel represents all the positive creative powers in human consciousness through God's Commandments in the Torah.

It is ironic that the fact that Israel has contributed more than any other nation to humankind is still denied in this world. It sounds like evil denying the good in goodness. Thus we understand the message of this verse as the end of evil in human consciousness. Once we remove all traces of negative trends in what we discern, think, feel, say and do, goodness takes over all facets and dimensions of life. This is our Final Redemption and the Messianic Consciousness. 

“And it shall be said in that day: 'Lo, this is our God, for whom we waited, that He might redeem us; this is the Lord for whom we waited, we will be glad and rejoice in His redemption'.” (25:9)

As we said above, our Redemption exists since the moment God created us and put us in the material world. He made us intrinsically good to be and do goodness, as the cause and effect of His Creation. In His eternal and unconditional Love, He endowed us with free will in order for us to use our discernment and common sense for choosing goodness as our Essence and true identity. God respects us as His creatures by giving us free choice. Hence He created darkness and evil as a reference for us to choose Light and goodness. All this doesn't contradict that goodness has been eternally available as it is for us. It is our decision to choose the goodness of Love's ways and attributes over the outcomes of ego's fantasies and illusions.

In this sense we understand these verse. We are the ones who wait to make our choice, not God. His Redemption has been around all the time, as the Prophet has indicated by referring to it in the past tense. We will begin to be glad and rejoice in this Redemption when we make the final and transcendent choice of permanently living in the goodness of Love's ways and attributes. We do that by enthroning goodness in every level and dimension of consciousness. Thus we live the Messianic Consciousness as an inheritance God already gave us even before He brought us to this material world.

The Messianic Consciousness in Jewish Prophecy (XLII) Isaiah

The Prophet predicts (chapters 20-23) the conquest of Egypt and Ethiopia by Assyria, refers to additional burdens by neighboring peoples, the fall of Jerusalem, and more burdens we relate to the negative trends in consciousness as well as destructive traits derived from ego's fantasies and illusions. Hence our Final Redemption from the Creator implies a total transformation towards the awakening of the Messianic Consciousness.

“Behold, the Lord makes the earth empty and makes it waste, and turns it upside down, and scatters abroad the inhabitants thereof. (...) The earth shall be utterly emptied, and clean despoiled; for the Lord has spoken this word.” (Isaiah 24:1, 3)

We reiterate again that God's plan for us is not about a vicious circle where suffering, pain, deception, oppression, hatred, anger, and violence repeat themselves endlessly. The only reason for this predicament is to learn from it, not to live for it. Indeed the choice to change the course is also only ours. We are destined to either drown together or emerge as one united human consciousness. Our Prophets clearly tell us that if we don't redeem ourselves together, our Creator will. They also indicate repeatedly that He will transform our consciousness after removing all traces of negative patterns and vicious circles.

“The earth fainted and fades away, the world fails and fades away, the lofty people of the earth do fail. The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof, because they have transgressed the laws, violated the statute, broken the everlasting Covenant.” (24:4-5, 6-13)

Choosing time and again living in our negative predicament means destroying goodness as the common bond with our Creator. We deny and reject goodness when we transgress the guidelines and ground rules of goodness as the material manifestation of the major goodness coming from God. In this sense we assimilate that our Covenant with Him is goodness as what we essentially are, and also destined to make prevail in life.

“Those yonder lift up their voice, they sing for joy; for the majesty of the Lord they shout from the sea: 'Therefore glorify ye the Lord in the regions of Light, even the Name of the Lord, the God of Israel, in the isles of the sea'.” (24:14-15)

Light is the symbolic paradigm for the goodness of Love's ways and attributes. In the domains of Light we glorify the goodness of our Creator. We proclaim His majesty as His Love from the awareness of our Essence and true identity. These are the sea from where we acknowledge the Source of all that is. These are part of the islands that belong to the positive trends in consciousness.

The chapter ends with more allegories and metaphors as admonitions regarding the imminent change of consciousness that precedes our Final Redemption. The following chapter begins with the acknowledgment that from the loving kindness of our Creator we come, and He is also our Redeemer. 

