What Does The Lord Require Of A Nation?

At the end of my last post, I made the following statement: "We must recognize that our God and His ways are eternal; they are unchanging. And the words He spoke through His messenger Micah, nearly 2800 years ago, still ring true." If you read that post, and if you have taken the time to read the short Book of Micah, then you cannot deny that God spoke through the prophet Micah about ancient Israel's persistent rebellion and wickedness. The prophet made it clear that the earth and all men in it should be aware that the Lord God will be a witness against those who choose evil over righteousness. Micah particularly spoke against those who would use their social or political power for personal gain.

Micah warned that God would come down from His Holy Temple in Heaven and "tread upon the high places" and the worship of false idols. The Bible issues a strong warning against the oppressors, saying God is going "to devise disaster from which the rebellious will not be able to remove their necks". The rebellious nation will no longer walk in haughtiness [acting arrogantly superior and disdainful], "for it will be a time of disaster". 

Rulers and prophets of a nation who hate good and love evil will be denounced for all the sin they have engaged in; for the depraved and cruel things they have perpetrated. The Bible makes it clear God will bring a day of retribution for the leaders and prophets "who lead His people astray". There will be retributive justice for leaders who cry "Peace" to those who feed and bribe them, but declare war against those who are unable to put anything into their gluttonous mouths. In those days, says Micah, "the day shall be black" over such leaders; they shall be put to shame, and "there is no answer from God".

We must take these warnings from this ancient prophet seriously. It is folly for us Christians to think that the words spoken to ancient Israel and Judah do not apply to our beloved nation. And it is equally foolish and reckless to ignore the sins of our nation that are right before our eyes ... if we care to look at them. Remember ... as I told you in the last post, our God is Immutable. He does not change His character. The nature of His moral qualities are the same today as they were 2800 years ago when He spoke through Micah. Yes, there were good and righteous followers of Jehovah in that day, just as there are today. But we must not think ourselves and our nation superior to the rebellious kings and their followers in Micah's day just because we've had centuries of human inventions that have made our lives more convenient. We may be more technically and industrially advanced, but that doesn't make us more obedient to God. Nor should we consider ourselves more "spiritually" superior because we think we have figured out all there is to understanding God. We must not let our pride elevate us above those we think less worthy. If anything, I'm afraid mankind has raised the philosophies of humanism and rationalism above a belief in a sovereign, supernatural God. 

NOTE: Humanism emphasizes man's potential apart from any supernatural Being, and makes man the moral authority in both the individual and society; we are all able and responsible to lead lives that are personally fulfilling while also contributing to the greater good of society. Rationalism is the philosophy that reason and experience should be the basis of our opinions and actions, instead of any religious or spiritual belief system. In other words, there is no moral absolute, such as the Bible. Whatever seems right to the individual, will be his or her standard for behavior.  As a character in a fiction book I'm reading, says, "It would be best for men to deal decently with one another in accordance with God's principles. But what are we to do if we have men to whom God is of no account?" I think we can all see how far that is from God's plan, mandates and statutes. 

There is plenty in the ancient Book of Micah, and in our modern understanding of how far we have strayed from God's righteous principles, to warrant concern over how God regards our nation and the world. And if you do not understand that Jesus is throughout the Old Testament, and along with God, the Father, took a stand against disobedience and man's refusal to stay faithful to a covenant with his Creator, then you probably find it difficult to read the whole counsel of God in the Bible. But I'm not here to just sound the alarm against rebellion. I also want everyone to know there is HOPE! 

In the same chapter of Micah that the prophet repeats the Lord's warnings against the Rulers and Prophets, this bold prophet also declares, "But as for me, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the Lord, and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob [Israel] his transgression, and to Israel his sin." Will not God give us the same power, justice, and might, because we are filled the Holy Spirit? We can call upon our leaders to lean on the Lord and return to His ways and walk in His paths. 

