We couldn’t go into the streets without danger to our lives. Our end was near; our days were numbered. We were doomed! (Lamentations 4:18 NLT)
Much is transpiring in the United States of America today. Many have blamed our decline on failed political policies, which may be partly true, but could there be a deeper and more pervasive reason? Could we be under the judgment of God?
My daughter and son-in-law live in Queens, New York City. He must travel to work on the subway. No one feels safe riding the subway today. People in many of our major cities fear just going out on the streets. It is a situation very similar to one described in the book of Lamentations when Jerusalem came under the judgment of God. Israel had repeatedly ignored the warnings of Jeremiah and other prophets, and Jerusalem was under siege.
Have we ignored our prophets in this nation? Good is labeled as bad and evil as good. People no longer try to hide evil; it is prevalent in the marketplace. The Prophet Isaiah said, “Our courts oppose the righteous, and justice is nowhere to be found. Truth stumbles in the streets, and honesty has been outlawed” (Isaiah 59:14 NLT). Such was true in Isaiah’s day, and it appears increasingly true in our land today.
Everything I have proposed is in question form. I am not a prophet, but you do not need to be a prophet to recognize the apparent. Wisdom sometimes is a keen sense of the obvious. God does not usually give times and dates for his actions, but he does provide signs, and they are all there. God is not mocked; if we don’t have a national repentance, there will be a day of reckoning.
We can say with certainty that it is time to pray. Yes, it does say, “We were doomed” in our scriptural reference, but God is always looking for a way to be merciful. Lamentations 5:21, NLT says; Restore us, O Lord, and bring us back to you again! Give us back the joys we once had!
Let us pray for our nation, as never before, “Lord…in wrath remember mercy” (Habakkuk 3:2 NIV).
The image is used with permission from Microsoft.
Ken Barnes is the author of “Broken Vessels,” published in February 2021, and “The Chicken Farm and Other Sacred Places” published by YWAM Publishing in 2011.
Ken’s Website— https://kenbarnes.us/
Ken blogs at https://kenbarnes.us/blog/
Email- [email protected]
