While I am largely happy, I spend a lot of time agonizing about where the country is going. Going to hell, is where it is going, though I have to admit it has been shambling roughly in that direction for a long while. And then it hit me clear as a bell.
Last Sabbath I was reading Jeremiah, and G-d was basically saying "don't pray for these people, I am not going to listen. I am going to do to them whatever I do to them, because they are awful and I am not cutting them any slack any more." That is obviously not a direct quote, but that's the jist of it. This is the direct quote:
“‘Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my Name, and say, “We are safe”—safe to do all these detestable things? Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you? But I have been watching! declares the Lord.'
‘Go now to the place in Shiloh where I first made a dwelling for my Name, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of my people Israel. While you were doing all these things, declares the Lord, I spoke to you again and again, but you did not listen; I called you, but you did not answer. Therefore, what I did to Shiloh I will now do to the house that bears my Name, the temple you trust in, the place I gave to you and your ancestors. I will thrust you from my presence, just as I did all your fellow Israelites, the people of Ephraim.’
'So do not pray for this people nor offer any plea or petition for them; do not plead with me, for I will not listen to you.' "
~Jeremiah 7:9-16
And wow, suddenly I heard that loud and clear. And this is why:
What is the purpose of this Earth? Why did G-d create it? I am sure there are many reasons, but one of them is to bring up Children for G-d. Why be vexed? The non-Children are already dead, in the long scheme of things. And in the meantime they will mess things up, but they have chosen to be ashes. They have chosen to be dust. They have chosen suicide, really. Why be disturbed unnecessarily by the actions of crazy people? Choosing suicide is crazy.
But also, our FIRST and PRIMARY responsibility is to G-d. When G-d told Aaron not to cry when He obliterated Aaron's children for offering profane incense - when I first read that I thought, "what a meanie. Here two guys are being incinerated for bad incense, and here is G-d telling their dad not to cry." But duh, G-d is right. Aaron was the High Priest of the entire people, he was responsible for representing G-d FIRST AND FOREMOST. And what was G-d's opinion of what happened? They broke the law, in the very Tabernacle itself. So what should Aaron's opinion be? These are criminals, and they died.
And then, I forget whether it was in Numbers or where, it tells of Moses going around with his face permanently covered. Why? Well there have been many explanations, but here is my opinion:
Moses was the judge of the people, and when it came to judgment, Moses wasn't home any more. It didn't and must not matter if Moses the man hated you or whether he loved you as the apple of his eye. When he had that veil on, he wasn't Moses. He was the spokesman of G-d Almighty. He had a responsibility to the Lord ALONE. Not to human feeling, not to familial love. That must have been an incredibly lonely place to be in, but it was necessary.
So what I heard last Sabbath was, don't pray for them, don't grieve for them. Leave them behind you. Don't care who wins the elections, at this point it is all far too late for that. If the people choose to be deviants, what is that to you? They are already dead. Look to YOUR obedience.
Do not pray or plead for them. I finally get that now.
POSTSCRIPT:
It strikes me relative to what I said about Aaron and his sons and Moses, that G-d has been saying that all the time, since Abraham.
What does the (interrupted) sacrifice of Isaac say to us? That your obedience must be more important than family ties, than your personal feelings, than ANYTHING. Now G-d is not gratuitously mean: he prevented the sacrifice of Isaac and a goat was substituted instead.
WHY did G-d love Abraham SO MUCH, that he moved heaven and earth to rescue his rather feckless descendants quite a long ways down the line? I mean think about that, that's like G-d curing your cancer in the 21st Century because He loved one of your ancestors back in Medieval Europe or something. Except with a WHOLE PEOPLE.
Because Abraham loved Him with his whole heart, above any other love. Even the love of the apple of his eye, Isaac.
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