Finding hope and promise in our nation today by looking
at the current conditions in America through a Biblical perspective. January 24, 2021
When a nation claimed by God to be His falls into apostasy
God moves to call that nation back to Him in a process that is shown in how He
has dealt with Israel in its history. God calls Israel His nation and His
people. I believe that there is another nation that God considers His nation. A
nation form to be “one nation under God” and to be used by God to carry His
message of salvation through Jesus, the Son of God and the Messiah to the world.
The nation is America. By observing the process or pattern that God has used in
dealing with Israel’s rebellion I believe that we can make some sense out of
the current turmoil and chaos we are dealing with in the USA.
Let’s look at the history of Israel to discern this pattern.
After a season of relatively peaceful and prosperous times with good, Godly
leaders, Israel slipped into times where they fell away from God, neglecting
His law and eventually getting involved in serious idol worship. During these
times Satan moves his human minions into positions of influence, authority, and
leadership. The result is a nation filled with corruption in all areas of
society and government, perversion, lawlessness, and just plain evil
everywhere. (Hab 1:2-4)
The next stage of the pattern is when God raises watchmen
and prophets to sound an alarm, call the people to account, and cry out to God
for help. This was Daniel’s prayer in Daniel 9 and Habakkuk’s cry in Habakkuk
1. At this stage in the pattern, we find the watchmen and prophets also praying
for God to bring judgment to those who are the unrighteous and evil people
serving Satan to destroy God’s nation and His people. In Joel 2:12-17, we even see
the Lord crying out to His people to repent and return to Him.
God then moves to respond with chastisements to bring His
nation back to Him. He moves in powerful and sometimes unusual ways. Often this
involves using a foreign people or nation inflicting trouble on His nation (Hab
1:5-6).
During these times of chastisement, the prophets
cry out to God to remember mercy in the midst of His wrath. Then they take
their post as watchmen and wait to see what the Lord will do. (Hab 2:1, 3:2)
As a response to the prophets’ prayers, God often
uses a human servant to be an instrumental part of His dealing with His people
and His enemies. He used King Cyrus to issue the decree for the People of
Israel to return to the land and begin rebuilding their Temple (2 Chron
36:22-23). Elijah anointed Jehu to be King of Israel. Jehu rid the land of
Jezebel and her demonic priests of Baal then ruled Israel for many years (1
Kings 19:16).
Out of these times of apostasy and trouble, as the people
respond and return to Him, God deals in His anger with the instigators and
leaders of the rebellion against Him and His nation. With righteous judgment,
He brings justice to the nation and deals harshly with those who do not repent
(Hab 2:4-8).
As God’s people in Israel humbled themselves, repented,
returned to God, and prayed, God moved to restore His people and their nation.
These were times of rebuilding, refreshing, and blessing. These are days of
great revival and joy in the land. As the people of Israel returned to God and
“rebuilt His House”, God promised to bless them from that day on. (Joel 2:18-29;
Hag 2:19)
This pattern has been repeated in Israel’s history many
times. God has used the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks, and the Romans
as His instruments of chastisement for Israel. However, there is still a final
fulfillment of this pattern. After being restored from the dispersion by the
Romans, Israel has developed, though through many trials and troubles, into a prosperous,
and strong nation, yet in general they are still a people that have not
returned to God.
We know from the prophets that there will be a final kingdom
to invade Israel, the kingdom of the Antichrist, that will come into their land
during the seven years of the great tribulation as a final call from them to
repent and return to Him. Indeed, many will by accepting Jesus as their Lord
and Savior. And per the pattern, the Antichrist, his people, and the evil he
will bring to the world will be dealt with harshly in God’s wrath. Then Jesus
will return to the earth in glory and complete God’s covenant promises to Israel
and establish His Kingdom on earth where He will rule and reign as King of
kings and Lord of lords for 1000 years. (Hab 3:3-16: Joel 3; Isa 60-63)
Now let’s apply this pattern to our nation, America.
Established as “one nation under God”, it seems appropriate to examine the
current turmoil in our nation in light of this Biblical pattern.
For many years America was blessed and flourished under
God’s blessings. This is a nation whose constitution is based on God’s law.
Whose education system was developed to teach God’s laws and proclaim the
gospel of Christ. It is a nation once called a Christian nation. But over time
apathy, lukewarmness towards God crept in. Pride, greed, a lust for power and
pleasure began to grow and grow resulting in a nation in apostasy with
lawlessness, greed, perverseness, corruption in all areas of our society, and
Satan by infiltration putting his minions into positions of influence,
authority, and power.
