Fifty Years Too Late – Again
Listen to counsel and accept discipline, that you may be wise the rest of your days. Proverbs 19:20 NASB
Be wise – I have recently been reading the early speeches of Abraham Heschel. Fifty years ago his prophetic insight into our culture sounded the warning. Fifty years later it seems as though we didn’t listen at all. Think on these.
“Religion is an answer to ultimate questions. The moment we become oblivious to ultimate questions, religion becomes irrelevant, and its crisis sets in. The primary task of religious thinking is to rediscover the questions to which religion is an answer, to develop a degree of sensitivity to the ultimate questions which its ideas and acts are trying to answer.”
“Unless we recover the question, there is no hope of understanding the Bible.”
“We have concentrated our attention upon the idea of human rights and overlooked the importance of human obligations.”
“Needs are looked upon today as if they were holy, as if they contained the totality of existence. Needs are our gods, and we toil and spare no effort to gratify them.”
“In fact, more people die in the epidemic of needs than in the epidemics of disease.”
“To define religion primarily as a quest for personal satisfaction, as the satisfaction of a human need, is to make of it a refined sort of magic.”
“Prophecy is the voice that God has lent to the silent agony, a voice to the plundered poor, to the profaned riches of the world. . . God is raging in the prophets’ words.”
“Freedom is the liberation from the tyranny of the self-centered ego. It comes about in moments of transcending the self as an act of spiritual ecstasy, of stepping out of the confining framework of routine reflexive concern. Freedom presupposes the capacity for sacrifice.”
“To choose evil is to fail to be free.”[1]
Perhaps there is still time. Perhaps fifty years later we may still decide that we must know the questions and choose sacrifice in the answers. But the weight of a society that views its religion as a means of self-fulfillment will crush everyone if we do not heed the prophet. Then God will be silent while we reap the harvest.
Topical Index: Heschel, freedom, religion, prophet, Proverbs 19:20
[1] All citations from “Religion in a Free Society,” Abraham Heschel in The Insecurity of Freedom, copyright 1966.
“I slept, and dreamed that life was beauty;
I woke, and found that life was duty.
Was thy dream then a shadowy lie?
Toil on, sad heart, courageously,
and thou shalt find thy dream to be
a noonday light and truth to thee.”
Louisa May Alcott
Thank you, Skip, for sharing Heschel’s wisdom!
They say “love is the answer”. In algebra, you can be given the problem and the answer, but the trick is to know how to get from one to the other. The real question is how to apply. The question is “answer to what?”
Truly, we have “made needs our gods”. Need was never the question, therefore, the ‘fulfillment’ of them will never be the answer. I think we were created to be the questors of the answer to the question “what is love?” Needs only show up when that answer is lacking, but the answer is only lacking when we are avoiding asking that question. NEEDS are what show us the places that we are NOT asking, for we were promised that what we asked would determine what was given. I think we really, really must hate being a question instead of an Answer!
He who defines the terms, wins. The world has redefined the problem (Who is God?) as (what I NEED), and so then has missed the answer. The answer is not, then “free (from needs) to be me”; the answer is “freedom from all that is not reflecting Him”. That “noonday light and truth” is that His work in me – THROUGH me – creates the answer to what the world needs most.
Beauty, then, is not my needs fulfilled; true beauty is Him revealed, which happens when I voluntarily step out of the place where He should reign supreme. My heart was created to be the place where His beauty shines. This is my true need. This is what I was created for – to be a throne for Him. The real question is, am I going to let Him reign in me ?
Laurita writes: “In algebra, you can be given the problem and the answer, but the trick is to know how to get from one to the other.” Wow. Put this in spiritual perspective with YHVH giving the Question and the Answer and us following the formula for how to get from A to B. Simple but profound. Thank you for this today.
This, for me, is the scariest thing I have ever read of yours. How can it not be too late? Needs are all I see. I am desperate and I know others who are as well. The sad thing is that most don’t even know what they are desperate for because we (none of us) have seen what religion is to be in our lives, if it is as you have explained it. I don’t know what the questions are that should be asked! Truly, please define those for me. I can not find those questions let alone the answers on my own when all I know is trying to fill the holes of my needs. If this is the answer I seek “to ask the right questions” then I need to know what those questions are.
