Weighed in the Balances and Found…?
“You warned them to return to your law, but they became arrogant and disobeyed your commands. They sinned against your ordinances, by which a man will live if he obeys them. Stubbornly they turned their backs on you, became stiff-necked and refused to listen. For many years you were patient with them. By your Spirit you admonished them through your prophets. Yet they paid no attention, so you handed them over to the neighboring peoples. But in your great mercy you did not put an end to them or abandon them, for you are a gracious and merciful God.” (Nehemiah 9:29–31, NIV 1984).
My Musings – I live in the United States, so a large number of my “hits” are from the United States (about 81%). We are a nation with an impressive history, although not without its faults. Recently, we have been going through a bit of a “rough patch” socially, politically and morally. In many respects, we have “[become] arrogant.” “Stubbornly [we have been turning our] backs on [God]..stiff-necked, [we refuse] to listen.” “For many years [God] has been patient with [us].” Yet more and more, as a people, we have “paid no attention.” How long will it be before He hands us “over to the neighboring peoples…put[s] an end to [us] or abandon[s] [us]?“
We are the last remaining super-power, how could this ever be [arrogance]? Well, throughout history super-powers have come and gone (or lost prominence). Many, whether good or evil, have been used by God (Egypt, Babylon, Media-Persia, Greece, Rome, Great Britain). What ties most of these nations together is their connection to God’s program for the ages through the Jewish people, and for the present, His Church. Used by God to discipline, preserve, or protect these, many of them repeated the same pattern. Humble beginning, rise to power and prominence, a growing pride and arrogance and an ultimate decline in prominence and/or fall. Ultimately, God “put an end to them or abandon[ed] them,” or displaced them with another nation. Some remain, but without the dominance they once had.
God may be preparing to do the same with America, whose rich Christian tradition and alliance with Israel is eroding. America, as a nation, does not share the promise given to the Jewish people through Abraham (other than all nations blessed through them). As a people group the Jews should have, by all accounts, died out long ago. Yet they have always risen from the ashes of their own making. Not by their might or power. Not even because of an inherent goodness other people groups lack. But merely because He is a “gracious and merciful God” who always keeps His promises.
My Advice – Fallen, fallen, is America the great! If. If it abandons the Church and Israel, God will abandon us. We will take our place alongside these other once great nations as a memory of better times. It may have already begun. He has been patient, but only God can “make America great again.” We need to cooperate.
The Brew Is A Musing 