“O Lord, You are my God, I will exalt You, I will praise Your Name, for You have done wonderful things; even counsels of old, in faithfulness and truth.” (25:1)

Let's also be aware that our Final Redemption depends from us, too. Through free will we separate from the goodness of Love's ways and attributes, and through free will we must return to them.

“For You have been a stronghold to the poor, a stronghold to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat; for the blast of the terrible ones was as a storm against the wall.” (25:4)

We must return to the permanent awareness of our eternal bond with God, which is our land, Jerusalem, Zion as the mountain we conceive as the time and place of all goodness. This is the constant happiness in the awareness that our Love and God's Love are united. This permanent connection is our Essence and true identity, as the cause and purpose of life in the material world.

“And in this mountain will the Lord of hosts make unto all peoples a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined.” (25:6)

In this sublime awareness anything other than the goodness of Love's ways and attributes is removed.

“And He will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering that is cast over all peoples, and the veil that is spread over all nations.” (25:7-8)

The Messianic Consciousness in Jewish Prophecy (XLI) Isaiah

“The burden of Egypt. Behold, the Lord rides upon a swift cloud, and comes unto Egypt; and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at His presence, and the heart of Egypt shall melt within it.” (Isaiah 19:1)

The Prophet continues referring to the burden of the nations as negative traits and trends in consciousness. Egypt represents the most abject tendencies in passions and instincts triggered by ego's fantasies and illusions. Hence Egypt is the worst of slavery from which our ancestors needed God's direct deliverance. As we have mentioned often in the commentaries of our blog, Egypt was the most depraved nation in ancient times and we were slaves amid that corrupted environment. Through the Prophet, the Creator promises to remove such burden from our consciousness.

“And I will spur Egypt against Egypt; and they shall fight every one against his brother, and everyone against his neighbor; city against city, and kingdom against kingdom.” (19:2)

God's ways and means to remove negative traits as idols we create out of ego's lust, greed and coveting are particularly peculiar. Again we assimilate that wickedness destroys the wicked as the result of the confrontation between the cause of evil and the effect of evil. Thus we understand Egypt against Egypt, brother against brother, etc. This is a complex metaphor that sounds more like a paradox. We basically fight against ourselves.

Our envy fights our greed, and our coveting fights our lust. These suppose to be part of the same team! How come are they fighting each other? Let's take a closer look at this. Again, the warning echoes in our consciousness: the wicked is killed by his wickedness. In this scenario there is no free will, for there is nothing positive in what we think, feel or experience. The Creator wants to us to learn the lessons from living the negative trends in consciousness out of ego's fantasies and illusions.

“And the spirit of Egypt shall be made empty within it; and I will make void the counsel thereof; and they shall seek unto the idols, and to the whisperers, and to the ghosts, and to the familiar spirits.” (19:3)

It is quite evident that we can't get rid of our obsessions, attachments, and bad habits, simply because we are addicted to them. The Prophet speaks of God emptying the vessel of what we have filled with traits that keep us captive under lower passions and instincts. Though in that process our addictions again fight back looking for more fantasies and illusions as idols, whisperers, ghosts and spirits. In the following verses (19:4-16) the Prophet speaks metaphorically about the destruction of the negative traits Egypt represents.

“And the land of Judah shall become a terror onto Egypt, whensoever one makes mention thereof to it; it shall be afraid, because of the purpose of the Lord of hosts, which He purposes against it [Egypt].” (19:17)

It takes our higher consciousness to fight our battles against lower thoughts, emotions, feelings, passions and instincts. That is the land of Judah as the terror onto Egypt. In the context of our Final Redemption, terror means the reverence Judah will inspire onto Egypt to become a cooperative trait instead of a destructive one. Our higher consciousness will perceive, think, feel, speak and do in harmonic consonance with the ways and attributes of God's purpose for His Final Redemption.

