This morning I woke up with a sobering thought in light of the turmoil going on with the presidential elections outcome. The thought was, “what would it have felt like to be a decent God fearing person and to have lived in ancient Israel, Judah and Jerusalem exactly, and to have witnessed the invasion of a foreign nation, the breaching of the walls of Jerusalem, and eventually there not being one stone of the Holy Temple left standing upon another.”
For well over a dozen years a saying that I’d heard repeated has rang clear with truth in my mind at times.
“If God doesn’t soon bring judgment upon America, He’ll have to go back and apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah!”
This statement frequently attributed to Billy Graham, actually originated with his wife, Ruth, during a review of her husband’s manuscript for his book, World Aflame, published in 1965. He had just finished a chapter vividly describing the sinful conditions in America, and gave it to Ruth to read. She was very much sobered by the writing and returned the document to the study where he was writing and laid it on his desk, saying, “Billy, if God doesn’t come soon and bring judgment upon the United States, He’s going to have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah!”
In 2015 after parts of our nation had been ravished by historical flood followed by historical flood over an 18 month period, I researched their locations and found they were often in the the locations of “mega churches.” I was so certain of its implications that I wrote an email to the bishop of the church I was attending with a summary of my findings. The above quote by Billy Graham was also mentioned in it. In the bishop’s reply I was assured that God isn’t judging America, He loves America for all the good it has done and for it’s part in spreading the gospel throughout the world. Honestly I didn’t accept his reasoning.
In my email I had told the bishop that I strongly felt it’s the sins of the church and God’s “professed” people which could be attributed to the chastening we were seeing. God cares about the sins of the world but His Word declares this,
2 Chronicles 7:12-16 Then the Lord appeared to Solomon by night, and said to him: “I have heard your prayer, and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice. 13 When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, 14 if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. 15 Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to prayer made in this place. 16 For now I have chosen and sanctified this house, that My name may be there forever; and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually.
The sins of Israel alone brought upon it the anger and wrath of God to a degree that “His sanctified house” was annihilated even to this day, 2,000 years later. God said His Name would be there “Forever.” Forever, especially to God is a long, long time. As a carpenter, I know extensive demolition comes before any great remodeling job. Some day God’s handiwork will sit upon His Holy site. Before Noah’s flood God said,
Genesis 6:5-7 Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. 7 So the Lord said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
In a recent post I included a lengthy list of devastating events that happened to coincide with times America tried to get Israel to give up parts of it’s land in exchange for peace in the middle east. Not a great idea if you believe what God thinks about that. https://intheword.blog/2020/11/12/multitudes-multitudes-in-the-valley-of-decision/
In my mind, I believe that famines, floods and other meteorological events are nothing more that remedial judgments used by God to chasten a nation in love. In Sodom and Gomorrah’s case, I believe God used an astronomical event to destroy a targeted area as an example of His ultimate and final judgment in His anger, fury and wrath.
So what is God’s method of chastening of a nation that falls between the meteorological remedial chastening judgments and the astronomical ultimate and final judgment upon a people or nation in scripture? The answer must be grounded through precedents set in scripture if it can be attributed honestly to Father God. The Apostle Paul told us,
Romans 15:4 For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”–George Santayana, The Life of Reason, 1905. In a 1948 speech to the House of Commons, Winston Churchill changed the quote slightly when he said (paraphrased), “those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it.”
Often in scripture God will use a people even more wicked that the one He is judging. There is certainly evidence of this throughout scripture in the way God chastened the early nation of Israel in the Book of Judges and the later divided nations of Israel and Judah. As a child I learned America was founded by a people who sought to Worship God freely in the ways they felt scripture described.
Prior to 1611 the Holy Bible was mainly in Hebrew, Greek and Latin which the masses of Christians could not read for themselves. It was soon after that in 1620 that a ship full of people arrived in America at Plymouth Rock with the hopes of having a place to Worship God according to scripture they could now be taught be the leading of the Holy Spirit and not by some biased man according to his own agenda.
There are other common occurrences in Holy Scripture that are also undeniable. God has chosen the number 40 and even 400 as a time of testing, trial and probation. When the “cup of iniquity becomes full” in some cases that Father God and Jesus warned of. I won’t mention any of them because if you aren’t aware of them you probably shouldn’t be reading this.
