God very much cares about why we offer sacrifice and service to Him, what our intent and motives are. Just being religious in no way makes our service, or us, acceptable to the Lord. Such lip service, such self-righteous worship, is built upon a foundation of sand that will result in the destruction of anything resting upon it when the Lord shakes it, whether that shaking is natural or supernatural.
On September 11th, 2001, America was shaken. Two icons of American strength were attacked, the first being the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, the heart of America’s financial might, and the Pentagon, the heart of America’s military might. The symbolism of these buildings was likely part of the reason the terrorists chose them. They wanted to show the vulnerability of the greatest nation on earth; they wanted to shake America. They succeeded. America will never be the same. The security we experienced by having the largest and most powerful economy in the world, along with the awesome might of our military was exposed as a security founded upon the strength of man, a security that avails nothing unless it is the Lord that we ultimately rely upon. This is what America has forgotten; we have forgotten that it is, “‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord of hosts” (Zechariah 4:6) wherein lies America’s greatness. In order to remind us of that truth, God permitted, at the hands of evil men, the shaking of America.
What has been America’s response? The Sunday following the terrorist attacks on Tuesday saw a surge in church attendance. People who rarely prayed fell on their knees and weep before the Lord for mercy and protection. People who had previously only used the name of God as a swear word now invoked it with a reverence rivaling that of a true Christian. All of a sudden faith in God was not only acceptable, but also encouraged. In essence America dialed 911, declaring an emergency and asking for divine help.
The question that must be answered, however, is not what America’s response to the shaking has been, but what brought about the need for the shaking? Why would God allow a network of evil men who believe in a false god to kill so many innocence human beings? America is one of the most, if not the most, religious nation upon the face of the earth. A vast majority of the citizens confess a belief in God. Charities receive billions of dollars every year from generous donors anxious to help others less fortunate than themselves. The world itself has benefited from this same generous spirit. America has helped those who have sought to destroy her, rebuilding Japan and Germany after World War II, feeding the multitudes, clothing the naked, sheltering the homeless, and forgiving the debts of those nations unable to repay. So, with all of the good that America has done, why the destruction of September 11th2001?
At least part of the reason lies within the comments two prominent evangelical Christians gave shortly after the attack. Jerry Falwell said, “The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America. I point the finger in their face and say ‘you helped this happen.’” Pat Robertson said, “We have insulted God at the highest levels of our government. And, then we say, ‘why does this happen?’ Well, why it’s happening is that God Almighty is lifting his protection from us.”
These two men received a hailstorm of criticism for these remarks. They were soundly condemned as hate mongers. In fact, the backlash from some of the groups they denounced was so intense that Falwell issued an apology within days stating that only the hijackers and terrorists were responsible for the deadly attacks. Admittedly, their words are harsh and pointed, but are they true?
The example of how God dealt with both Israel and Judah in the Old Testament is helpful to examine. They were God’s chosen people. God rescued them from Egypt where they had become enslaved. Working mighty and awesome miracles at the hand of Moses, the Lord proved His power and authority were greater than that of the Egyptian gods. He brought them to Mt. Sinai where He gave them the law they were to obey, the Ten Commandments being the most prominent portion of that law. Even though they continuously rebelled against Him, resulting in a forty-year detour through the wilderness, He nevertheless brought them into the Promised Land where they flourished. They built the Ark of the Covenant wherein was placed the tablets of the Ten Commandments and a jar of manna. The Mercy Seat was then placed on top of the Ark. The Lord was symbolically present sitting between the outstretched wings of the Cherubim that were on top of the Mercy seat. This Ark was placed within the Holy of Holies and the Israelites took great pride and comfort in it. They felt that as long as they had possession of the Ark, they had possession of God, and He would protect them from all their enemies; but they were wrong.
The Monarchy that was established under King David and continued under his son Solomon was divided after Solomon’s death. His son, Rehoboam, ruled the southern part of the kingdom consisting of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin along with the Levites. Jerusalem, where the Temple was located – and thus the Ark of the Covenant – was also in the Southern Kingdom. This kingdom became known as “Judah”.
Jeroboam became king of the northern part of the kingdom that consisted of the remaining ten tribes of Israel; it retained the name “Israel”.
The first thing Jeroboam did was to fashion two golden idols in the shape of calves. He placed one in the northern part of Israel in the city of Dan and the other in the southern part of Israel in the city of Bethel. He did this to discourage his subjects from going to Jerusalem to worship in the Temple, fearing they would desire to return to Rehoboam’s kingship. “So the king consulted, and made two golden calves, and he said to them (the Israelites), ‘It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem; behold your gods, O Israel, that brought you up from the land of Egypt.’ And he set one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. Now this thing became a sin, for the people went to worship before the one as far as Dan. And he made houses on high places, and made priests from among all the people who were not of the sons of Levi” (1 Kings 12:28-31).
