{"id":64988,"date":"2019-10-30T18:26:44","date_gmt":"2019-10-30T16:26:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=64988"},"modified":"2023-05-25T12:38:54","modified_gmt":"2023-05-25T09:38:54","slug":"whose-side-is-the-prophet-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/whose-side-is-the-prophet-on\/","title":{"rendered":"Whose Side Is The Prophet On?"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[370,390],"acf":{"old_id":"64988","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":36147,"related_cahpter":"340","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"He has an intimate encounter with God - but is still part of Team Human","content":"

Prophets play a complicated role in the divine-human relationship. As much as they are the divine emissaries to humanity, they are also humanity\u2019s advocates before God. This is clear from stories about Moses, Samuel, and others, and also from God\u2019s indictment of the prophets for not protecting Israel from the divine wrath: <\/span><\/p>\n

I looked for someone among them to wall the wall and stand before me in the breach on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found no one. So I poured out my wrath upon them, destroyed them with the fire of my fury\u2026 (Ezekiel 22:30).<\/span><\/p>\n

So whose side is the prophet really on? God\u2019s, or the people\u2019s?<\/span><\/p>\n

(The Talmud, it should be noted, raises a similar question regarding the priests: are they fundamentally emissaries of the people, or emissaries of God? See Yoma 19a-b and elsewhere.)<\/span><\/p>\n

Our chapter tells that they may sometimes switch sides. Isaiah\u2019s vision takes him to God\u2019s palace, where he see the Lord seated on the throne, an overwhelming sight. Isaiah reacts with fear: \u201cI live among a people of unclean lips, yet my own eyes have beheld the King, Lord of hosts!\u201d This problem is solved in a mysterious way, as an angel takes a burning coal from the previously-unmentioned altar, touches it to Isaiah\u2019s lips, and proclaims him pure. What does this accomplish?<\/span><\/p>\n

Interestingly, both the Babylonians and the Egyptians brought an idol or a statue from the mundane realm to the divine realm through a ceremony of cleansing the mouth (in Babylon this was known as<\/span> the <\/span>m\u012bs-p\u012b<\/span><\/i> ritual<\/span><\/a>; in Egypt, it was<\/span> the \u201copening of the mouth\u201d<\/span><\/a>). It seems that the same is happening here. Isaiah, as a member of the human community (\u201cI live among a people!\u201d), could not have survived seeing God. But the angel purifies him, turning him into \u201cdivine\u201d \u2013 meaning, in this case, that he is on God\u2019s side, now, and therefore is not barred from encountering God.<\/span><\/p>\n

In fact, the very next line has Isaiah volunteering for a mission on behalf of his new team: \u201cHere I am! Send me!\u201d When he hears his mission, however, he realizes that the two teams are adversarial, and therefore that acting on behalf of God may mean acting against humankind. God tells him to make sure that the people do not understand, lest they repent and escape punishment. Isaiah cries out: \u201cUntil when?\u201d Being on God\u2019s team is not always a comfortable place to be.<\/span><\/p>\n

Image: William Blake, God Judging Adam (detail), 1795 \/ wikimedia<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":64989,"id":64989,"title":"is6-God_judging_adam_blake_1795","filename":"is6-God_judging_adam_blake_1795.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/is6-God_judging_adam_blake_1795.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/whose-side-is-the-prophet-on\/is6-god_judging_adam_blake_1795\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"is6-god_judging_adam_blake_1795","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":64988,"date":"2019-10-30 16:26:33","modified":"2023-10-31 08:27:43","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":517,"height":540,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/is6-God_judging_adam_blake_1795-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/is6-God_judging_adam_blake_1795-287x300.jpg","medium-width":287,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/is6-God_judging_adam_blake_1795.jpg","medium_large-width":517,"medium_large-height":540,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/is6-God_judging_adam_blake_1795.jpg","large-width":517,"large-height":540,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/is6-God_judging_adam_blake_1795.jpg","1536x1536-width":517,"1536x1536-height":540,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/is6-God_judging_adam_blake_1795.jpg","2048x2048-width":517,"2048x2048-height":540,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/is6-God_judging_adam_blake_1795.jpg","post_full_size-width":517,"post_full_size-height":540,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/is6-God_judging_adam_blake_1795-402x420.jpg","home_baner-width":402,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"Whose Side Is The Prophet On?","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"He has an intimate encounter with God - 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