Jeremiah chapters 46 – 51
Just to let you know that God is not an indiscriminate judge we have a number of chapters in Jeremiah where judgement is dispensed to the various nations around Israel. Egypt, the Philistines, Moab, Edom, and Babylon.
So it isn’t just judgement on Israel as their being the people of God, called out from all the nations to be a singular people of His own possession that get chastised and punished for failing to live up to God’s standard. All the other nations don’t get away free just because they weren’t chosen, they weren’t given the Law and the prophets. Indeed, the prophets did go beyond Israel’s borders to preach repentance to other nations. The book of Jonah fully concerns God’s call to preach to Babylon, specifically to the city of Nineveh. And here we see that a people can actually respond in repentance to God’s warning of impeding doom. Interestingly, Jonah thought they indeed may respond favorably to God’s word and initially refused to obey God’s call. But that’s a different discussion.
This has great ramifications on all the rest of the world and we shouldn’t think that just because America, or any other nation today, isn’t a theocracy as Israel was a few millennia ago, that we can’t fall under the judgement of God for not following His ways. We should actually take a lesson here. These nations, Egypt, and the rest were still under rebellion against God even if they weren’t His chosen people. They were still His creatures, , their rulers were still held responsible, they were still under the curse of the Fall of Adam. Ignoring a personal relationship with the Lord and the responsibility of leadership is still a punishable offence, even for all those outside of the Jewish state.
Lot’s of its citizens think that the United States is a Christian nation, but it isn’t. It is just a nation composed of a lot of Christians. Are they a majority? I don’t think so. Not if you count Christians as only those with a saving personal relationship with Jesus Christ, those who have been born again. And not everyone who goes to church. Kind of like saying that not all who are of Israel are God’s people, like Paul says, “For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter . . . ” Rom 2:28-29. So I wouldn’t say that this is a Christian nation, though America is reportedly the nation who gives the most money to Christian missions worldwide, probably because of the huge number of churches it contains.
But this nation will still be judged for the evil it does, under what ever guise. The evil of genocide as native peoples were exterminated like pests in America’s formative years. The evil of slavery and the evil that spawned after slavery was abolished resulting in the fight for civil rights. Or the evil of abortion protected by national law and protected by the Supreme Court. The list goes on. But yes, this nation will be judged along with all the other nations of the world. If only we could be like the people of Nineveh when Jonah visited.
Then the people of Nineveh believed in God; and they called a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them. When the word reached the king of Nineveh, he arose from his throne, laid aside his robe from him, covered himself with sackcloth and sat on the ashes. He issued a proclamation” leading to national repentance. Jonah 3: 5-7
It could happen. But I’m not counting on it.
[Scriptures taken from the New American Standard Bible © 1995]