What is happening in our world today? It seems that over the past several years the world around us has become much more dangerous. The recent Paris terror attacks are a reminder of the ability of our enemies to strike at the very heart of western nations. As I thought about such things recently I read in the book of 1 Kings some things we should take very seriously. We should read these things and fear God - and turn to prayer for our own hearts, the hearts of those we love, and the hearts of those who lead our country in this hour.
As many of us labor to understand what is happening to our nation, we unfortunately labor under the thought that this is a Christian nation. While this nation was founded for the most part on wise and godly principles, we need to come to grips with the reality that our nation no longer functions under those principles. Our nation moved away from God in the 1950’s and 1960’s and adopted a lax attitude toward heterosexual immorality and divorce. That was followed by the abortion decision in 1973 and the greed that began to seriously infect our land in the 1980’s and 1990’s. By the 2000’s we had left just about every godly principle there was to abandon - and had become a very godless nation. The leadership of our Republic had abandoned itself to the radical immorality and godless attitudes that had infected the airwaves for decades. What I am trying to recount for you is the fact that our nation has abandoned following and serving God - and has chosen instead to follow and serve the flesh instead.
There is a biblical example of this kind of abandonment of God by a nation. It happened in the latter years of king Solomon of Israel. He is not the only example of it - but because of how God dealt with him - we need to take a closer look at the late years of his reign as king. Solomon began as a godly man - but his love of “many foreign women” brought him low. God warned of this - but Solomon chose his sensual desires over God’s Word and ways. As a result in his latter years he did not follow the Lord , but turned away from Him. He began to worship other gods as his foreign wives influenced him more and more. Note the narrative given to us in 1 Kings 11 -
“For when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after other gods; and his heart was not wholly devoted to the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father had been. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians and after Milcom the detestable idol of the Ammonites. Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and did not follow the LORD fully, as David his father had done. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable idol of Moab, on the mountain which is east of Jerusalem, and for Molech the detestable idol of the sons of Ammon. Thus also he did for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods. 1 Kings 11:4-8 (NASB)
As Solomon turned away from God he was led to worship other false gods. The worship of these gods involved sexual immorality, the depreciation of marriage, and eventually homosexual acts and even the sacrificing of babies to the horrible god Molech. It was a descent that almost mirrors that of our own nation. Thus it should be no surprise that God is dealing with us much like He did with Solomon. It might be wise of us to see how God disciplined Solomon and judged his sin.
“Now the LORD was angry with Solomon because his heart was turned away from the LORD, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice, and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods; but he did not observe what the LORD had commanded. 1 Kings 11:9-10 (NASB)
God was angry with Solomon for his actions and choices. As a result of this, God began to take the kingdom away from Solomon - and eventually all but Judah revolted against his son. But even while Solomon was alive God began to do something to him and his kingdom. He began to raise up “adversaries” against Him. Before chapter 11 is over we read that there were two different adversaries that God raised up to discipline Israel. These adversaries began fighting against Israel militarily. But they did not fight with a full war - but in ways that eerily match that of the current adversaries of the United States. The type of problems they caused were by being “marauding bands” against Israel. They would attack an unsuspecting town and wreak havoc against it - killing people and destroying homes. These were the precursors to the type of terrorist activity we see in our day.
Let me be very clear with you. I believe that ISIS and Al-Qaeda are adversaries that God Himself has raised up against the United States of America. These groups have been allowed to strike us - and the rest of the West in order to be a disciplinary measure to help wake us up. What is happening in our world in regard to these two groups is that they are being allowed to be a kind of marauding band among us. It is truly a sad thing to watch - because if I am interpreting accurately what our response is - it is not good. Instead of reacting with horror and repentance toward God for our gross sins against Him and His holiness and Word, we are reacting with anger toward our enemies - and a doubling down in wickedness. We are NOT turning toward the Lord - but we are hiding our heads in the sand. We think that we are winning this battle - that this is just the JV team that we are beating. But unless we repent and return to the Lord - this is only a small portion of what is coming our way. I fear that things are only going to get worse - with attacks that have biblical proportions to them. God said through His prophets that things would happen to Israel that would make their hands hang limp. They would be the kind of things that would blow the minds of the people of Israel. And I fear that our continued and amped up rebellion is only making such a future inevitable for our nation.
I fear that in the days to come there is going to be a destruction that will make our earlier discipline seem like nothing in comparison. We are going to face a military defeat or a disaster on our own shores that will make our mouths hang open and our ears tingle as we hear of it. It will be greater than that which happened to us earlier on 9/11. I do not rejoice in this - but instead want to weep and wail over what is going to happen. I love this country and do not desire its destruction. I love our military and do not want to see it demolished. But if we do not repent and return to God - that is what is in our future. I don’t know of any timetable - nor is this meant to be some sort of prophetic warning. It is just a clear understanding of the Scriptures and of how God deals with those who turn from Him in rebellion.
To close out this article - I want to answer a question that some of you may have. What can we do? How can we avoid this? I am not sure we can avoid it - because our sin is stacked to the heavens - and we’ve shed innocent blood on our land unlike any nation before us. But our own hope is in repentance and return to God. I truly believe with all my heart that our choices are revival or ruin. I would urge everyone to pick up some sort of study that deals with repentance and return. A good one I’ve used recently is called, “Fresh Encounter” by Henry Blackaby. But a study alone is not what we need - we need action - brokenness - true repentance - and a radical return to God. The things we are seeing and the sense of inevitability that is brooding upon our land and indeed upon the world lately is because our God and Father will not be merciful forever. There is a day of reckoning - especially for the church who should know better. May God grant us a heart broken over sin and rebellion and a shock and horror of how far we have gone individually and corporately into sin. May He graciously work in our hearts and may we see true repentance in the days ahead. It is truly our only hope in this hour.
