As we prepare to celebrate
another Independence Day, I’m not in a very jovial mood about our nation. While I deeply appreciate our freedom (which
is shrinking) and the sacrifices of those on whose blood this nation has been
built, I fear for our nation’s future.
I’ve been thinking about the
prophets and the nations. Yes, the
prophets were Jews. And while they spoke
words of judgment and hope for Israel and Judah, they also had something to say
for God to surrounding nations too. God
is not just Israel’s God. God is without
borders or boundaries. “The earth is the Lord’s and all its
fullness, the world and all who dwell in it” (Ps. 24:1). God is sovereign over all nations, including
the good old U.S.A. So many of God’s
intentions for the nations are announced by the prophets. The prophets
themselves were rather quirky and their words often heavy, pointing out sins
and calling people back to God. The
prophets have a way of exposing the lies we tell ourselves and the illusions we
nurture about God and our world. They
have a way of reminding us that God is large and in charge and present and at
work in the current events of our lives.
Like Isaiah reminding us that the nations are but a drop in the bucket
to our holy God, and that rulers are little more than grasshoppers in His
sight. God raises them up and whenever
He chooses, He blows on them and knocks them down.
Like Habakkuk reminding us that God may use even more sinful nations
than our own to bring judgment to our gates.
Like Ezekiel warning us that if a country sins against God by being unfaithful
and God stretches out his hand against the country by means of sword and famine
and wild beasts and plague, even if Noah, Daniel, and Job lived in that country
their righteousness would save only themselves and not the nation.
Like Micah speaking out against corrupt politicians, priests who are in
it for themselves, and a general population complacent to it all. He calls us instead to do justice and love
mercy and walk humbly with our God.
And like Hosea reminding us that underneath God’s judgment is this stubborn
love, a love that would prefer to pour out blessing, but yet a holy love that
will eventually pour out wrath when His love is mocked and spurned and ignored
over time—and just how much time, we don’t know.
Amos helps us too. Amos was called away from his farm in Judah
to preach God’s word to sinful Israel. It
was the 8th-century B.C. and Jereboam II was the king of Israel. And while he was the most successful king of
the North, while Israel enjoyed a season of rare prosperity and prominence, the
country was a moral and spiritual wreck.
The rich got richer and the poor got poorer. The rich oppressed the poor. The courts were corrupt, injustice rampant,
the prophets false, immorality abounded, and worship was insincere. Still, Israel was feeling awfully big for her
britches and assumed she’d have smooth sailing ahead. She had a decisive king, a pretty strong
military, and a pretty good treasury, so who needs God when you’ve got all
that. It was party time for the
well-to-do in Israel, and Amos became the party-pooper. He saw a storm brewing in the north. He saw destruction and exile in Israel’s
future. He saw the wrath and judgment of
God poured out on that nation. And Amos
preached what he saw.
Israel in Amos’ day and the
United States in ours are not exactly alike.
But there are enough similarities to learn something from Amos for our
day. Amos shows us that when God sends
judgment He usually does so after all kinds of opportunities for nations to
turn back to the Lord in humility and confession and need. So in the spirit of Amos’ prophecy in Amos 4,
I offer these warnings for America in this season of our history.
“I allowed terrorists to bring
your nation to its knees and while the churches were full for a couple of
Sundays and folks sang God Bless America
a thousand times, you did not return to me,” says the Lord. Instead, you took your government’s advice
and went shopping.
“I have allowed floods on one
town and drought on another, yet you have not returned to me,” says the Lord.
“I have allowed fires in one
place, hurricanes and tornadoes in another, and yet you have not returned to
me,” says the Lord.
“I have have allowed inflation
and recession and loss of jobs and the fear that comes with it to wreck havoc
in your nation, and yet you have not returned to me,” says the Lord.
“I have allowed you to stretch
your nation thin militarily and financially so that great calamity could befall
you in the future, and yet you have not returned to me,” says the Lord.
Such happenings should call us
back to God. Such things should humble
us. Such things should remind us that
our hope is not in politics or candidates or governments or armies. Our hope, our only hope, is in God.
So, America and the American
church, let’s humble ourselves, turn from our sins, seek the Lord God, and
live. God is patient. But sooner or later God says, “Enough.” Who will join me in praying for renewal and
revival and the mercy of God on our wayward, sinful nation? Though I’m not very hopeful, I’m praying we
turn back to God before it’s too late to turn back at all.
