Then the glory of the LORD moved away from the threshold of the temple and stood above the cherubim. The cherubim lifted their wings and ascended from the earth right before my eyes; … -- Ezekiel 10:18-19
Israel did not cease to be God’s chosen people when the glory of the Lord departed from the temple. There would be a restoration, and the Messiah would yet appear, Himself a descendant of the Davidic royal line through His mother. Nevertheless, the departure of God’s Spirit from the midst of His people signaled a time of judgment and purging.
God punished His people as a father punishes a son, to correct. We misunderstand the Lord entirely if we believe that our suffering for our sins, or even for our stupidity, somehow satisfies God’s sense of justice. A normal parent takes no pleasure from discipline and feels no satisfaction in a child’s suffering. It is only when the effects of the corrections are seen in the child’s behavior and attitude that the parent is pleased with what he knew he had to do.
America doesn’t seem to be so much a wicked nation – though there are many evil people running loose – as a reckless, thoughtless nation. We have forgotten, ignored, or thought we were exempt from the basic principle: whatsoever ye sow, that shall ye also reap. That is just the way things work, and there is no way around it. I do not fear God’s judgment upon the nation as much as I dread the snowballing consequences of irresponsible actions, of our having shoved our problems a few years into the future for decades. Somebody at some time is going to have to pay up.
The decisions of every generation will impact future generations. This is why the Lord says He visits the sins of the fathers onto the children, the grandchildren, and even the great-grandchildren. We, by our choices, can severely limit the choices available to those who follow us. We are limited now. My guess is that what is happening this spring inside the Beltway would be happening no matter how the elections had turned out last fall. The details of the bailouts, interventions, and debt loads would be different, but the essence would be the same: push the crisis forward a few more years. The current leadership in Washington fears it will be blamed and lose power if it allows the crisis to work itself out, so it intervenes and eases the pain in the short-term while making the inevitable crash that much worse. My sense is that it is not going to work this time.
And the seventh angel sounded, and there were great voices in Heaven, saying, "The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign for ever and ever!” (Revelation 11:15)
This is where we are headed. I’m not sure when we get there. I’d say sometime between a week from next Thursday and June 30, 3009, but I’m not making any predictions.
I most often think of us as degenerating. I think we are less capable than previous generations, less independent, less resilient. We are increasingly vulgar and rude. We are more indoctrinated and less educated. Politically, we are less a republic and more an oligarchy – or perhaps a plutocracy, or even a kleptocracy. The founding of America as an independent nation was a high point in human history. The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and Bill of Rights encapsulate the zenith of western thought. It has been, in many ways, downhill from there. But it has only been a little over two hundred years. We are still on the spiral.
At some point humanity will reject relativism and return to Truth. A whole raft load of progressives from Teddy Roosevelt to Barack Obama will be judged by history as somewhere between misguided and malicious with regard to their meddling in the free market. It may not turn around in America. The change may come in China, India, or Brazil. Nevertheless, once truth is loosed in the world, it maybe suppressed for a time, but it cannot be eliminated. The self-evident truths of the Declaration have entered the consciousness of man. A generation or a century of cowardice will not erase what has been written. We know we have rights – though we may not know from where they come.
Christ has been crucified. The mustard seed has been sown. Once He had died, nothing could stop His resurrection. The seed will grow.
Ezekiel saw the glory of the Lord abandon the temple in Jerusalem, but later he prophesied:
Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean from all your filthiness and from all your idols will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and ye shall keep My judgments and do them. And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave your fathers; and ye shall be My people, and I will be your God (Ezekiel 36:25-28).
“And ye shall be My people, and I will be your God”. I like that. Fill 'er up.