From Billy Graham.org
Question: Does God still judge nations for their sins, like He did in Old Testament times? If so, how bad does a nation have to get before God will finally give up on it and bring down judgment upon it?
Answer: Yes, God still judges nations for their sins—just as He still judges individuals. The Bible is clear: “You may be sure that your sin will find you out” (Numbers 32:23).
After all, God hasn’t changed over the centuries; He is holy and pure, and whenever we scorn Him, we run the risk of incurring His judgment. Sin is an offense to Him—and the reason is because sin is a deliberate denial of God and His will for our lives. When we sin, we deliberately turn our backs on God and say our way is better than His. But we are wrong—and eventually we will pay the price. The Bible warns that “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).
The same is true of a nation that rejects God. When ancient Israel turned against God, the prophets warned that God’s judgment would eventually come upon them—and it did. But God also warned that the surrounding nations would be judged too because they had no regard for God—and they were. Sometimes it happens in one great catastrophe; sometimes it happens in a series of smaller disasters and defeats. But it happens.
How long can a nation scorn God before He brings judgment upon them? Only God knows the answer—but His patience has its limits. Pray for our nation, that God will bring us back to Himself before it is too late—and let it begin with you, as you turn to Christ in repentance and faith.
Jesus Is The Aleph & The Tav, The Alpha & The Omega, The First & The Last
א ת Jesus Α Ω א ת Jesus Α Ω א ת Jesus Α Ω א ת Jesus Α Ω א ת Jesus Α Ω א ת Jesus Α Ω
When I got out of bed and sat in my recliner and was still pondering my waking thoughts that I described in the beginning of this post another thought came into my mind, “Read Psalm 116” and I did,
Psalm 116 I love the LORD, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications.
2 Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live.
3 The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow.
4 Then called I upon the name of the LORD; O LORD, I beseech thee, deliver my soul.
5 Gracious is the LORD, and righteous; yea, our God is merciful.
6 The LORD preserveth the simple: I was brought low, and he helped me.
7 Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the LORD hath dealt bountifully with thee.
8 For thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling.
9 I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living.
10 I believed, therefore have I spoken: I was greatly afflicted:
11 I said in my haste, All men are liars.
12 What shall I render unto the LORD for all his benefits toward me?
13 I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the LORD.
14 I will pay my vows unto the LORD now in the presence of all his people.
15 Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.
16 O LORD, truly I am thy servant; I am thy servant, and the son of thine handmaid: thou hast loosed my bonds.
17 I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the LORD.
18 I will pay my vows unto the LORD now in the presence of all his people,
19 In the courts of the LORD’S house, in the midst of thee, O Jerusalem. Praise ye the LORD.
For now, I believe God has chosen “enemies more wicked than ourselves” of the domestic variety, fellow Americans to show His displeasure as a chastening judgment. Even that, if you think about it is an act of God’s Amazing Grace. At some point, if this chastening doesn’t work it’s work in us as a nation maybe God will use a “foreign enemy” more wicked than ourselves to accomplish His mission. Even that might be an act of His Grace if you consider the possibilities. God’s resources are limitless. But there is comfort in knowing that…. 15 Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.
After the Twin Trade Towers and building 7 fell (very remarkably) on 9-11 a member of congress officially quoted this scripture,
Isaiah 9:10 The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones: the sycomores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars.
At that time theologians must have read the commentaries on that verse because they warned many that God took it as a sign of arrogance and unrepentance.
Ellicott’s Commentary
…through the intervention of Tiglath-pileser, was, its rulers thought, but as the prelude to a great and more lasting victory even than that of 2Chronicles 28:6. For Pekah the son of Remaliah killed 120,000 from Judah in one day, all of them men of valor, because they had forsaken the LORD, the God of their fathers.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
9:8-21 Those are ripening apace for ruin, whose hearts are unhumbled under humbling providences. For that which God designs, in smiting us, is, to turn us to himself; and if this point be not gained by lesser judgments, greater may be expected.
Geneva Study Bible
The bricks have fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones: the sycamores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars.
(n) We were but weak, when the enemy overcame us, but we will make ourselves so strong, that we will neither care for our enemies, nor fear God’s threatenings.
In The Word 