Throughout the Bible's long history we get a picture of God's justice in juxtaposition to His power and grace to save a remnant for His Name's sake. In the words of the 19th Century Christian theologian Charles Ellicott, "The thundercloud of darkness that descended upon sin again and again was always contrasted with a glimpse of sunlight through the storm clouds." From Noah to Isaiah, to Jeremiah, Paul, and John, in the Book of Revelation -- there is a picture of God's righteous anger, condemnation and wrath followed by His declaration to deliver and save a remnant, chosen by grace. Micah is no different. And because we are created by an Immutable God, the standards He held for all those who have come before us, are the same standards He holds for us. The violence, greed and deceitfulness of powerful men is leading to a demoralized state among mankind. Freedoms that Christ died to give us are being eroded and we see children treating their parents with contempt; as Micah says, a man's enemies are the men of his own house.

So, while we can look at the history of the Bible and see that the leaders and the people did not listen to their watchmen concerning the coming judgment and wrath, we can also see that the watchmen never stopped declaring their confidence in the Lord to deliver a remnant. And as much as we want to believe that all the world will come to the Light of the Lord, the Bible doesn't tell us that. Yes, the Gospel of the Kingdom is going out to all the world and then the end [of the kingdom of darkness] will come as the Lord descends from His throne -- but that does not tell us that all the world will receive the hope that is in the Kingdom; just that they were given the opportunity to hear and accept the promises that come with Salvation to enter the Kingdom.

I think I am not the only whose spirit discerns a terrible wickedness that is coming. And if we are able to learn the lessons from our Bible, then we know that it is time to repent and mourn lost opportunities; and to know the possibility that God may once again, in His Sovereignty, decide to consign our deserved punishment to our enemies. Just as Nebuchadnezzar and the king of Assyria carried out God's discipline against His beloved but faithless people, so might He deliver us into the hands of our enemies -- if we do not repent and return to Him. But are our wounds incurable? Are we doomed? The Destroyer is approaching. We should not be concentrating on the trouble in our enemies' cities, but need to bewail it in our own.

It is my earnest desire that all who stumble across this little blog will take notice of God's promises of both His Justice and His Deliverance. Take heart! We will see marvelous and miraculous things! Our enemies will eventually be defeated! There will be a remnant for His inheritance because He does not retain His anger forever. He delights in His steadfast love for those who seek Him in perseverance and righteousness. He will be faithful to tread all of our iniquities underfoot and cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. He will gather both Jew and Gentile to His bosom, as we, [all who remained the faithful remnant] reap the rewards of not bending our knee to the Enemy. Hang on, it's going to be a bumpy ride and rocky path we journey on, but if we hold to our testimony of Jesus, [and Him alone], we are assured of participating "in that day [when] the Lord of hosts will be a crown of glory, and a diadem of beauty, to the remnant of His people." The Lord, Himself, will come to lead His remnant of faithful children in a triumphant procession! Hallelujah!

Micah 6:8     He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

  

"Stop The Singing and Listen" -- The Words of The Prophet - Part 2

I often find myself wondering what it must have been like for the prophets of the Bible to receive the word of the Lord concerning His judgments upon their nations. They knew that what He instructed them to say would not be popular, and would be difficult to receive. Yet, they were obedient, often at great personal cost, to forewarn their countrymen of the coming justice from God's holy temple in Heaven.

Such was the experience of the prophet Micah, who lived from 740 BC - 670 BC. He was the first prophet to predict the destruction of Jerusalem, which was the capital of the ancient nation of Israel before its fragmentation into separate northern and southern kingdoms. Jerusalem then became the capital of the southern kingdom, Judah. 

Micah was an equal opportunity prophet, rebuking the northern kingdom of Israel [as well as Judah] of dishonesty in the marketplace and corruption in government. He announced impending doom and judgment from God for enriching themselves while impoverishing their citizens. He announced, on behalf of God, their transgressions, rebellion, and idolatry... something common to nearly all the prophets of the Bible. So, why am I focusing on this minor prophet? Because, as I said in the previous post, the Holy Spirit unexpectedly brought this short book of seven chapters to my attention. As I read it, I could not deny that Micah's messages to the princes/leaders and people of Jerusalem could just as easily be given to us. Let me share with you what my spirit heard...

