On July 4, 2011, we celebrated Independence Day marking our
235th year of freedom, a day set aside to remind us of our
independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain and the birth of a new nation,
the United States of America, one nation under God. As we proudly proclaim “God
Bless America”, our history and current events tell a much different story. Our
founding forefathers and the authors of the Declaration of Independence had
envisioned a nation with God as its sovereign ruler. When we remember and
reflect on the significance of the declaration, let us not forget the
sovereignty of God in the affairs of human history.
Our early government put its faith and trust in God; it’s
written in our national anthems and on our money, why then is it not written in
our hearts and minds? It would seem that we are turning our backs to God more
and more often, trying to distance ourselves from Him. If we take a stroll back
through history in the Bible, we find that every time the nation of Israel or
God’s chosen people, took their eyes off Him, they fell to ruin. They spent
much of their time in captivity and under serious oppression. Time after
time, God would set his people up in the best lands, with the best provisions,
the land of milk and honey; then again in time they would fall into evil
practices and be on the road to ruin. Only when they were captives and under
oppression, would they return to God in their agony and loss to be once again
restored. Is it so different for us as a nation today? If we continue in our
cultural demise will it not lead to the demise of our nation as well? Will God
turn his back on us too?
In a quick look at the Bible, some things seem to pop out,
that give us some fair warning as to what we are up against. In Deuteronomy
28:1-2, Moses says “If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow
all his commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above
all the nations on earth. All these blessings will come upon you and accompany
you if you obey the Lord your God.” He then goes on to list all the wonderful
blessing God has in store for his people, but then in verses 13 &14, he
gives this warning to the people, “The Lord will make you the head, not the
tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the Lord your God that I give you
this day and follow them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom.
Do not turn aside from any of the commands I give you today, to the right or to
the left, following other gods and serving them.” At this point Moses goes on
to tell them all the dreadful things that will happen to them if they choose to
ignore God, but the scariest part comes in verse 49, where he states “The Lord
will bring a nation against you from far away, from the ends of the earth, like
an eagle swooping down, a nation whose language you will not understand, a
fierce-looking nation without respect for the old or pity for the young.”
(Which sounds just a bit like 9/11?) And eerily later on in verses 62 & 63,
“You who were as numerous as the stars in the sky will be left but few in
number, because you did not obey the Lord your God. Just as it pleased
the Lord to make you prosper and increase in number, so it will please him to
ruin and destroy you.”
The nation of Israel (the Jews) has never gotten to where
God wants them to be, over and over He tried to retrieve them from their evil
ways, even going so far as to send them a savior, Jesus Christ, whom they
reject even to this day. So God opened the option to the rest of us, the
Gentiles and by His grace we are saved. In Numbers 14:42-43 there is this
warning “Do not go up, lest you be
defeated by your enemies, for the Lord is not among you. For
the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and you shall fall by
the sword; because you have turned away from the Lord, the Lord will not be
with you." In view of all this, how can we live
in such ignorance as to think that this will not happen to our nation as
well?
So when we celebrate the 4th of July let us
remember those who fought and gave their lives, along with those still fighting
and dying for our continued freedom, by returning to faith in the God of our
founding fathers under whom we became a Nation and pray that God will have
mercy and save us from ourselves!
