Are we on the road to ruin?

On July 4, 2011, we celebrated Independence Day marking our 235^th 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 4^th 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!