Micah begins his message with the earnest appeal for the people -- all of them -- to pay attention because the Lord God is going to be a witness against them. He is going to be "coming out of His place" because of the transgressions [rebellion] of the house of Israel and Samaria. Now for a little history ... the direct transgression he is referring to is the division of the nation of Israel into the two kingdoms of Israel and Judah. But this was all set in motion years before by King Solomon when he built two houses: the house of the Lord and his own palace, the king's house. He then prostituted himself with Hiram, the king of Tyre, to receive gold to build the houses and multiple his wealth. As if that wasn't enough, he took foreign wives from Egypt, Moab, Ammon and other pagan nations. It was an alliance not countenanced by God.

Solomon sold the king of Tyre cities in the land of Galilee, virtually selling the birthright of the nation of Israel. And because of this corrupt alliance, the taxes were raised to fund all that Solomon owned, resulting (after his death) in the conflict between the ten northern tribes, under the rulership of Jeroboam, and the two southern tribes, under the rulership of Rehoboam. Solomon's slide into idolatrous worship [against the manner of worship God had prescribed] eventually led to Jeroboam's own fall from grace. He had been Solomon's superintendent over the taxes and labor of the citizens to maintain Solomon's extravagant lifestyle. He was effective in that role; enough so, that the prophet Abijah revealed to Jeroboam God's intention to make him a ruler of a new kingdom. When, after Solomon's death, Jeroboam attempted to explain to Rehoboam, the heir to Solomon's throne, that the northern tribes were too burdened by the taxation and labor, their demands were rejected and the nation of Israel split in two. 

Both Israel and Judah would see their once prosperous and God-blessed nations slide into degeneracy and destruction. Jeroboam would altar the methods of worship that God had established by worshiping at the altars of pagan gods, appointing his own priests [from other than the tribe of Levi]; and changing the times of the Lord's Feasts. Rehoboam's leadership served the nation of Judah just as grievously. Using the trappings of power and wealth, he continued to burden his people with heavy taxes, and engaged in worshiping false gods, even to the point of giving a home in the Temple of Jehovah to heathen deities. The falling away from the ways of YHWH to worshiping false gods cost the people of ancient Israel dearly. God would use foreign kings and nations to discipline both kingdoms. The northern kingdom of Israel would be conquered by Assyria. From 740 BC to 722 BC the inhabitants were deported and taken into captivity; never to return to their homeland. Likewise, in 589 BC, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon laid siege to Jerusalem, and in 586 BC he destroyed the Temple and took the inhabitants of Judah into captivity for 70 years.

Both kingdoms traded their unique and blessed inheritance from the Lord for worldly wealth and power. In fact, they traded those blessings they had received from God and transferred them to foreign countries. All this is prophesied by the prophet Micah ... All this is for the transgression of Jacob and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the transgression of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? And what is the high place [site of idol worship] of Judah? Is it not Jerusalem? Therefore I will make Samaria a heap in the open country ... All her carved images shall be beaten to pieces, all her wages shall be burned with fire, and all her idols I will lay waste, for from the fee of a prostitute she gathered them, and to the fee of a prostitute they shall return (Micah 1:5-7).

I can't help but see a similarity to the sins of our nation. Have our leaders prostituted us to foreign nations for their own wealth and power? Have we entered into ungodly alliances with our enemies? Do our leaders seek to yoke us to heavier taxes and break the backs of the laborers instead of easing our burden?  Have we, as a people, abandoned our God-ordained ways of worship for ways that feed our souls instead of our spirits? Are we falling for soothing and appealing words of false teachers who encourage us to embrace all religions as the same, worshiping the same God? 

Micah 2:4 says, On that day they shall take up a [taunting, deriding] parable against you and wail with a doleful and bitter song of mourning and say, ‘We are completely destroyed! God exchanges the inheritance of my people; How He removes it from me! He divides our fields to the rebellious [our captors].’ I can't help but wonder if our enemies are mocking and taunting us in the same way. Will our leaders soon bemoan the state of the yoke they have placed upon us [by their immoral alliances]? Will they realize too late that the land they have taken from our hard-working citizens will be given into the hands of an idolatrous king?

And I know there are those who do not think that God's word against the ancient nation of Israel could possibly pertain to us. I hear all the time, that we are under the blood of Jesus, so we are not under the same condemnation or discipline that they were. But I will remind everyone that our God is Immutable, unchanging. It is not that He could change, but chooses not to. It is that He will always respond to everything according to His unchanging character. He is unchanging in who He is, in His perfection, in His purposes, and in His promises. So, while it may seem I only speak of doom and destruction; and it may be hard to accept that we are following this same path, and are deserving of His discipline, I will never fail to remind us all that by repenting, asking for forgiveness, and seeking His face, we can also be deserving of His promises.  

