Death of a Nation

The doom of ancient Israel was already settled. The once great nation of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had divided into the Northern Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom upon the death of King Solomon when a struggle ensued between his descendants as to whom would rule in his stead. The Northern Kingdom, referred to as Israel, survived for approximately two centuries, while the Southern Kingdom, referred to as Judah, survived for over three centuries before the cup of God’s wrath was full and His judgment fell upon each kingdom for their disobedience to Him. (1 Kings 11:41-43; 1 Kings 12)

God gave both kingdoms ample opportunities during their reigns to repent, “…by all the prophets, and by all the seers, saying, Turn ye from your evil ways, and keep My commandments and my statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers… Notwithstanding they would not hear, but hardened their necks, like to the neck of their fathers, that did not believe in the LORD their God.” They rejected His statutes, the covenant He made with their fathers in the wilderness, His testimonies, becoming vain and following the ungodly ways of the heathen living among them, which the LORD had commanded them not to do when they entered the Promised Land. They followed none of God’s commandments, made graven images to worship, worshipped the sun, moon and stars, served thé false god Baal, sacrificed their children to the false idol Moloch, used magic and witchcraft, and “sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke Him to anger.” (2 Kings 17:13-17)

God’s judgment fell first upon the Northern Kingdom when He allowed King Sennacherib’s Assyrian army to invade them, carrying those who were not killed defending themselves in battle into captivity to Assyria. He was more longsuffering to the Southern Kingdom of Judah because of their periods of repentance under several of their godly kings who called the nation back to serving the One True God from time to time. But eventually God’s complete judgment came to them, too, as they were invaded by King Nebuchaddnezzar’s Babylonian army, carrying captives back to Babylon which included Shaddrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and the Prophet Daniel. (2 Kings 17:18-23; 25:1-12; Daniel 1:1-7)

When any nation turns it’s back on God it is only a matter of time before He gives them over to themselves, who in turn bring destruction upon their own selves by their own hand by their disobedience to Him. The history of the world is replete with the demise of once great nations and empires which no longer exist in today’s world. King David wrote a word of warning during his reign over 3,000 years ago, “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God,” (Psalm 9:17). It happened to his own realm after the death of his son, King Solomon; it will happen to any nation which turns its back on God, desiring to rule itself without Him.

Recognizable Proofs of GOD

Nation of Israel

The Nation of Israel is proof of God’s existence. As the Children of Israel made their way into the Promised Land given to them by God at the culmination of their Exodus from Egypt, they were admonished not to follow after the gods of those who inhabited the land. It wasn’t long before the Children of Israel began to wander off into idolatry and began to sin against the commands of God given to them during their sojourn in the wilderness. After being taken into captivity by foreign kingdoms, allowed to return to their land and rebuild the Temple, only to come under Roman occupation and crucify the Son of God, the Jewish people were scattered to the four corners of the earth for almost 2,000 years. The re-gathering of the people back into their land in recent years is fulfillment of God’s prophesy in Scripture that such an event would take place in the last days as all nations of the earth will come against Israel, her people, and the City of Jerusalem. No other nation of people in the history of mankind has been preserved and re-established.

Creation

In six days God created all the things man would need to live on this earth, including rest on the seventh day. Every tree, plant and herb was created to give man what he would need to nourish life on this earth and build shelter for himself and his family. Every animal God created serves a purpose in continuing life on this planet. God created just the right mixture of gases in the atmosphere and molecules in the water to sustain life. The changing of the seasons remains fixed year in and year out, along with the rising and setting of the sun at just the right distance from the earth each and every day. The creation and ongoing life on this planet is testimony to the proof of God.

Mankind

If not for God, man would not exist. The idea of man did not come from man. It was God who formed the first man from the dust of the ground. It was the breath of God blown into man’s nostrils that allowed man to begin to breathe and continue to breathe. It is the intricate pumping of the heart and the flow of man’s blood as designed by God that keeps a body from death. The very existence of man and the continued propagation of mankind up to this time is proof of God.

