In the book of Numbers chapters 24 and 25 there’s a poignant story of a pagan king named Balak who saw the Israelites approaching his land and he was concerned. Balak hired Balaam, a diviner to have a chat with God in an effort to convince God to curse the Israelites. He recognized that it was a spiritual battle so he went straight to the top.
God said no 3 times. To his credit, Balak was wise enough not to fight Israel militarily. The Israelites came on into his land and got comfortable. Too comfortable.
With Balaam’s help, King Balak realized that if he couldn’t use military strength to defeat the Israelites he could exploit their moral weaknesses and hurt them from the inside out. His plan worked and the Israelites fell into sin that greatly displeased God. Israel paid a high price for its disobedience.
In many ways I see parallels between the USA and Israel. I think that God has protected us and blessed us. We became the wealthiest and most powerful nation in the world. We’ve never suffered a major attack on our soil by an enemy nation. Then 911.
I think that’s when things began to change. Maybe God didn’t completely remove His hand of protection, but it was a warning that we were going wayward into the wilderness. We took Creationism out of the schools and let in evolution. Prayer in schools got kicked out and replaced with sex ed. The Ten Commandments were removed from courtrooms and other public buildings while we started killing babies and glorifying debauchery in movies and music.
Now so many things are turned upside down. Tolerance is defined as anything said by anyone but a Christian and when a Christian does utter a word, it’s hate speech. Police officers are the bad guys and guys who feel like girls can use any public restroom they choose. Businesses who refuse to make wedding cakes for gay weddings can be forced by their States to pay damages. Elected officials can lie, cheat and illegally destroy thousands of government emails and still win the popular vote. I guess no one cares about character anymore. It’s ok to defecate on and burn an American flag or take a knee during the National Anthem, but we’re vilified when we talk about protecting our borders.
We were founded as a Christian nation, but we have lost our way. Just like the Israelites, it’s not the enemy across the border that will defeat us. It’s the enemy within.
Onword and Upwords by Dennis Brady 