An angel appeared to Jacob

An Angel Appears to Jacob

An angel appears to Jacob

And with that angel Jacob does wrestle

For a blessing

That his children might be

As the sands of the sea

(The name change was freely granted

From Jacob to Israel, no extra fee)

Thirty eight hundred years later

An angel appears to General Ehud

Of the Israeli Defense Forces

As he down shifts his jeep,

Rolling to a stop,

With a cloud of dust and the jeep’s exhaust

Washing over his face

On the outskirts of Tel Aviv

And Ehud says to the angel

Without pause, hesitation, or wonder

As if speaking to his intelligence advisor:

I have this problem with Iran

Can you give me a solution,

Resolve the conflict,

Make peace instead war?

Because we only have a hundred bombers

And this will be no six day war.

The angel replies,

You are a general.

You know how to command--

You say to this man,

Do this, and to another man, Do that,

And they obey

So your will is fulfilled

And your orders accomplished.

And though you know how to order a preemptive strike

To prevent an attack

Your arsenal is defective to a critical degree

For from your lips I do not hear

The consonants and vowels

That commanded the stars to shine

And set billions of galaxies in motion

In the fullness of time.

What! General Ehud exclaims,

You are offering me a weapon of absolute power

That can destroy any enemy?

I must have this weapon

That my will might be fulfilled

And that what I plan might become real

So that one day I can touch it with my hands.

Very well, says the angel,

Repeat after me,

And so saying the angel spoke

The sound of “U”

Which the general then spoke too.

Where is this place?

Asks the general,

There are no signposts, no landmarks,

No roads, no mountains,

No cities, and no seas?

You must understand, General Ehud,

The power in God’s voice

Can fulfill any desire

And make real any dream

But there is a small price—

You must step outside of time with your mind

To before the mountains and seas

Were called into being.

What are you asking of me?

And angel replies,

You see, it is the destiny of your race

To enter a place

Beyond all separation

Where only oneness exists,

Because the heart desires to taste

The Joy and share in the Celebration

That called the universe into being.

How can this be? Asks the general,

You ask too much of me—

I give orders; I am a man,

I have boundaries to defend,

Realistic objectives, detailed plans,

And a limit on the time and energy I can spend.

The angel replies,

Look into my eyes,

In this moment,

My heart is joined to the heart

Of every being that loves throughout the universe.

I am everywhere and within everything

But far, far more—

I can restore the original nature

To any creature or created thing--

Untwist it, unbend it, remake it,

Renew it, purifying and empowering it to boot--

This is my power

And with these wings I fly

Between the stars.

(And I tell you,

That then and there

On that dirt road outside Tel Aviv

When the general heard those words

He grasped their meaning

And joined with their creative energy,

The general pulled a Jacob—

One worthy as his descendant,

With a will slightly greater

Than Alexander, Genghis Khan, or Julius Caesar--

He seized the treasure before him:

He entered the angel’s mind

And saw through the angel’s eyes

The mystery of space and time,

That we are not separate, not you or I,

But are one through the power

Of the words we speak

And the way our hearts seek.)

And taking this weapon into his hands

The general entered the mind of his enemy,

Into a place of heart so deep, so great

Nothing can oppose it or overthrow it:

Two men became friends

The stars shown above

The running waves of the sounding sea

The mountains and the trees

They spoke of peace

As the two agreed

To fulfill each others’ needs,

To dream each others’ dreams,

And to share as brothers might share

An inheritance of will, power, and love

That with care can transform the world.

Thirty years later as Ehud is about to die

The angel again appears to him

And Ehud asks,

Did I do well or did I sell short the gift you gave?

The angel replies,

One of the original purposes

Behind creation is to learn the art of peace making.

Because in this universe

Things are not always as they seem--

No limitations have been placed

Upon the dreams you may dream

Or the visions you may seek.

But there is a price:

You must learn to see through God’s eyes

To love with His heart

To envision with His mind,

So that in the fullness of time

You shall master His Art:

To make all things new.

This is, to say the very least,

Expected of each and every one of you.