America in Bible Prophecy

There has been a search on for years of where and if the country of America is mentioned in the Scriptures. Unlike the countries of Egypt, Ethiopia, Israel, Lebanon, Libya, Spain, and Syria, to name a few, America’s name is nowhere to be found in the Bible. During the First Gulf War in 1991 as scud missiles rained down upon Israel from Iraq, referred to as Babylon in Scripture, there were those who wondered if America was the “great nation” mentioned in Jeremiah 50:41 who would bring total destruction to the land of Babylon, never to be inhabited again (Isaiah 13:19-22). Alas it was not, at least at that time, but America is found in Scripture as God rules over the nations of men (Daniel 4:17).

America can be found as a faithful friend in the creation of the State of Israel, born in a day on May 14, 1948 as prophesied in Isaiah 66:8. The United States under President Harry S. Truman was the first country to extend formal recognition of the State of Israel within hours after David Ben-Gurion officially announced its establishment in Tel Aviv. America continues to support the nation knowing of God’s promise that Jesus will one day return to the earth and reign in the City of Jerusalem upon the Throne of David during the Millennium (Luke 1:31-33; Revelation 20).

American churches have also been instrumental in the sending and financing of the vast majority of Bible-believing missionaries who have fanned out across the world, “teaching all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you,” ( Matthew 28:19-20), fulfilling the Great Commission. The Gospel is preached on every continent because of the commitment of every Christian missionary to be His witness, sharing the Good News wherever He leads them at home or abroad.

The American invention of the Internet has provided the opportunity for the Gospel to reach “unto the uttermost part of the earth” before Jesus’ return (Acts 1:8). God’s Word can be heard, read, studied via the Internet in the jungles of South America, the deserts of Arabia, on the waters of the seven seas, on the frozen tundras of the North and South Poles. There is nowhere on earth the message of God’s salvation is not available to anyone who is willing to hear, as Jesus foretold before His death on the cross concerning the last days in Matthew 24:14, “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.”

Is America in Bible prophecy? YES she is, and may God continue to use her for His Honor and Glory despite the wicked intentions of the evil one referred to as the Devil, God’s already defeated enemy whose head was crushed by JESUS’ heel on Calvary (Genesis 3:15).

The Future of a Nation That Rejects God

God is longsuffering but there is an end to His patience with man. Over and over He gives time for repentance but eventually His judgment must fall when there is total rejection of Him, His statutes and His Word. A nation that forgets God today will find itself experiencing a similar fate as those nations that willfully rejected Him in the past. It is not a matter of if, but when, if a nation does not repent and turn back to God Who made the heavens and the earth. In 2 Kings 17 is recorded the demise of such a nation that continued to reject God by their own wicked deeds.

“In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah [Southern Kingdom] began Hoshea the son of Elah to reign in Samaria over Israel [Northern Kingdom] nine years. And he [Hoshea] did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, but not as the kings of Israel that were before him. Against him came up Shalmaneser, king of Assyria [Iraq]; and Hoshea became his servant, and gave him presents. And the king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshea: for he had sent messengers to So, king of Egypt, and brought no present to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year: therefore the king of Assyria shut him up, and bound him in prison.

Then the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria, and besieged it three years. In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel [Northern Kingdom] away into Assyria [Iraq], and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes. For so it was, that the children of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, which had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods, And walked in the statutes of the heathen, whom the Lord cast out from before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which they had made. And the children of Israel did secretly those things that were not right against the Lord their God, and they built them high places in all their cities, from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city.  And they set them up images and groves in every high hill, and under every green tree:  And there they burnt incense in all the high places, as did the heathen whom the Lord carried away before them; and wrought wicked things to provoke the Lord to anger: For they served idols, whereof the Lord had said unto them, Ye shall not do this thing.

 Yet the Lord testified against Israel, and against Judah, by all the prophets, and by all the seers, saying, Turn ye from your evil ways, and keep my commandments and my statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets. Notwithstanding they would not hear, but hardened their necks, like to the neck of their fathers, that did not believe in the Lord their God. And they rejected His statutes, and His covenant that He made with their fathers, and His testimonies which He testified against them; and they followed vanity, and became vain, and went after the heathen that were round about them, concerning whom the Lord had charged them, that they should not do like them. And they left all the commandments of the Lord their God, and made them molten images, even two calves, and made a grove, and worshipped all the host of heaven [sun, moon, stars], and served Baal. And they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire [human sacrifice], and used divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger.

Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of His sight: there was none left but the tribe of Judah only. Also Judah kept not the commandments of the Lord their God, but walked in the statutes of Israel which they made. And the Lord rejected all the seed of Israel, and afflicted them, and delivered them into the hand of spoilers, until He had cast them out of His sight. For He rent [removed] Israel from the house of David; and [previously] they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king (first king of Northern Kingdom, I Kings 11-12): and Jeroboam drave Israel from following the Lord, and made them sin a great sin. For the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they departed not from them; Until the Lord removed Israel out of His sight, as He had said by all His servants the prophets. So was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day” (II Kings 17:1-23).

For their continued rejection of God and His Word, 140 years later the Southern Kingdom experienced the same fate as the Northern Kingdom, as they were also carried away and put into captivity under a new Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar. It was then the walls of Jerusalem were broken down, the Temple destroyed with fire, and the valuable implements used in Temple worship carried away to Babylon as spoils of war (II Kings 24-25). There are no future blessings for a nation that forgets God unless God intervenes.

Righteousness Exalts a Nation

Scripture is filled with the history of nations who tried to forget God and follow after their own way. Some became idol-worshipping nations; some became oppressive nations, while others became warring nations. Never satisfied, they went deeper and deeper into lawlessness as they attempted to flee the presence of God, which Jonah found impossible spending three days and three nights in the belly of a great fish.

Just as Scripture reveals the human condition and its need for the Savior, Scripture reveals God’s plan for nations to revive and thrive. The wisest person who ever lived and once led a great nation himself tells us that it is righteousness that exalts a nation, that is, right living according to God’s Word, because sin is a reproach to any people (Proverbs 14:34). God disapproves of and rebukes sin wherever He finds it, in an individual or in a nation. His blessings will not fall on any and all who turn their back on Him and follow after their own consuming desires.

King Solomon also tells us toward the end of his Proverbs that “When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice.” In contrast he says when the wicked bear rule the people mourn (29:24). Every nation on this earth would do well to follow God’s direction as found in His Word to have a prosperous, well-established, people rejoicing nation that looks out for the well-being of others, promotes love among the brethren, and esteems others better than themselves. Individuals need to do the same in order to become the rejoicing people who have found forgiveness of sin through Jesus Christ our Lord.

“Be glad in the LORD, and rejoice, ye righteous:

And shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart.”

Psalm 32:11

 

Man Left to His Own Devices

All around us we see the effects of a nation that has attempted to cast God from their presence and try to forget He even exists. The same thing happened in Jeremiah’s day as the nation of Judah and their capital Jerusalem attempted to turn their back on God and go their own way. They went their own way… right into captivity in Babylon for close to 50 years.

In America in 1963 Bible reading in public schools, which had been foundational since the country’s beginning, was ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1973 the Court ruled in Roe v. Wade that God is not the One who determines when life begins and ends, but the mother of the child she carries. Attempts have been and continue to be made to cast out Christ from Christmas, deny prayers prayed in JESUS’ Name at football games and commission meetings, place restrictions on chaplains in the military, among a host of other endeavors. It is to our peril as a nation to allow these attempts to continue.

We are told in Scripture the things written in God’s Holy Book, the Bible, were written for our example (I Corinthians 10:11). In Jeremiah chapter 18 God tells us, “Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in Mine hand, O house of Israel. At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it; If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it; If it do evil in My sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.”

What was the reply of those to whom Jeremiah spoke God’s Word of warning? “And they said, There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart.” Then God’s judgment fell upon them when He responded, “Because My people hath forgotten Me… I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy.” History bears out that God did just that, and to this day His people of the nation of Israel continue to find their way back to the Promised Land from whence they were scattered.

Back in verse 13 of Jeremiah 18 God says Israel “hath done a very horrible thing” in rejecting Him. In Psalm 9:17 He gives this stern warning, “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.” When God’s hand of protection is removed from a nation or a people at their own request, man is left to his own devices which are only evil continually (Genesis 6:5). In order for God to bless America again, or any nation on this earth, we must fall on our knees, repent of our sins and seek His forgiveness. It is our only hope for survival.

“The Righteous Cry, and the Lord Heareth, and Delivers Them Out of All Their Troubles.” Psalm 34:17