Thursday, November
16, 2017
After that generation died, another generation grew up who
did not acknowledge the Lord or remember the mighty things he had
done for Israel. The Israelites did evil
in the Lord’s sight and served the images of Baal. They abandoned the Lord, the God of
their ancestors, who had brought them out of Egypt. They went after other gods, worshiping the
gods of the people around them. And they
angered the Lord. They abandoned
the Lord to serve Baal and the images of Ashtoreth. This made the Lord burn with anger
against Israel, so he handed them over to raiders who stole their possessions. He turned them over to their enemies all
around, and they were no longer able to resist them. Every time Israel went out to battle,
the Lord fought against them, causing them to be defeated, just as he
had warned. And the people were in great
distress. Judges 2:10-15(NLT)
And I heard a voice
from the altar, saying, “Yes, O Lord God, the Almighty, your judgments are true
and just.” Revelation 16:7(NLT)
The
justice system in America is arguably skewed at times, as is every other system
created by the human race. As my friend
Phillip recently reminded me, Winston Churchill is attributed to have said
something like: Democracy is the worst form of government ever created…with the exception
of every other form of government.
With
all due respect to my friend, and the esteemed Mr. Churchill, there is one
justice system that is true and just; its righteousness is never failing! That system, of course, is the judgments of
God.
Joshua
led the nation of Israel to conquer the Promised Land after Moses’ death. They occupied it under the leadership of God
(theocracy) until Joshua died. Then a
new generation decided that serving Jehovah was outdated and old-school.
They got with the new program of being like the other nations and left
God in the dust.
For
Israel, bad became worse. Their strength
as a nation disappeared. Their military
was never enough. Their infrastructures
became compromised; superstructures and resources were hacked and stolen, and
no leader could be trusted. The whole
nation was in severe distress.
Sound
familiar?
I
know it is dangerous to insert “America” into the target scheme of any prophecy
or Biblical scenario, but when the shoe fits it is appropriate to wear it. The trend in our culture is to trust in an idea of America as inherently
good and all-powerful. The problem in
believing such is that we wind up attributing the nature of God to a national
identity. America is not, has never
been, and will never be…GOD!
The identity
of a nation is comprised in the nature and character of the people who make up
that nation. According to Scripture
(which has yet to be proven wrong), the character and nature of humans is
corrupt, and has been so ever since Eden.
This is a fallen world…and, despite the flag-waving that has most of us
rallying around the stars and stripes, that is our heritage…prone to wander;
prone to leave the God we love.
And
leave God behind we have…for the pragmatism of bigger stock markets, bigger walls,
harsher conversations, and a national profile of yell louder if you sense you’re losing market share…at what
cost?
The
distress of God’s justice rolled-down on the heads of those who led Israel
after Joshua passed. I am not a prophet
in the sense of being able to foretell the future, but I am student enough of
history and Scripture to sense that we are at harvest time, and what we have
been sowing, we shall certainly reap!
For You
Today
You
chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day!
No comments:
Post a Comment