My questions are who is God? How do I serve Him? How do I live the life He has given me? How do I teach my children all those things? I am a desperate mess and have the responsibility of other spiritual growth what a sad state!
I hear you – intently, earnestly. Yesterday I had a long conversation with a friend. We remarked on the fact that the Western idea of faith is all about certainty, knowing the right answers to the right questions. But the biblical view seems to be a lot more messy. It is a view that relies on relationship, not answers. As you know, in all real relationships there is a sense of not fully knowing, of longing for more, and of RISK. As Brene Brown eloquently said, “relationships without guarantees.” I am working toward that–toward a relationship with God that has no guarantees, at least not the ones that I was told in Church. Read TW between now and the end of the year while I write more about all this. And remember, even if you don’t see what you want as love every moment of the relationship with God, you may still choose to believe that it is love expressed in ways you don’t quite understand.
“even if you don’t see what you want as love every moment of the relationship with God, you may still choose to believe that it is love expressed in ways you don’t quite understand.” Exactly.
One of my life verses is Job 15:3a: “Tho He slay me, yet I will trust in Him…” My issue is that I want to be sure it is HE Who slays me!
Awesome, sobering reminder that my life is not about me
I think I heard something about “seek first the kingdom”…… somewhere. I’m thinkin’ “seek” is the definitive word there, no stopping.
I agree; when I took the time to seek, I found. I didn’t understand what I found, but I found it nonetheless and here I am. Still seeking, still finding, still trying to understand.
I trust the Lord to do the understanding, I know I never will.
“What does God demand of me?” This has been a great place for me to start….still working on this one.
Listen. Be disciplined.
Scuttling and dawdling along the path toward any level of understanding is such a challenge. I’m attempting to discover the mindset of YHVH. He is so far and so close simultaneously. Why would YHVH make this life such a challenge, a mountain climb, a pushing through a vast and dense forrest of obstacles?
All that in order to be wise. Wise? That is, like him? Not thinking, doing. Being. Divine?
If we need to think in terms of verbs rather than nouns, then divine is such a verb to seek, right?
Divine, as some suggest, casts ideas of exuding exceptional wisdom, clear discernment, anticipating, foreknowing, revelation, taking action or responding to something before it happens, discovering or understanding something by using intuition. Does divine encompass innate power, true being, the core of existence, life transformation, holiness and transcendence? If so, Yeshua was certainly all of these with certainty. Torah had everything to do with it, didn’t it?
Is divinity walking, living, being in the midst, the center of wisdom, the very stuff of YHVH? Was not Adam such a divine person? Person. That one with no father or mother. Even more miraculous than a virgin birth? One with such unique beginnings, sinless and with the full and undivided attention of YHVH. One that walked, lived, breathed in full harmony and expression of YHVH as if in the very image of this creator? That is, right up to that instance when he wasn’t, when he partook of that very item not reflecting of divine, showing wisdom, exuding the image of YHVH.
The first Adam became a living being. He was required and obligated to listen and be disciplined.
The last Adam became a live-giving spirit. By listening and being disciplined he increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with YHVH and man.
Miraculous beginnings + listening and discipline.
My beginning, while not virginal or without father or mother, is no less miraculous.
My life is obligated to listen and be disciplined.
My life is called to be perfect, just like YHVH.
Shall I fall to the pull of the yetzer haRa myself to be convinced it can’t be done?
Even if there is a fractional chance that is so, am I still not obligated to attempt perfection
in my behavior, my actions, my life?
He said, “Follow me.”
My obligation is to gather more dust off his sandals.
More listening.
More discipline.
Being clothed in his grace, to me, now, isn’t slothful entitlement, but a call to arms.
Sorry. I know. Probably too many words. I’m trying.
Hi, Michael! You look great! I can see the stress from the past years just rolling off of you as you seek more and more of YHVH. PRAISE GOD! Walk in His Shalom as you trust Him as a child trusts his daddy.