Sin never departed from Israel. Jeroboam had made the of sin idolatry the foundation of the new nation and from that foundation, all sorts of evil become commonplace within the land. Every king who reigned in Israel brought increasing sin and guilt upon the nation. In just over two hundred years (933 B.C. – 721 B.C.) Israel would cease to exist. The people were taken captive by the Assyrians and deported (See 2 Kings 17). The people of Assyria repopulated Israel with foreigners. Some exiled priests were eventually returned to Israel to teach the foreigners how to worship the Lord. The result was the Samaritans, a people the Jews of Jesus’ time held in contempt because of their mixed bloodline and their unorthodox worship of the Lord.
The prophets Amos and Hosea both foretold the judgment the Lord was going to bring upon Israel for their many unrepentant sins. Yet, the words of these prophets were not heeded. One reason the Israelites were deaf to their message was the prosperity Israel was enjoying at the time. Israel was basking in material opulence and a military that had, under the leadership of King Jeroboam II, succeeded in overthrowing their surrounding enemies, extending the borders to their greatest scope since King Solomon. Amos and Hosea found themselves prophesying during Israel’s Golden Age, and the Israelites were in no mood to listen to doomsday messages.
Nevertheless, the prophets condemned Israel for their idolatry. They worshiped the calves that Jeroboam had set up in Bethel and Dan. They worshiped the god, Baal, and the goddess, Asherah, worship that included sexual debauchery. They worshiped gods that required their sons and daughters (including infants) to be burned alive as offerings. Their sins included greed, oppression of the poor, violence, extortion, perversion of justice, witchcraft, and sexual perversion.
Ironically, much of Amos’ prophesying occurred in Bethel, which means “House of God”. Of all places, the House of God (churches) should be attentive to the words of the Lord. Yet, it was there that Amos was most forcefully denounced, not by the common people, but by Amaziah, the priest! “Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent word to Jeroboam, king of Israel, saying, ‘Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel; the land is unable to endure all his words. For thus Amos says, “Jeroboam will die by the sword and Israel will certainly go from its land into exile.”’ Then Amaziah said to Amos, ‘Go, you seer, flee away to the land of Judah, (where Amos was from) and there eat bread and there do your prophesying! But no longer prophesy at Bethel, for it is a sanctuary of the king and a royal residence’” (Amos 7:10-13).
Amos discovered first hand that, “They hate him who reproves in the gate, and they abhor him who speaks with integrity” (Amos 5:10). Israel could not bear to hear the truth and it was the religious leadership that was seeking most vehemently to silence it. Instead of accepting the truth, turning from sin, and seeking forgiveness, the nation was deceived into thinking the government could never be overtaken by a foreign power and sent into exile because of Bethel, the House of God in their presence. Their willful deception led to their utter destruction. For Israel the final 911 call would come in 721 B.C; the call came too late. God brought Assyria against His people to destroy their nation.
Judah, the southern kingdom, fared better for a while, but within 150 years of Israel’s demise, they too found themselves the object of the Lord’s impending judgment for the very sins that brought about Israel’s downfall.
Jeremiah in particular was given the unpleasant task of prophesying to Judah the overthrow and exile they would experience if they did not repent of their sins and turn back to the Lord. Yet, Jeremiah was no more successful in convincing the Jews of the coming judgment than Amos and Hosea were with the Israelites. The greatest obstacle facing Jeremiah was the same obstacle facing Amos and Hosea; national prosperity and the false belief that God would not give His chosen people, along with His Temple in Jerusalem, up to a foreign, pagan, power. “The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, ‘Stand in the gate of the Lord's house and proclaim there this word, and say, “Hear the word of the Lord, all you of Judah, who enter by these gates to worship the Lord!”’ Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place. Do not trust in deceptive words, saying, “This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.” For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly practice justice between a man and his neighbor, if you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, nor walk after other gods to your own ruin, then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever. Behold, you are trusting in deceptive words to no avail. Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and offer sacrifices to Baal, and walk after other gods that you have not known, then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by My name, and say, “We are delivered”-- that you may do all these abominations? Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of robbers in your sight? Behold, I, even I, have seen it,’ declares the Lord. ‘But go now to my place which was in Shiloh, where I made My name dwell at the first, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of My people Israel. And now, because you have done all these things,’ declares the Lord, ‘and I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, but you did not hear, and I called you but you did not answer, therefore, I will do to the house which is called by My name, in which you trust, and to the place which I gave you and your fathers, as I did to Shiloh. And I will cast you out of My sight, as I have cast out all your brothers, all the offspring of Ephraim’” (Jeremiah 7:1-15). The thrice repeated phrase, “the temple of the Lord” in verse four, reveals the faulty thinking the Jews had about the Lord being unwilling to allow Judah to be destroyed and carried away into exile because the Temple, along with the Ark of the Covenant, was in their midst. In order to call attention to this delusion, the Lord tells them to remember Shiloh.
