Illustration by Yoseph Savan based on The Zohar . by Ariel Ben Avraham 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.
Haifa, Southern Galilee, Israel- Ariel Ben Avraham (f. Zapata) was born in Cartagena, Colombia in 1958. After studying Cultural Anthropology in Bogotá moved to Chicago in 1984 where he worked as a television writer, reporter and producer for 18 years. In the 1990′s he produced video documentaries related to art, music, history and culture such as “Latin American Trails: Guatemala” distributed by Facets.org. Most of his life he studied ancient spiritual traditions and mysticism of major religions, understanding the mystic experience as the individual means to connect with Divinity. Since 2004 he studies and writes about Jewish mysticism and spirituality mainly derived from the Chassidic tradition, and the practical philosophy of the teachings of Jewish mystic Sages. The book “God as Love” is the compilation of his last years studying and learning Jewish mysticism, and the messages of the book are part of the content, exercises and processes of a series of seminars