“In that day shall there be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to the Lord. And it shall be for a sign and for a witness unto the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt; for they shall cry unto the Lord because of the oppressors, and He will send them a savior, and a defender, who will deliver them.” (19:19-20)

An altar implies offerings. In this sense the altar is the means by which we connect with God. Egypt will make offerings to Him, meaning that what once was the trigger of a negative action will become the motivation of a positive deed. All aspects, levels and dimensions in consciousness with the potential to express wickedness or goodness will be harmonically united toward being and doing goodness as the common denominator in the Final Redemption. In sum, our lives will become altars by which we elevate the goodness in us to the goodness of our Creator.

The Messianic Consciousness -- as the means to deliver God's Plan for the Final Redemption -- is the savior and defender, by which we transform all negative traits and trends in consciousness into positive qualities and expressions of life.

“And the Lord shall make Himself known to Egypt, and the Egyptians shall know the Lord in that day; yea, they shall worship with sacrifice and offering, and shall vow a vow unto the Lord, and shall perform it. And the Lord will smite Egypt, smiting and healing; and they shall return unto the Lord, and He will be entreated of them, and will heal them.” (19:21-22)

The Prophet tells us that God is our only Redeemer, for He is our Creator. All dimensions of consciousness, including “the burden of Egypt”, will know Him when we begin to embrace His ways and attributes as our Essence and true identity. In this redeeming awareness we will fulfill His will. He will ease and loosen our negative addictions and attachments in a process we will experience as beating and healing at the same time. In our connection with God's Love through His ways, He will heal us from our own inventions out of ego's fantasies and illusions.

“In that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria; and the Egyptians shall worship with the Assyrians. In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth.” (19:23-24)

One of the qualities of the Messianic Consciousness is its ability to integrate all facets and dimensions of life, as well as all traits and trends in consciousness, into a harmonic functional unity with the common purpose of fulfilling God's will through Love's ways and attributes. Thus we realize that Love is what unites, integrates and harmonizes all. In this realization we all become blessings in the midst of the earth. Here Israel represents Love's ways and attributes as God's Love inheritance to human consciousness. Thus we understand that God's inheritance for the world are Love's ways and attributes as the material blessings of His Love.

“For that the Lord of hosts has blessed him, saying: 'Blessed be Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance'.” (19:25)

The Messianic Consciousness in Jewish Prophecy (XL) Isaiah

“For you have forgotten the God of your redemption, and you have not been mindful of the Rock of your stronghold; because you had been planted as pleasant saplings, but you sow strange shoots.” (Isaiah 17:10)

There is a lot to reflect on our estrangement from God. As we have mentioned several times, the essential message our Prophets make us aware is the consequences of living disconnected from our Creator. Again we are summoned to a “reality check” in order to make an inventory of what we are, believe, and pursue in this material world. As we live in ego's fantasies and illusions, indeed we forget not only Who created us but the realization that He also is the One that bring us back to Him, our Redeemer. We haven't been mindful of our Essence and true identity as the stronghold from which we face all facets and dimensions of life.

We come from the goodness and loving kindness of God, hence we are good and destined to be and do good as pleasant saplings. Though we have free will to make choices -- preferable good ones --, we turn ourselves into strange shoots. Time and again our Creator confronts us to be mindful about who we truly are, our connection with Him, and the destiny He wants to share with us.  

“On the day you were planted you flourished, and at dawn your seed flowered; but your branch is removed on a day of affliction and acute pain. Woe to the tumult of the many nations, who are as tumultuous as the tumult of the seas; and to the uproar of the nations, who roar like the uproar of powerful waters!” (17:11-12)

We are destined to flourish and flower by, in, with and for the goodness from which God created for us to be and transcend. The goodness of Love's ways and attributes as the material manifestation of God's Love. Then the extension of our negative choices turns back to us, as the natural course of cause and effect. This extension is the branch that must be cut off in a painful transition from darkness to Light. We have referred often to the pain and affliction we suffer as we detach ourselves from addictions, obsessions, habits and trends that harms and damages the goodness in who we are. We know these acute pains and affliction as withdrawal effects.

In this painful withdrawal process our negative attachments and addictions fight back. These are the nations that invaded and afflicted the goodness from which we live. Nations as strong beliefs, ideologies, thoughts, emotions, feelings, passions and instincts embraced by ego's fantasies and illusions of pride, greed, lust, and coveting. The latter are triggered by even stronger nations such as consumer society, fashion trends, political correctness, light culture, and vanities that seduce us and control all aspects of life. Indeed very powerful roaring waters!

