America at a Crossroads

“See that ye refuse not Him that speaketh.  For if they escaped not who refused him (Moses) that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from Him that speaketh from heaven:”  Hebrews 12:25

God is not playing.  Yes, He is a God of love and mercy, but He is also a God of judgment and wrath.  He will not “look the other way” while we continue to sin nor will He accept anything short of true repentance of our sin and complete loyalty to Himself and to Christ.  What God gave up to save us from our sins is not to be taken lightly, but with reverential fear, wholehearted honor, and a total trust in Christ and His gospel truth.

The writer of the book of Hebrews admonished his readers to pay close attention to the words of the Lord.  Upon hearing His words, do not think that they were meant for someone else.  Every sentence, every word and every syllable is abundant with God’s love, mercy, care, and grace for all those who will truly listen.  To reject His word is to reject Him.  In the time of the Hebrews’ journey across the wilderness, the people vowed to obey all that the LORD had said through His servant Moses (Exodus 24:7).  When we read this passage, the people sounded like they meant what they said, but apparently they did not really hear Moses’ words, at least not all of them.  As long as they obeyed the commandments of God, everything would go well for them, but if they decided to stray from the commandments, God promised to punish them seven times more for their sins (Leviticus 26).  But as we all know, people hear what they want to hear.  Because they didn’t take God at His word concerning obedience, many of them died without ever seeing the promised land (Exodus 32:27-28).  Years later when the children of Israel demanded a king to rule over them like the other nations, God told Samuel, the prophet, that it was not him, Samuel, whom they were rejecting, but it was God whom they rejected to reign over them (I Samuel 8:7).  From that day forward, Israel has faced constant conflict.

If ancient Israel suffered because they did not listen to and obey God as He spoke through His servants Moses, Samuel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and all the many others whom God had raised up as intermediaries between Him and His people, how much more will we suffer by rejecting Christ who died for our sins and who speaks to us from heaven through the Holy Spirit and through the words of scripture?  How can folks know what God requires of them if they refuse to hear Him speak?  None of the Old Testament servants of God died for the sins of the world.  None of them were sinless.  None were capable to pay the high cost of salvation for sinful man.  They were spokesmen for God to lead people to Him, to worship and honor Him.  If their words were rejected by the people, the people then suffered through endless wars and captivity.  If the punishment was harsh for rejecting the warnings of Moses and the other prophets who did not die for others, then the punishment for rejecting the One who did die for man’s sin would be even more brutal, complete, and everlasting.  The writer of Hebrews had earlier asked in Hebrews 2:3, “How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation…?”  The answer:  there is no escape.

I see America at a crossroads.  Which road will we take?  Will we repent and turn back to the Lord or will we continue on the path to perdition?  Israel is God’s chosen nation, not the United States, but because our nation was founded upon the principles of the word of God, led by men and women who honored God in forming our Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, giving us the First Amendment which ensures that we have the right to worship without government interference, we are just as accountable to God as the nation of Israel in honoring and looking to Him as the sovereign God of all nations.  Will we allow socialism, which is a form of government in which God is outlawed and government becomes the nation’s god or will we continue to be a free country in which we honor God as our LORD?  “Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD…” (Psalm 33:12a).  Am I concerned about the direction of the greatest nation on earth?  You bet I am.  However, I know that “all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28).  We must all seek God through prayer and stand for righteousness.

We’re all sitting at the intersection on the road of life.  One way is the path to freedom through repentance and honoring the LORD God which results in blessings and peace.  The other way is the path which leads to God’s judgment and misery.  Which way we should turn I see as a “no brainer”.