When God Abandons a People
Posted on June 4, 2007
Filed Under Personal, Worldview |
John MacArthur delivered a powerful message on the National Day of Prayer that I believe every Christian in America should hear. The first part is airing today on the Focus on the Family Daily Broadcast. You can hear it here.
The title of his message is “A Nation Abandoned by God”. He is referring to America.
That may shock us to hear those words, because we have believed that God has been blessing this nation from the very beginning when the Pilgrims and Puritans entered into a covenant with God for this nation. I have dealt earlier with the clear foundations that this country was founded upon: Christianity (a biblical Christian worldview) and the morality which sprang from it.
But it is unbiblical to think that God will continue to bless an individual or a nation if it persists in forgetting and defying Him. I was trying to express this in my blog “A National Confession”. In Deuteronomy 8, God gives a clear warning to a nation that forgets Him. I think we should read it again. It sounds like it is written for us:
10 When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you. 11 Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. 12 Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, 13 and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, 14 then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 15 He led you through the vast and dreadful desert, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock. 16 He gave you manna to eat in the desert, something your fathers had never known, to humble and to test you so that in the end it might go well with you. 17 You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” 18 But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today. 19 If you ever forget the LORD your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed. 20 Like the nations the LORD destroyed before you, so you will be destroyed for not obeying the LORD your God.
Lest we think that “destruction” is bound up in the march of hob-nailed boots across our land, let us be reminded of Amos 8
11 The days are coming,” declares the Sovereign LORD,
“when I will send a famine through the land—
not a famine of food or a thirst for water,
but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD.
12 Men will stagger from sea to sea
and wander from north to east,
searching for the word of the LORD,
but they will not find it.
Destruction can come when God removes His restraining Hand, when He removes His word from any prominent position.
In Judges 2, we read how Israel forgot the Lord and what He had done for them. They did evil in the eyes of the Lord and chased after the idols in the land. Since God calls idols “lies”, we can think of it this way: they chased after the lies in the land. Here is how God dealt with them:
14 In his anger against Israel the LORD handed them over to raiders who plundered them. He sold them to their enemies all around, whom they were no longer able to resist. 15 Whenever Israel went out to fight, the hand of the LORD was against them to defeat them, just as he had sworn to them. They were in great distress.
Are we not in great distress today? Is our land not filled with lies, filth and depravity? Are we not running pell-mell away from Him? Is there not a growing hostility toward any reference to Him or His word?
I encourage you to listen to MacArthur today and tomorrow.
We’ll talk more of this later.
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8 Responses to “When God Abandons a People”
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Dr. Del Tackett is president of the Focus on the Family Institute and Senior Vice President to Focus on the Family. He is also the architect and chief spokesperson for Focus on the Family's The Truth Project--a nationwide initiative designed to bring the Christian worldview to the body of Christ.
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Del, I look forward each day to what you post. I am a truth seeker and I am learning so much from you and the people who comment on what you have written. Thank you so much for taking the time to give to us what God has put on your heart. I have been telling others about your web site.
If God has abandoned this Nation, do we as the body of believers in America have our heads stuck in the sand? I read a scripture in 1 Peter 4:17 that said
“for the time is come that judgement must begin at the house of God:” If this is true we need to wake up and do something about it.
I heard of a group of believers led by Lou Engle of The Call.com who are fasting and praying for America for 40 days ending on July 7, 07. They are focusing on a prayer rally in Nashville Tn. in a stadium that will hold 100 thousand people. I don’t think it is necessary to attend that rally. However,I do believe that if we are ever going to fast and pray for America now is the time to do so. Thank you for your spititual insights into this urgent matter.
Dr. Tackett,
I listened to John MacArthur today, and would like to say that it was shocking, but it was not. I have felt for awhile now that God was lifting his hand from us as a nation. I believe Israel is God’s chosen nation, and that we (America) have turned away not only from biblical principles and worldview, we have also abandoned God’s chosen people of Israel.
All you have to do is watch the evening news, watch political talk shows and debates. Those who are against Israel don’t even try to hide their hatred anymore…they don’t need to.
Looking at the state of our land, I am beginning to fully understand the depth of our national moral depravity. I agree with Mr. MacArthur when he quotes from Romans 1:18-32, he is (or already has) abandoned us to our sin.
May we all see what we have done and turn back to our Lord.
I think it is significant that the Hebrew word for “male” in Genesis 1:27 is “zakar.” It comes from a root word (also zakar) which means “to remember.” When God created the male of the species, He said that he was to be a rememberer. Over and over, God tells Israel to remember. And when they sinned, God said they “forgot.”
John MacArthur is saying that we have forgotten our God…and we must repent - we must remember!