“The nations roar like the roar of many waters but He shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like dust before a stormy wind. At evening time, behold their is terror; before the morning dawn he [the Assyrian enemy] is no more. This is the portion of them that spoil us, and the lot of them that rob us.” (17:13-14)

The Prophet denounces the harm and destruction (the roar of many waters) the nations inflict on us, which God's compassion will remove as chaff before the wind. We have said that mountains and hills also represent strong beliefs (in this case negative ones) that in this metaphor will be wiped out from our consciousness. Our affliction takes place in the darkest moments, the evenings and nights when we feel the pain of our estrangement from Love's ways and attributes, after embracing ego's fantasies and illusions. This affliction caused by an invading nation (Assyria) representing a particular negative trend in consciousness that spoils and robs the goodness in us.

“Woe to the land of the buzzing of wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia. That sends agents by the sea, even in [fast] vessels of papyrus upon the waters! Go, you swift messengers, to the nation that is dragged and plucked, to the people that inspired awe from their beginning onward; a nation that is detested and trampled, whose land the rivers [their kings] ravish!” (18:1-2)

Other nations join the invading crusade against us as the nation that is dragged and plucked, detested and trampled, looted and ravished even by rulers of far away countries (beyond the rivers of Ethiopia). Let's be aware that our nation represents the goodness in life and the positive traits and trends in human consciousness, which are our Essence and true identity.

“All you inhabitants of the world, and you dwellers of the earth, when an ensign is lifted up on the mountains, you will see; and when the horn is blown, you will hear. For thus has the Lord said to me: 'I will be at ease, and I will look after My dwelling place, like crisp warm after the rain, like a mist of dew in the heat of the harvest'.” (18:3-4)

God promised through the Prophet that He redeems us from the negative trends in consciousness. He does it as we begin to choose goodness as the common denominator of His ways and attributes. These are the ensign lifted up on the mountains we see, and the sound of the horn we hear. The special mountain that represents our permanent connection to Him awaits for us, and that is His dwelling place. God's words through the Prophet are allegorically filled with the warmth of His Love, which is also the goodness of the harvest we reap out of it. Hence it's our job to rebuild His dwelling place among (in) us as the eternal bond with Him.

“For before the harvest, when the blossom is over, and the bud becomes a ripening grape, He will cut down the young branches with pruning-hooks, and the shoots will He take away and lop off. They shall be left together unto the ravenous birds of the mountains, and to the beasts of the earth; and the ravenous birds shall summer upon them, and all the beasts of the earth shall winter upon them.” (18:5-6)

In this harvest God's Love will remove what we don't need anymore. All from which we have learned enough to finally choose the goodness of Love's ways and attributes over ego's fantasies and illusions, amid the negative trends in consciousness. We already learned that the wicked is killed by his wickedness, for evil belongs to evil: “(...) that wicked man shall die in his iniquity (...) (Ezekiel 33:8, Psalms 34:22).

Ravenous birds and beasts also belong to their own kind, and devour which is dead, for death is their food. God will redeem the goodness in who we are, as is also written, “and the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.” (Ecclesiastes 12:7). As we just mentioned, we learn from our dark moments, as it is also reminded: “Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.” (Job 42:6).

“At that time shall an offering be brought to the Lord of hosts, the people that are dragged and plucked, the people that inspired awe from the day it came into being and onward; the nation that is oppressed and trampled, whose land is ravished by rivers, to the place of the Name of the Lord of hosts, the mount Zion.” (Isaiah 18:7)

In our Redemption from God's Love, our goodness is vindicated. In total freedom from negative traits and tendencies, our goodness begins to fulfill its destiny: “Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore will I deliver him; I will set him on high, because he has known My Name. He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble, I will rescue him, and honor him. With long life will I satisfy him, and make him to behold My redemption.” (Psalms 91:14-16).