As many of us labor to understand what is happening to our nation, we unfortunately labor under the thought that this is a Christian nation. While this nation was founded for the most part on wise and godly principles, we need to come to grips with the reality that our nation no longer functions under those principles. Our nation moved away from God in the 1950’s and 1960’s and adopted a lax attitude toward heterosexual immorality and divorce. That was followed by the abortion decision in 1973 and the greed that began to seriously infect our land in the 1980’s and 1990’s. By the 2000’s we had left just about every godly principle there was to abandon - and had become a very godless nation. The leadership of our Republic had abandoned itself to the radical immorality and godless attitudes that had infected the airwaves for decades. What I am trying to recount for you is the fact that our nation has abandoned following and serving God - and has chosen instead to follow and serve the flesh instead.
There is a biblical example of this kind of abandonment of God by a nation. It happened in the latter years of king Solomon of Israel. He is not the only example of it - but because of how God dealt with him - we need to take a closer look at the late years of his reign as king. Solomon began as a godly man - but his love of “many foreign women” brought him low. God warned of this - but Solomon chose his sensual desires over God’s Word and ways. As a result in his latter years he did not follow the Lord , but turned away from Him. He began to worship other gods as his foreign wives influenced him more and more. Note the narrative given to us in 1 Kings 11 -
“For when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after other gods; and his heart was not wholly devoted to the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father had been. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians and after Milcom the detestable idol of the Ammonites. Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and did not follow the LORD fully, as David his father had done. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable idol of Moab, on the mountain which is east of Jerusalem, and for Molech the detestable idol of the sons of Ammon. Thus also he did for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods. 1 Kings 11:4-8 (NASB)
As Solomon turned away from God he was led to worship other false gods. The worship of these gods involved sexual immorality, the depreciation of marriage, and eventually homosexual acts and even the sacrificing of babies to the horrible god Molech. It was a descent that almost mirrors that of our own nation. Thus it should be no surprise that God is dealing with us much like He did with Solomon. It might be wise of us to see how God disciplined Solomon and judged his sin.
“Now the LORD was angry with Solomon because his heart was turned away from the LORD, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice, and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods; but he did not observe what the LORD had commanded. 1 Kings 11:9-10 (NASB)
God was angry with Solomon for his actions and choices. As a result of this, God began to take the kingdom away from Solomon - and eventually all but Judah revolted against his son. But even while Solomon was alive God began to do something to him and his kingdom. He began to raise up “adversaries” against Him. Before chapter 11 is over we read that there were two different adversaries that God raised up to discipline Israel. These adversaries began fighting against Israel militarily. But they did not fight with a full war - but in ways that eerily match that of the current adversaries of the United States. The type of problems they caused were by being “marauding bands” against Israel. They would attack an unsuspecting town and wreak havoc against it - killing people and destroying homes. These were the precursors to the type of terrorist activity we see in our day.
Let me be very clear with you. I believe that ISIS and Al-Qaeda are adversaries that God Himself has raised up against the United States of America. These groups have been allowed to strike us - and the rest of the West in order to be a disciplinary measure to help wake us up. What is happening in our world in regard to these two groups is that they are being allowed to be a kind of marauding band among us. It is truly a sad thing to watch - because if I am interpreting accurately what our response is - it is not good. Instead of reacting with horror and repentance toward God for our gross sins against Him and His holiness and Word, we are reacting with anger toward our enemies - and a doubling down in wickedness. We are NOT turning toward the Lord - but we are hiding our heads in the sand. We think that we are winning this battle - that this is just the JV team that we are beating. But unless we repent and return to the Lord - this is only a small portion of what is coming our way. I fear that things are only going to get worse - with attacks that have biblical proportions to them. God said through His prophets that things would happen to Israel that would make their hands hang limp. They would be the kind of things that would blow the minds of the people of Israel. And I fear that our continued and amped up rebellion is only making such a future inevitable for our nation.
I fear that in the days to come there is going to be a destruction that will make our earlier discipline seem like nothing in comparison. We are going to face a military defeat or a disaster on our own shores that will make our mouths hang open and our ears tingle as we hear of it. It will be greater than that which happened to us earlier on 9/11. I do not rejoice in this - but instead want to weep and wail over what is going to happen. I love this country and do not desire its destruction. I love our military and do not want to see it demolished. But if we do not repent and return to God - that is what is in our future. I don’t know of any timetable - nor is this meant to be some sort of prophetic warning. It is just a clear understanding of the Scriptures and of how God deals with those who turn from Him in rebellion.
To close out this article - I want to answer a question that some of you may have. What can we do? How can we avoid this? I am not sure we can avoid it - because our sin is stacked to the heavens - and we’ve shed innocent blood on our land unlike any nation before us. But our own hope is in repentance and return to God. I truly believe with all my heart that our choices are revival or ruin. I would urge everyone to pick up some sort of study that deals with repentance and return. A good one I’ve used recently is called, “Fresh Encounter” by Henry Blackaby. But a study alone is not what we need - we need action - brokenness - true repentance - and a radical return to God. The things we are seeing and the sense of inevitability that is brooding upon our land and indeed upon the world lately is because our God and Father will not be merciful forever. There is a day of reckoning - especially for the church who should know better. May God grant us a heart broken over sin and rebellion and a shock and horror of how far we have gone individually and corporately into sin. May He graciously work in our hearts and may we see true repentance in the days ahead. It is truly our only hope in this hour.
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