“My obligation is to gather more dust off his sandals.” Mmmmmm… I love this “visual.” Thanks so much. This is a great thing for me to think on!
It seems to me that, fundamentally, preeminently and very simply, though often excruciatingly agonizing, my greatest “NEED” is that:
1) I know Messiah,
2) He be formed in me, and
3) I be conformed to Him?
My greatest motivations are: FIRST – He has proven Himself worthy; SECOND – He has proven Himself faithful to keep His promise that the ROI (return on investment) is unbeatable; and THIRD – the alternatives are “hell”!!!
BARUCH HASHEM, ATAH ADONAI, ELOHEINU, MELECH HA-OLAM!
—————————————————
Gal 4:19 …..I am again in travail until MESSIAH (“Christ”) BE FORMED IN YOU —
Rom 8:29 …..For whom he foreknew, he also foreordained to BE CONFORMED TO THE IMAGE OF HIS SON, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Php 3:10-11 …..that I may KNOW HIM, AND THE POWER OF HIS RESURRECTION, and THE FELLOWSHIP OF HIS SUFFERINGS, BECOMING CONFORMED UNTO HIS DEATH; if by any means I may ATTAIN UNTO THE RESURRECTION FROM THE DEAD.
Php_3:21 …..who shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may BE CONFORMED TO THE BODY OF HIS GLORY, according to the working whereby He is able even to subject all things unto Himself.
“Prophecy is the voice that God has lent to the silent agony, a voice to the plundered poor, to the profaned riches of the world. . . God is raging in the prophets’ words.”
What I “need” and desperately want to know is God’s voice. No guess work, no deducing what I think He is saying, but to clearly know when He speaks. Seems that if we were to strip away all that is available to us now in the form of commentaries and opinions, most of us would be lost to find God’s voice on our own. What would we do if no one was there to tell us what He is saying? Without a preacher to tell us how to live and how to interpret scripture? Would we then begin to seek on our own? Would that desire to know Him be strong enough to drive us into searching for Him with desperation? Or would we be lost, give up because the pursuit is too difficult, too overwhelming?
What I find most fascinating when reading scripture is that those folks knew Gods voice. They didn’t question who was speaking or how His voice came, they KNEW it was God and had utmost confidence in that fact. Can I hope to hear Him with that degree of confidence? Can I gain access to that degree of understanding? If they could hear Him plainly, why can’t I? Wonder if this is the crux of our cultural and societal breakdown, we no longer hear His voice….
You are asking the same thing I ask all the time. How could I live as Abraham? No Scripture. No “church.” No priest. Nothing but the voice of YHVH. And silence. Lots of it. Could I be faithful to that?
Yes, you could be faithful to that, even stronger… For there is nothing greater than to hear, to know, to receive the sound of YHVH, to know its alive and can live within. That is the start of a true relationship, one that needs no church institute, nor a book, nor a priest, for He is our HIGH PRIEST!!!
Beautiful…“Prophecy is the voice that God has lent to the silent agony, a voice to the plundered poor, to the profaned riches of the world. . . God is raging in the prophets’ words.
How absolutely profound… I could not agree more. Oh yes there is a prophetic word to be heard, and O’ yes, He has lent it to the silent agony…. but the industrial churches, the business of church and government, do not want to hear the silent agony, no, they did not then, nor do they today. That is to our demise… Sorrowful to one who has eyes to see and ears that hear and know, we aren’t listening. Wonderful post, thank you..
“But the weight of a society that views its religion as a means of self-fulfillment will crush everyone if we do not heed the prophet.” Yes, vital to discern too, if that “prophet” is speaking, hearing from YHWH, or simply from gathering information, “gave” that “prophecy”.
We so desire to hear from true prophets, who by living in accordance to His ways/Torah, in humility and integrity, and not for self exaltation to be lifted up by men who on the other hand have no discernment.
Key is to seek His life witnessed from ours, in every situation brought our way, to have the right/righteous response lifting/pleasing Him before men.
Never too late to learn and be disciplined, if we so desire to.
Thank you, Skip. Shalom!