Our Essence and true identity return to the Creator to bond eternally with Him in the place of His Name. This is Zion, the Temple of Jerusalem, as the eternal time and space where we are destined to be with Him.

The Messianic Consciousness in Jewish Prophecy (XXXIX) Isaiah

In the entire chapter 15 the Prophet denounces the burden of Moab, and the burden of Damascus in chapter 17. Allegorically, Isaiah reiterates the desolation of living the predicament of ego's fantasies and illusions, and the particular trait represented by Moab: haughtiness (Isaiah 16:6). Arrogance is the cause of separation from God's ways and attributes, when her voice seduces us to be a god of our own existence.

Pride is the "I am better than you" which leads us to the remaining negative trends in consciousness. Our separation from God marks the beginning of ego's dictatorship. In the midst of our fantasies and illusions, goodness and righteousness cease to exist. The Prophet still calls for common sense to stay in spite of arrogance.

"Bring yourselves in counsel, do judgment. Make as night your shadow in the midst of noon. Hide the outcasts, do not betray the wanderer. Let My outcasts dwell with you [Moab]; as for Moab, be you a hiding place for them from the face of a destroyer. Finished has been a destroyer, consumed the oppressors down out of the land." (16:3-4)

Discernment still works in haughtiness to seek justice as righteousness, and be able to do the right thing as judgment. When we are before the glare of negative trends, our shadow must be our protection. This powerful metaphor reveals that, in spite of living in our own negative trends, our goodness remains in what we essentially are, hidden in the shadow of our material existence.

In the shadow of what we do are hidden the good qualities as outcasts and wanderers. Even our negative trends can lead us to avoid our own destruction by that which desolates goodness in life. God's Love reaffirms His promise to help us remove the negative trends in consciousness, and replace them by Love's ways and attributes as we begin to make goodness prevail in all aspects of life.

"And established in loving kindness is the throne, and one has sat on in truth, in the tent of David, judging and seeking justice, and hasting righteousness." (16:5)

The message is clear. The throne is the highest level of consciousness from which we are destined to discern, think, speak and do under the regency of loving kindness. For in loving kindness life is created and sustained, as well as all God has created: "He loves righteousness and justice. The earth is full of the loving kindness of the Lord.", "The earth is filled with Your loving kindness, Lord; teach me Your decrees." (Psalms 33:5, 119:64), "Loving kindness and truth preserve the King, and His throne is upheld by loving kindness." (Proverbs 20:28). As God's Love directs His Creation, we also must make loving kindness the conductor of all aspects and dimensions of life. This is what the Messianic Consciousness is about when we enthrone Love's ways and attributes as the destined regents in life.

"The fortress also shall cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus; and the remnant of Aram shall be as the glory of the children of Israel, says the Lord of hosts." (17:3)

As we indicated in previous commentaries on the Messianic Consciousness in Jewish Prophecy, Ephraim represents both Israel's birthright and the dispersed and assimilated Tribes of Israel. He represents all the captive Jews among the nations, which are the burdens in human consciousness. Ephraim will be delivered as God promised. The remnant of Jews in exile among the nations will be gathered by Him, and returned to their land with glory. God has spoken.

"And it shall come to pass in that day, that the glory of Jacob shall be made thin, and the fatness of his flesh shall wax lean." (17:4)

Living in exile among the nations overshadows our Essence and true identity. Being part of what is not us weakens our consciousness. This is the outcome of living ego's fantasies and illusions instead of living Love's ways and attributes. Our goodness is diminished and our free becomes limited. The day is always today, every moment when we have to face our exile in the negative trends or our freedom in the goodness of who we truly are.

"And it shall be as when the harvester gathers the standing grain, and reaps the ears with his arm; and it has come to pass as the gathering of ears in the valley of Rephaim. Yet there shall be left therein gleanings, as at the beating of an olive-tree, two or three berries in the top of the uppermost bough, four or five in the branches of the fruitful tree, says the Lord, the God of Israel." (17:5-6)

The Prophet refers again to the day when we will confront what is right and wrong, positive and negative, useful and useless, productive and destructive, and harvest what we have planted. The metaphor makes us aware that ultimately what we will reap is what we will need to sustain ourselves. That which is not useful or nurturing won't feed us. Let's reflect on what we gather from our actions, as seeds we plant that one day we their fruits we will reap.