Then God began to call forth prophets and watchmen to sound
an alarm. They began to expose the lukewarmness in the church, the corruption
in the government, the evil in the entertainment industries, and raise an
outcry against abortion and the occult.
What the prophets and watchmen began to see was that God was
calling His nation America back to Him through a chastisement just as He has
also done with His people Israel. Two fierce foreign forces (nations) were sent
against America. One was the ancient satanic cabal, the globalists who are seeking
to rule over and control the whole earth (the one-world government). Satan
raised and placed his evil minions into many very high places of influence,
authority, and control. At the same time another evil nation, China under the
control of the Communist Political Party, seeking to become the preeminent
nation in the world, through financial manipulation, blackmail, bribes, and
other nefarious, evil schemes gained much control in the USA.
Now as the misery, pain, and turmoil of all of this were
becoming evident in the land, the watchmen and prophets began praying for God
to bring judgment to those unrighteous and evil people serving Satan to destroy
God’s nation and His people. The promise of God to His people in 2 Chron 7:14
was being shouted from the rooftops.
In response to the cries of His righteous remanent, God
began to move against these evil forces infiltrating America. He raised a group
of patriots and a servant leader to begin exposing and destroying these plots
of evil men, really Satan. Within His church, God began to wake up the sleepy
and the lukewarm and light a spiritual fire in their hearts. There was and is a
great calling back of the church to their first love and the Father Heart of
God. Spiritual warriors are being sent forth with kingly prayers to proclaim
God’s truths and His ways and judgments. And great prayer movements are developing
all across the land.
But Satan did not just give up. He has mounted a significant
counterattack. Empowering his minions, with witchcraft, lying, deception,
perversion, fraud, anger, violence, and evil various plots to cause
destruction, death, and great fear, he has moved once again to place his people
in positions of power and control.
Now God’s righteous remnant is standing in prayer and
fasting against all of this evil in the power of the name of Jesus. They are
praying for God to bring righteous judgment and justice to those unrighteous
and evil people serving Satan to destroy God’s nation. They are praying for the
empowerment and protection of the people God has placed in key positions to
destroy this new work of Satan. God’s righteous remnant are proclaiming
Christ’s victory over all this evil. And in the midst of it all, they are
praying for a great revival, a great ingathering of souls into God’s Kingdom.
Now, we God’s people stand in the gap for our nation. We are
being the restrainer that we are called to be. Restraining the lawless one and
his schemes to establish his kingdom on earth until the time when God removes
“he who restrains” and allows Satan to proceed with his evil plan to establish
his Antichrist and his kingdom during the last seven years of the great
tribulation. (2 Thes 2:1-7)
God will and is answering the prayers of His true church,
His righteous people as they stand in the gap for their nation. Just how and
when is not clear at this point. There seem to be two paths to the future full
restoration of not only Israel but the entire earth. If the evil cabal that is
this day remains in power, it will be restrained as long as the restrainer, the
Holy Spirit working in and through the true church is in place. The coming
revival and ingathering will take place but in times of trouble and
persecution.
However, if it seems
good to God, He could move in great supernatural power to take down the current
evil cabal leaders and restore His chosen servants into power for at least a
season. Thus, the coming ingathering will take place under much fewer trying
conditions where the sharing of the gospel and the taking of the gospel into
other nations and people could occur more easily and freely. In either case,
the ingathering will occur! This is the
gleaning of the wheat fields. This is the King sending his servants out to
gather those in the streets and far corners of the world and inviting them to
come in to the wedding feast for the King’s Son. The banquet is prepared,
everything is now ready! (Mat 26:2-10; Luke 14:16-24)
For Israel, the path ahead will probably look a bit
different. They have been regathered from all the nations to where they had
been dispersed. They are a successful and powerful nation and at this time
reasonably at peace. But they are still as a nation in unbelief. After “he who
restrains” is removed from the scene, Satan will be released to implement his
plans for his last days' kingdom and his Antichrist. There will be wars,
destruction, and death, and Israel will be tested and refined as by fire for
seven years. But then their true King, our Lord Jesus will return to the earth
in great power to deal with the devil and his minion, and his fallen angels and
demons, and He will complete His covenant promises to Israel as He makes them a
praise in all the earth. (Isa 60-62)
This is hope, promise, comfort, and yes even joy. If we
believe in the Lord, trust in the Lord, and trust His plan for the days ahead
we need not fear or be anxious, nor dismayed (Deu 31:8; Isa 41:10). He is in
control and it is all good, very, very good!
D.P. Weary
Jan. 24, 2021
