God of Gods

Woe to him who builds his house on wrongdoing,

his roof-chambers on injustice;
Who works his neighbors without pay,
and gives them no wages.
Who says, “I will build myself a spacious house,
with airy rooms,”
Who cuts out windows for it,
panels it with cedar,
and paints it with vermilion.
Must you prove your rank among kings
by competing with them in cedar?
Did not your father eat and drink,
And act justly and righteously?
Then he prospered.
Because he dispensed justice to the weak and the poor,
he prospered.
Is this not to know me?—
oracle of the LORD.
But your eyes and heart are set on nothing
except your own gain,
On shedding innocent blood
and practicing oppression and extortion.
(Jeremiah 22:13-17)

“But your eyes and heart are set on nothing / except your own gain, / On shedding innocent blood / and practicing oppression and extortion.” These last few things are not “nothing,” and yet, to the prophet, they are. They are “nothing,” because they are not rooted in the Lord of lords, the God of gods—He who Is. Idolatry elevates oneself and one’s desire above the Other and others—oppression, extortion, and the shedding of innocent blood are its results. Thus says Jeremiah. Thus says the Lord. Thus says Simone Weil:

It is not in a person’s nature to desire what he already has. Desire is a tendency, the start of a movement toward something, toward a point from which one is absent. If, at the very outset, this movement doubles back on itself toward its point of departure, a person turns round and round like a squirrel in a cage or a prisoner in a condemned cell. Constant turning soon produces revulsion. All workers, especially though not exclusively those who work under inhumane conditions, are easily the victims of revulsion, exhaustion and disgust and the strongest are often the worst affected. (“Prerequisite to Dignity of Labour”)