"In that day shall man see his Maker, and his eyes shall see the Holy One of Israel. And he shall not regard the altars, the work of his hands, neither shall he look to that which his fingers have made, either the Asherim, or the sun-images. In that day shall his strong cities be as the forsaken places, which were forsaken from before the children of Israel, after the manner of woods and lofty forests; and it shall be a desolation." (17:7-9)

As we remove ego's fantasies and illusions along with negative trends and their outcomes, we will see what has been remnant in our consciousness. As we end our exile and return to our land, our Maker waits for us. We will see Him, for seeing is knowing. That day the idols we have made with our hands, as the fantasies and illusions created with our actions will be no more. Only goodness we will see and goodness we will know.

The Messianic Consciousness in Jewish Prophecy (XXXVIII) Isaiah

The Creator through the Prophet reiterates His promise to remove the burden of Babylon, continuously described as negative trends in human consciousness. Later He will refer to other neighboring nations as similar burdens that will cease to exist as a premise for the Final Redemption and the beginning of the Messianic Era.

"Prepare your slaughter for his children for the iniquity of their fathers; that they rise not up, and possess the earth, and fill the face of the world with cities. And I will rise up against them, says the Lord of hosts, and cut off from Babylon name and remnant, and offshoot and offspring, says the Lord. I will also make it a possession for the bittern, and pools of water; and I will sweep it with the besom of destruction, says the Lord of hosts." (14:21-23)

The Prophet invites us to review ideas, beliefs, habits, addictions, and attachments, as well as thoughts, emotions, feelings, passions and instincts. These are either the ways and means of our freedom, or the heralds of our doom. Either the air and breath that guide us to our Creator, or the burdens that push us down to the negative realms in consciousness. As we arrive to the critical point when the destructive burdens are too heavy to bear, we compel ourselves to make our own individual inventory and begin to remove them from our life.

We prepare the slaughter as the removal of the negative outcome (the children) of the negative choices (the fathers) we make from ego's desires, fantasies and illusions. As we have repeated often, we can't get rid of negativity once we make it a choice and not a reference to chose goodness. For that we need help from the Creator to deliver us from something stronger than our will and determination to detach from negative addictions, obsessions, and habits we embraced as part of our consciousness. These are the negative patterns that possess the earth as cities covering the world of our life. God tells us that He will rise up against them to remove them forever.

"The Lord of hosts has sworn, saying: Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand. That I will break Assyria in My land, and upon My mountains tread him under foot; then shall his yoke depart from off them [Israel], and his burden depart from off their shoulder." (14:24-25)

The Creator knows the limits of our strength, weakness and capacity to endure the consequences ego's fantasies and illusions. At the same time He makes us responsible for our choices as a learning process to redirect our consciousness, to make goodness the premise to enter the Messianic Consciousness. Also the premise to enter new dimensions in God's Plan for His Creation.

"This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth; and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations. For the Lord of hosts has purposed, and who shall annul it? And His hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?" (14:26-27)

The Prophet proclaims the imminence of God's will, as He presents new ways to approach life in all its facets and dimensions, without the burdens of negative and destructive trends in human consciousness.

In the four next verses (28-31), the Prophet refers to Philistia also as an afflicting burden, similar to Babylon, Assyria, Moab and Egypt among others, from which the goodness in consciousness will be rescued, nurtured and preserved forever; after the destruction of their peoples, which represent their negative qualities.

"What then shall one answer the messengers of the nation? That the Lord has founded Zion, and in her shall trust the afflicted of His people." (14:32)

The Creator makes us aware of His connection with us, also as our permanent bond with Him, which is Zion as the Temple of Jerusalem. He founded this connection as the time and place when and where we are completely free from anything different to His ways and attributes. These are our trust and refuge, once we embrace them instead of the affliction under materialistic fantasies and illusions.

We are God's people as the goodness of Love's ways and attributes that will prevail and rule when evil and wickedness are finally removed from the face of the earth, as well as from human consciousness.