The first two commandments God gave Israel were, “Thou shall have no other gods before Me”, and “Thou shall not make unto thee any graven image.” He followed the 2nd commandment up with, “Thou shall not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the 3rd and 4th generation of those that hate Me, and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love Me” (EXODUS 20:3-6). And in Deuteronomy 6:12-15, God said to them, ‘beware lest thou forget the LORD, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. Thou shalt fear the LORD thy God, and serve Him, and shall swear by His name. Ye shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the people which are around you. For the Lord thy God is a jealous God among you, lest the anger of the LORD thy God be kindled against you, and destroy you from off the face of the earth.’
The word ‘jealous’ comes from the Hebrew word qanna’, and in the Bible it is only used of God. In Gesenius’ Hebrew Lexicon, it says that this word refers to the fact that God will put up with no rivals and is a severe avenger of anyone who would depart from Himself. But depart Israel did.
The writer of II KINGS 17:15-16 explained why God removed Israel from the promised land with these words, ‘They rejected His statutes and His covenant that He had made with their fathers and His testimonies which He had testified against them; they followed Idols, became idolaters, and went after the nations who were all around them, concerning whom the Lord had charged them that they should not do like them. So, they left all the commandments of the LORD their God, made for themselves a molded image and worshiped all the hosts of heaven and served Baal. They caused their sons and daughters to pass through the fire, practiced witchcraft and soothsaying, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke Him to anger. Therefore, the Lord was very angry with Israel, and removed them from His sight….’
Reading this, we understand that persistent disobedience to God will end in disaster, especially for those nations that He has graciously revealed Himself to and greatly blessed. Remember, God is immutable.
America has many faults and has committed many sins since the Pilgrims arrived on the Mayflower in search of a land where they might worship the God of the Bible and live according to His commands. But despite the problems, our nation still understood who God was and had respect for His laws and principles. But this no longer appears to be the case. For us that still believe in the One True God, this can be very discouraging. But there still may be room for hope.
II Chronicles 7:14 says that if God’s people will ‘humble ourselves, pray, seek His face and turn from our wicked ways; He will hear from heaven, forgive our sin and heal our land.’ Some would argue that this is a promise to Israel alone, but the verse begins with, ‘If MY PEOPLE.’ Are Christians not His people? My prayer is that God will awaken all His true children to our nation’s peril; that we might humbly turn to him in prayer faith and repentance, and present Him with a reason to yet have mercy on us.
For God’s glory and His alone,
Pastor Terry.