July 30, 2013
2 Chronicles 24:19-21 — Yet he sent prophets to them, to bring them again unto the Lord; and they testified against them: but they would not give ear. And the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest, which stood above the people, and said unto them, Thus saith God, Why transgress ye the commandments of the Lord, that ye cannot prosper? because ye have forsaken the Lord, he hath also forsaken you. And they conspired against him, and stoned him with stones at the commandment of the king in the court of the house of the Lord.
I don’t know why this was impressed on me today. Why this day and not another? But surely any day is a good day to turn and pray for the nation.
The people of Israel and Judah had it easy! When they turned away from The Lord, He turned away from them. The flow of battle successes dried up, then a prophet turned up and spoke up, the people listened up and straightened up, and things looked up! Of course, there were plenty of times when the King and the people didn’t get the message and bad things happened … but nobody could say cause and effect were not clear, or not clearly linked.
Even 200 years ago, here in America, perhaps it should not have been so difficult. There was a fairly general agreement that Americans were “One nation under God”. A government that based its principles and proceedings on God’s word could be confident of His favor, and for many years it seemed that America enjoyed those blessings.
How much harder it might now seem. For the first time in history, less than half of all Americans identify themselves as believers of some kind. That figure is even lower—30 percent—for people under thirty. Many of these reply “none” when asked about their religion. How hard that might make the challenge of governing appear. Today a government that based its decisions on the Bible might fear being seen as at best irrelevant and at worst downright wrongheaded.
What is the consequence of the nation’s forsaking of God? We see a series of fatal decisions made by all the branches of government. The results are not the easy and obvious signs granted to Israel and Judah — not the surgically sharp defeat in battle, but rather the insidious decline of morality and national character that, if not reversed, must lead to fatal political and economic defeats.
May we rely on prophets to arise and speak truth into the hearts of government and nation? We may not. Hebrews 1:1-2 says, “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds”. There are, to be sure, brave men and holy who stand up and speak, and they may be granted a gracious hearing — but they have little real influence. As the verse says, God has spoken to us through Jesus. It is on Him alone that we can now depend. We must pray,and trust Him for mercy. If we will turn back to Him, He will turn back to us. But only then …