Thought for Today

God’s faithfulness in judgment: not something Christians are quick to claim. While many love to claim God’s promises of blessing, and care, God’s promises of judgment are typically ignored. That is nothing new. But, God is direct in terms of how He will judge a nation when that nation turns its back on Him. While that is not true of everyone in the United States, it is arguably true of many.

I’ve seen people asking questions about how New York City could elect a Muslim, communist—politely labeled socialist—mayor. I’ve seen other posts and calls to prayer about how communists are more or less taking over much of the Democratic party. Whether that latter claim is true or not is not the point. Certainly our national leadership is severely polarized, and it sometimes seems, particularly with the Left, that there is little to no concern about people: what matters is seizing power by whatever means necessary (not that the Right is innocent either).

Yet, God promises all these things when a nation collectively turns its back on Him. Consider Ezekiel 20:25 (ESV): “Moreover, I gave them statutes that were not good and rules by which they could not have life.”

Regarding corruption at a national level: Jeremiah 22:17: “But you have eyes and heart only for your dishonest gain, for shedding innocent blood, and for practicing oppression and violence.” In many parts of our country, isn’t that what we see going on?

Isaiah 3:5 (ESV): “And the people will oppress one another, every one his fellow and every one his neighbor; the youth will be insolent to the elder, and the despised to the honorable.”

Micah 2:2 (ESV): “They covet fields and seize them, and houses, and take them away; they oppress a man and his house, a man and his inheritance.”

Isn’t that some of what the new mayor of New York has promised to do? But, we should not be surprised. God is clear about He will either bless or judge a nation.

Jeremiah 18:7–10 (ESV): “If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it. And if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, and if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will relent of the good that I had intended to do to it.”

As we’ve already seen, part of God’s judgment is being given over to laws and statutes that are not good. What the new mayor of New York will seek to bring is not good, but it is what people are clamoring for.

When people, or a nation, chooses to reject God, God also promises to blind them to the truth. In essence God gives them what they want: a lie.

Consider Acts 28:27 (ESV): “For this people’s heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed; lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.”

God doesn’t arbitrarily decree disaster and judgment. Disaster and judgment follow after a people’s decision to first reject God and then reject God’s many subsequent calls to repentance.

That is one of the core reasons we see such a polarization taking place in the United States, and elsewhere. Some are indeed sensitive to God’s call to repent, to the biblical reality of what is going on. Many others are plunging ever deeper into what God calls sin and evil. If our nation irrevocably chooses that path, it will not end well. The New York City mayoral election is a clear warning sign.

How does a nation start down that path? We will look at that question in the next post.