In order to receive those promises, we must be honest with ourselves. Not one of Israel's ancient kings restored the true worship of God. And the result was unavoidable national captivity. I do not believe it was our destiny to repeat that heresy. But I cannot ignore that this nation does not honor and glorify -- yet alone, worship Him -- the way He desires. Yes, there is a remnant that is desperately seeking to restore that Biblical model. We must recognize that our God and His ways are eternal; they are unchanging. And the words He spoke through His messenger Micah, nearly 2800 years ago, still ring true. Let us pray together and endeavor with might and purpose to change the trajectory of our nation so that we can avoid the downfall that is looming. We do not have to repeat the sins of the past!

Next: Micah's message of hope to this generation!  

Micah 2:1-2   Woe (judgment is coming) to those who devise wickedness and plot evil on their beds! When morning comes, they practice evil because it is in the power of their hands. They covet fields and seize them, and houses, and take them away. They oppress and rob a man and his house, a man and his inheritance.

                                                                                                                           

"Stop The Singing and Listen" -- Part 1

 

Today, I am going to embark on a very serious two-part article on what the Lord is showing me about the sins of this nation. I borrowed the title from an admonition that Pastor Dutch Sheets spoke to the Church as a whole. I advise everyone to listen to his 15-minute video on YouTube about the failure of the Church to adequately address the issue of abortion in our nation and its subsequent atrocities. Pastor Sheets counsel to the Body of Christ to "stop the singing and listen" came from an account by pro-life activist Penny Lea, who after giving a speech, was approached by an old man. Weeping, he told her the following story: "I lived in Germany during the Nazi holocaust. I considered myself a Christian. I attended church since I was a small boy. We had heard the stories of what was happening to the Jews, but like most people today in this country, we tried to distance ourselves from the reality of what was really taking place. What could anyone do to stop it?

A railroad track ran behind our small church, and each Sunday morning we would hear the whistle from a distance and then the clacking of the wheels moving over the track. We became disturbed when one Sunday we noticed cries coming from the train as it passed by. We grimly realized that the train was carrying Jews. They were like cattle in those cars! Week after week that train whistle would blow. We would dread to hear the sound of those old wheels because we knew that the Jews would begin to cry out to us as they passed our church. It was so terribly disturbing! We could do nothing to help these poor miserable people, yet their screams tormented us. We knew exactly at what time that whistle would blow, and we decided the only way to keep from being so disturbed by the cries was to start singing our hymns. By the time that train came rumbling past the church yard, we were singing at the top of our voices. If some of the screams reached our ears, we'd just sing a little louder until we could hear them no more. Years have passed and no one talks about it much anymore, but I still hear that train whistle in my sleep. I can still hear them crying out for help. God forgive all of us who called ourselves Christians, yet did nothing to intervene."

This is a two-part article because just as my spirit was moved by the revelations of the recent actions of our government [which I will mention shortly], the Lord began my morning by prompting me to read from the writings of the prophet Micah. I will admit that I was not familiar with this minor prophet, but as I read the seven short chapters in my Bible, the Holy Spirit began to pour into me that the messages he had for the princes and people of Jerusalem apply to us today. And not coincidentally, they speak to the consequences of the sin of abortion upon our culture. When Pastor Sheets calls for pastors, Christian leaders, [and I would add teachers] to no longer be silent; to wake up; and to do something, I agree with him. But I would go a step further, and warn them that they will be held accountable for ignoring this issue and their failure to defend these precious babies! We should be applying the warnings from the prophet Micah to our Sunday sermon!

I stopped counting after 60, of the number of posts I have written [since 2013] regarding the sin of abortion. And please understand, I bear no condemnation of those who have repented for this action in their lives. God has heard your heart and forgiven you. Do not walk in shame, but step forward in boldness to speak out against this evil practice. Become an expert on the actions of our government and corporations who seek to profit from an industry founded on the marketing of fetal body parts. Then use your voice to make known to everyone you can, the sickening truth of how this industry is operated, and those who are deeply invested in it. And sadly, our own federal government is in league with this abomination, and I find myself writing one more post in the hopes that it will inspire one more person to get involved in putting an end to this evil.

