Illustration by Yoseph Savan based on The Zohar . by Ariel Ben Avraham 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.