I listened to this broadcast simply by accident, but I know I was supposed to hear that message. I was in shock, but the more I listened and thought about it; I agreed with him. I hope to hear the second part today.
Omega Summer ‘04
Our nation tried a grand experiment and with the original precepts, built itself into the greatest nation on earth. When we turned away from God and made ourselves the ultimate authority, we see the beginning of travail just as God’s chosen people did throughout the Old Testament. When they were faithful and obedient, they prospered. When they chose their own path, they suffered. In all our wisdom, why can’t we learn from this? It is time for us to be the cornerstone and stand fast. We must stand in the gap in the wall. I hope we are not too late, for our children’s sake.
Wayme MacKirdy’s comment on the term “zakar” (I’m assuming its correct vice confirming due to time constraints) and Tom Page’s concerns for our children’s sakes show God’s wisdom in commanding us to diligently teach God’s commands to our children. Again, God said that He would turn the hearts of their fathers to their children and the children to their fathers lest He smight the earth with a curse (Mal4:6; Luke 1:17). Fathers, showing their hearts’ passions to their sons, are men who are choosing to shape a people’s destiny.
We have declared ourselves a nation under God. We say it is God in Whom we trust. We can trust in this: God means what He says; He hates sin; He is the judge of nations, planting and uprooting them as He pleases; He did not allow even (and especially) His chosen people to sin without judgement; we are no exception to God’s rules; sin is a disgrace to any people. It was not enough for Israel to say “The temple and the ark of the covenant” as if they were the source of their protection and security instead of their living relationship with and obedience to God. It is not enough for us to remember our Christian roots.
We must walk humbly with God through all generations.
We have slain over 45 million unborn made in His image and likeness. We export in all forms of media sexual immorality and perversion. We are greedy. We are selfish. We love pleasure far more than God. We are the mightiest nation in the world and all nations in some fashion look up to us. (So too was Egypt the mightiest nation when God broke her power. All the nations observed this and feared the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.)
God is indeed patient, and is slow to wrath. But He does not withhold his hand forever. If we do not turn, He, for the sake of His great name, may well humble us before all nations. Our sin demands a response from God. Will we humble ourselves before the offended power in abject repentance, or continue in our sin while singing “God Bless America” and saying “In God We Trust” and pleadging we are “one nation under God”?
A scenario to chill one’s heart: The Muslims hate us and see (rightly) the terrible evil that we do. They say (rightly) “Surely the Christian God can not be God, for if He was, He would surely destroy them for their iniquity.” Perhaps God, righteously indignant at our apostasy, decides to act and judge us a people. Israel’s mightiest ally falls, and the Muslim world, emboldened, moves against Israel. God Himself, positioned perfectly to receive all the glory for the defense of His people, utterly destroys the enemies of His covenant people.
There is enough truth in this scenario to cause serious contemplation of the nature of God and His plans for this land. But if we, as fathers, show not the total commitment and passion due the Lord before our Sons, we sin and usher in great evil.
David Gilmore
I agree with John Mac Arthur’s take on the state of our nation and the Lord removing his hand of protection. We have told Him to get out of our government, schools and have even removed the saving blood of Christ from some of our sermons to make them more palatable to the audience! I love our country, not what it has become, but the foundations that were laid and the brave men & women who were willing to pay the price to lay them. The “American Experiment” was a success in that we had a system that respected the rights of the people and promoted freedom. Now we have largely forgotten God, as Mr. MacKirdy stated earlier. We are decaying from within and have many enemies without. When Israel forgot God they decayed from within, their judges became corrupt and instead of doing something about it they decided it would be easier to be like the other nations and have a king. God was rejected in their abdication of their responsibility to self govern. As they decayed from within they had many enemies gain in power over them from without. Enemies they had once been able to fend off, but in the end they were too weak to do so. God will use the natural decay that happens to us when we forget Him and enemies from without to judge us as a nation, just as He did with His chosen people. This is what I see happening over the last decades only with increasing intensity. May our nation repent, may our churches be refined, and may God be glorified once more in our land as well as the whole earth!
Dear Dr. Tackett,
First, let me say that my husband and I had the privelege to attend “The Truth Project” seminar in Orlando last November and Thank You for what you are letting God do in you and through you! We don’t see you, but the God in you. God is truly amazing in what HE is doing in our lives, and what HE will continue to do. Second, in reference to “A Nation Abandoned by God”. My husband and I see that all around us there are few “True” Christians willing to see what’s going on or willing to stand up for the truth! It saddens my heart to see even family members unwilling to see what is really going on in our country. We will not be sedate nor will we stop praying for revival in this country. As you said at the seminar, “If we really believe that what we believe is really real, then we could turn this world upside down!” Our prayers are with you and men like you who aren’t afraid to speak and share the truth! In Christ, Dawn Brown