Leadership Crisis Ahead for the Nation
Although things have been going along well for the past few decades, change is inevitable. As we think back to the differences between past leaders of our nation, we must tremble for the day fast-approaching of a choice between the lesser of two evils.
A nation cannot long endure divided by strife and torn apart by godless men and godless women.
We will reap what we sow, as did Rome… as did the Kingdom of David… and as it is with powerful nation after nation throughout mortal history. For it was King Solomon who said: “Nothing is new under the sun.”
What has been is what will be,
and what has been done is what will be done,
and there is nothing new under the sun.
The Kingdom of Israel, God’s own nation, fell into division after Solomon’s death circa 920 B.C. A divided kingdom left Jerusalem in Judah to the south. Examination of the years following the initial division of God’s own Nation reveals a predictably repetitive theme not unlike an evaluation of these last days of this post-modern kingdom.
Kings (or Presidents, Premiers, Prime Ministers, Princes, Emperors & other earthly titles)
Josiah, king of Judah (640–609 B.C.), had nearly rebuilt Judah, with Jerusalem as its central place to worship God, into a kingdom of strategic importance to The background of our story begins during times of increased Judean influence within a declining Assyrian Empire. But life turns quickly for a powerful nation.
The Bible documents the problem of a nation (or king or president, etc.) who does not follow God. This includes the next king, son of Josiah.
And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his fathers had done.
2 Kings 23:32
Think how many now would fit this description of godlessness in their leadership style and substance. Nothing is new under the sun and evil in the sight of the LORD is a common theme preceding God’s wrath allowing the fall and defeat of God’s own nation.
{See just a few references of evil leaders in the history behind the link above.}
Therefore I ask US: When did we no longer acknowledge that we are ‘one nation, under God, indivisible?
Judah would eventually fall in 586 B.C.
Jeremiah
The words of Jeremiah, the son of Hilkiah, one of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, 2 to whom the word of the Lord came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign. 3 It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, and until the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the captivity of Jerusalem in the fifth month.
God speaks to His nation, under no one (except evil leaders). God speaks of their evil through the words and actions of the prophet, Jeremiah.
14 Then the Lord said to me, “Out of the north disaster shall be let loose upon all the inhabitants of the land. 15 For behold, I am calling all the tribes of the kingdoms of the north, declares the Lord, and they shall come, and every one shall set his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, against all its walls all around and against all the cities of Judah.
16 And I will declare my judgments against them, for all their evil in forsaking me.
They have made offerings to other gods and worshiped the works of their own hands. 17 But you, dress yourself for work; arise, and say to them everything that I command you…
The defeat of a nation under no one begins
Jeremiah 2:
11 Has a nation changed its gods,
even though they are no gods?
But my people have changed their glory
for that which does not profit.
12 Be appalled, O heavens, at this;
be shocked, be utterly desolate,
declares the Lord,
… Or what do you gain by going to Assyria
to drink the waters of the Euphrates?
19 Your evil will chastise you,
and your apostasy will reprove you.
Know and see that it is evil and bitter
for you to forsake the Lord your God;
the fear of me is not in you,
declares the Lord God of hosts.
… But in the time of their trouble they say,
‘Arise and save us!’
28 But where are your gods
that you made for yourself?
Let them arise, if they can save you,
in your time of trouble;
for as many as your cities
are your gods, O Judah.
What was will be.
Jeremiah 5:
12 They have spoken falsely of the Lord
and have said, ‘He will do nothing;
no disaster will come upon us,
nor shall we see sword or famine.
13 The prophets will become wind;
the word is not in them.
Thus shall it be done to them!’”
…
21 “Hear this, O foolish and senseless people,
who have eyes, but see not,
who have ears, but hear not.22 Do you not fear me? declares the Lord.
Do you not tremble before me?
I placed the sand as the boundary for the sea,
a perpetual barrier that it cannot pass;
though the waves toss, they cannot prevail;
though they roar, they cannot pass over it.
23 But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart;
they have turned aside and gone away.
To be continued:
“Behold, the days are coming…
[ Lament over Jerusalem ]
Captive Jerusalem before Christ lay vulnerable to the swords of the nations, even prior to the conquests of Rome. The LORD allowed its fall into ruin, for His people had not listened to their Prophets; therefore the LORD kept silence beyond their generations into the centuries.
