"For I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD." --- Exodus 12:12
The new year of 2008 isn't starting off with a host of pleasant and nice things for the United States. Lots of calamities of one kind or another are erupting!
After going through a rash of destructive wild fires, California is now being hammered again with a massive storm which has resulted in mass power outages, a big bunch of snow in high elevations, and threatened mud slides in those areas burned off by the fires earlier.
There are other weather related problems which have or are taking place in other parts of the country and causing more than just a tad of havoc!
And then there is the bad news of higher unemployment and the loss taking place in the stock market -- the U. S. dollar is taking a hammering in more ways than one throughout the world!
International relations are not the best as we continue to struggle with the Iraq and the Afghanistan debacles. The assassination of the former Prime Minister of Pakistan has not helped the U. S. as it continues to "wage war" against terrorism as President Bush attempts to define it!
The United States used to be a nation highly respected throughout the world decades ago, but such is no longer the case. We are a country more often than not mocked, ridiculed, and intensely despised by many people in other nations. And when some high ranking official from the U. S. government goes on a "mission" to some other country for the purpose of improving relations or resolving some conflict his or her efforts often prove to be fruitless due to not having any significant measure of respect -- for instance, just how effective has Secretary of State, Condoleeza Rice, been in solving the problems anywhere she has gone during her foreign junkets? It's been talk, talk, talk with a news report of some kind saying that the discussions have been "productive." But in actuality, there has been no significant "production!"
A possible explanation for all this? Could it be that the false "deities" which we have fashioned for ourselves, especially during the last half of the 20th Century, are coming under fire by Almighty God? He has judged nations in the past and in the process has singled out their various idols as a target of His wrath! Ancient Egypt is a classic example, but not the only one!
Part of the tragedy in such an experience is that usually the leadership, political and religious, as well as the citizens refuse to face the reality of this. The response they often make is in the form of a question -- "Why is God doing these things to us?" Note the pattern which was set many centuries ago -- the only difference is that we have more technology with which to do more evil at a faster pace than did those people of ancient time!
"And it shall be, when you show this people all these words, and they say to you, 'Why has the LORD pronounced all this great disaster against us? Or what is our iniquity? Or what is our sin that we have committed against the LORD our God?' then you shall say to them, 'Because your fathers have forsaken Me,' says the LORD; 'they have walked after other gods and have served them and worshiped them, and have forsaken Me and not kept My law. And you have done worse than your fathers, for behold, each one walks according to the imagination of his own evil heart, so that no one listens to Me.'" --- Jeremiah 16:10-12
Think about this as we move through 2008 and each time some kind of calamity takes place in some form or other in our republic, ask this -- "Is God using this to try to wake us up and bring us to repentance, as individuals and as a nation?"
By the way, some of the more prominent U. S. "deities" are mentioned along the way in Driving The Final Nails! A link at the bottom of that area will bring you back to this place. A warning in advance -- the experience could upset you quite a bit!
The LORD will be awesome to them, for He will reduce to nothing all the gods of the earth; people shall worship Him, each one from his place, indeed all the shores of the nations. --- Zephaniah 2:11
No comments:
Post a Comment