This week the website The Federalist" published an article revealing that Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra, himself a radical pro-abortion activist, shut down the ethics board of the National Institute of Health (NIH). In essence, there is now no watch-dog to oversee future fetal research proposals or programs. They are free to do any kind of research they desire. According to the article, "In April, at President Joe Biden’s direction, HHS also reversed the Trump administration’s policy prohibiting funding for intramural research using human fetal tissue. The decision gave the “best and brightest” government researchers and agencies license to use the skin, brains, liver, and eyeballs of aborted children for taxpayer-funded research. In essence, the Biden administration is allowing for taxpayer-funded harvesting of aborted babies, and now it has abolished any sort of ethical oversight." 

Now that we know that, how many of our churches have [and will] continue to sing louder to overcome the cries of the millions of unborn babies that have been tortured and murdered for profit? "For profit", you ask? You probably didn't know that did you? I refer you to another article by The Federalist, in which it is reported that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) paid an estimated $2,000 per individual baby, at times adding up to $12,000 per box of harvested organs. It has been revealed during a U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee investigation that Advanced Bioscience Resources (ABR), a known purchaser of fetal tissue specimens, has paid $325 for the brain of a 20-week-old fetus; $650 for two eyes; and $325 each for a liver, thymus, and lung. And those estimates are low according to another source that says as much as $3340 has been paid for a brain, and $890 for upper and lower limbs with attached hands and feet. One of the most abhorrent logs in ABR's "Fees for Services Schedule" records the sale of a 21-week-old baby with Down Syndrome. This child’s limbs, organs, and skin were sold at hundreds of dollars apiece. ABR made $2,600 in total from the sale of this baby. I know this is gruesome and hard to read, but as long as we stay silent about the FDA's requests for "fresh babies"; late-term babies; skulls of second-trimester babies; and "boy organs to produce humanized mice", then we are complicit with these on-going abortion mills and so-called research laboratories. 

This a truth that may be hard to swallow: There is a modern-day Holocaust that has been perpetrated against unborn babies in our nation. Since 1973, it is estimated that over 62 million babies have been murdered - over 10 times the number of Jews exterminated by Hitler in WW2. And now that there are no government-mandated ethical boundaries in place, "researchers" are free to do even worse barbaric experimentation against these innocent victims. As I have written so many times, the pastors in Germany were faced with a decision ... let the evil government of Germany be the authority over their consciences and morality? Or stand up for the holy righteousness and justice of God? One pastor, Deitrich Bonhoeffer, chose God's ordinances and laid down his life rather than stay silent. Will our pastors? Will you and I?  Or like the remorseless German man at the beginning of this article, will we continue to distance ourselves from the reality of what is happening because it is too disturbing and after all, we tell ourselves, what can we do? Will we just continue to sing our hymns louder to drown out the "noise" of those babies? Or will we stop and listen to the voices of those millions of children crying out for justice? 

It is my prayer and hope that we are capable of standing up in our power and authority as representatives of the Kingdom of God on earth, declaring that the blood of Jesus is more powerful than the blood rituals being committed at a rate of nearly 1,400 sacrificed babies per day. Because I will tell you, as I reveal in the next post, that we should all be as burdened as the prophet Micah was in his day, of the abusive treatment of the poor and innocent by the rich and influential; by those who would use their social or political power for personal gain. But the message of Micah is even broader ... he exposes the sins of the nation of Israel, the punishment God is about to send, and the hope of restoration once the discipline is finished --- timely words of wisdom for us in our day and season of God's plan for mankind. So, I ask you to stop and pray right now that the voices of the faithful will be raised in prayer to not only repent for our inaction, but to seek God's guidance in waking up and educating the Body of Christ on this matter so we can put a stop to the wicked, vile, and evil practice of abortion. Our future as a nation depends on what we do, starting in this very moment ... I promise you that!

Micah 2:1     Woe (judgment is coming) to those who devise wickedness and plot evil on their beds! When morning comes, they practice evil because it is in the power of their hands.