Shiloh was the first resting place of the Ark of the Covenant after the land of Canaan had been mostly conquered by the Israelites under the command of Joshua. The tribes of Israel found security in its presence, thinking God would continue to favor them with victory over their enemies as long as they possessed the Ark. However, the sins of the Jewish tribes became so great, affecting even the priests (See 1 Samuel 2:12-17) that God allowed the Ark to be captured by the Philistines and the Israelites to languish under foreign oppression that lasted off and on for generations. The lesson should have been learned then that simply possessing the name of the Lord is no shield from judgment. But it was not learned and the final 911 call from the Jews came in 586 B.C; but it was too late; Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple, taking the gold, silver, and bronze that the Temple contained. God had forsaken His dwelling place because the sins of Judah had become greater than the sins of Israel.
The lesson should be clear. Just because God has blessed a nation or people, chosen them to be His own, or caused His name to dwell in their midst, in no way assures that nation or people they will escape the shaking God will bring in order to destroy that which is not of Him so that that which is of Him will become apparent.
Men who recognized Jesus Christ as the Son of God, the Savior of the world, founded America upon Christian principles. America’s heritage is a rich Christian heritage, and we have become the mightiest nation the world has ever known. Yet, just as Israel and then Judah, succumbed to the seduction of material prosperity, which in turn led to, not only sin of all kinds and not just to the toleration of those sins, but the acceptance and promotionof those sins as normal, so America has done also. This is very dangerous.
Certainly the sin of no single person or group of people or organization will bring about the shaking God visits upon the unrepentant. However, when a society finds itself becoming increasingly influenced by powerful, sinful people, groups, or organizations, it does not take a prophet to tell what the outcome will be.
The sins of America equal or surpass the sins of Judah and Israel. America has sacrificed millions of its babies at abortions clinics, Planned Parenthood being the guiltiest of all, having the most blood on their hands. The ACLU and likeminded organizations are stripping any references to God, and particularly Jesus Christ, from the public arena; the radical feminists, headed by the National Organization for Women, have rebelled against the divinely ordain family structure, usurping the place of headship God bestowed upon men in the family and church; sexual immorality has become so mainstream in American society even a cursory look at TV and movies will attest to the fact that the PG-13 and R rated entertainment that young people feed upon are in reality nothing other than pornography; the homosexuality lifestyle has advanced to a point unimaginable just a few short years ago, even making inroads into legitimizing bestiality and pedophilia; thus, corrupting a generation of youngsters and distorting their thinking about sex.
It is when governments sanction and promote these and other sins that nations are brought to the edge of destruction. It is when the religious leaders follow in the same path that destruction is evitable.
In ancient Israel and Judah the corruption penetrated the priesthood as we have seen; in modern America the corruption has penetrated the church. Pastors, preachers, ministers, and Bible teachers, rather than denouncing such sins, too often advocate their practice. This is a sure sign of a dying society. Another sign is its attempt to silence its prophets. “Then they said, ‘Come and let us devise plans against Jeremiah. Surely the law is not going to be lost to the priest, nor counsel to the sage, nor the divine word to the prophet! Come on and let us strike at him with our tongue, and let us give no heed to any of his words’” (Jeremiah 18:18).
I offer no apology for speaking the truth. Just as evil empires were used by God to punish Israel and Judah, evil will be used to punish America. Unless America repents and returns to her spiritual heritage upon which she was founded, her acceptance and advocacy of sin, especially within the Church, will disconnect the 911 call made by frightened Americans to God on September 11th, 2001, and America will be shaken again.
Do not be deceived. America did not become the greatest nation on earth because of her industrial might or her military might or because we claimed to be a Christian nation. We became the greatest nation on earth because we were a people truly submitted to the Lordship of Jesus Christ in our personal lives and formed a government to reflect that submission. And only that foundation will be able to withstand the shaking that comes when God’s judgment is upon the earth once again.
