Throughout the Bible, we see that the way the kings of Israel and Judea (Northern and Southern kingdoms, respectively) worshipped was forced upon the people, and when the kings did what was right in God’s eyes, they were all blessed; but, when the kings did what was wrong in God’s eyes, everyone suffered- even the people who were not doing evil.
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In the Northern Kingdom of Israel, also called Shomron, their kings never did anything that was righteous, from the first king, Jeroboam (who was anointed by God!) to the last king, Hoshea, who rebelled against the king of Assyria, resulting in the final destruction of the Northern Kingdom and the distribution of the people into the Diaspora.
In the Southern Kingdom, we had good and bad kings, usually skipping a generation, until the kings got so bad (with Manasseh being the worst) that they, too, were conquered and sent into exile in Babylon.
I believe the term “collateral damage” accurately identifies those righteous people, living under unrighteous leadership, who are forced to suffer because of the sins of their leaders. We see this often throughout the Bible, but more than that, it has been a part of world history, even to this very day.
I do not want to make this ministry a political platform, but when we see the unrighteous and sinful- yes, sinful- ways our leaders are acting and the laws they pass, I can’t help but recall the biblical events that are absolutely the same.
The unrighteous leaders would remove any altars to the one, true God and erect altars of the pagan gods in their place, forcing the people to worship them.
Here in America, today, we have removed any reference to God from our schools and replaced it with drag queens read stories to kindergarten children.
We have honored and encouraged homosexuality by assigning a special day to celebrate it, and now even passing laws that allow children to choose a different gender, even when they haven’t yet reached puberty, which they need to go through to know what it is like to be the gender they were born with.
The government financially supports abortions, making murder legal (so long as the living being is still in the womb). Have you ever asked yourself, how long will it be before they allow the next step, which would be to immediately euthanize a baby the parents decided wasn’t as healthy, or the right gender, or whatever they want it to be?
America’s leadership is helping to financially and militarily support, through the gifts of millions of dollars and billions of dollars of top secret, military equipment, the enemies of Israel. What did God say about that? Wasn’t it something to the effect of “Treat my chosen people well and I’ll bless you, but screw with them and I will mess you up… bad!”? (Genesis 12:3, and yes, God said it differently than my paraphrasing.)
Our economy is worsening at a frightening rate, and there is no confidence in our leadership to control it; the crime rate in many of our major cities is climbing, yet the government of those cities, which is mostly of the current political party in the White House, is allowing those criminals to go free.
And what about the invasion of our country by anarchists, who are here to destroy the morale and safety of American citizens? They are being housed and given health care by the government, while veterans who have risked their lives to protect Americans, live on the streets!
America is, I believe, in the same situation where Judea was after Manasseh was king, when God told the people, through Jeremiah, that the end was coming, and their best bet was to work within the punishment they deserve.
Thomas Jefferson is credited with saying:
“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”
Sadly, I don’t believe that as bad as things are today, which isn’t really that much worse than they have been in America’s past, that we will ever see a revolution here in America. And as far as a civil war, well, I don’t see a military civil war happening here, but we are in a sort of social civil war; it appears to me that we are politically at polar opposition with each other, but what is really sad is that it is not based on political views, per se’, but on how people feel about Donald Trump!
How did we digress so far as to have the country so emotionally at odds with each other, divided because of one man’s personality?
You know, it isn’t really about that man; it is because we have become a godless and sinful country where people are more interested in the personality of their leaders than their abilities and competence in caring for and protecting American citizens.
We aren’t voting for someone, we are voting against someone, and when the choice of leadership for a country comes down to choosing the lesser of two evils, that country is in big trouble!
My political platforming is over, and the message is this: when your leaders are sinful, God will punish everyone under that leadership. The obvious answer is for the righteous people to get together and remove those leaders, and in America the only way to do that is through the elective process, which is also corrupted. And, as a life-long student of American history, you can believe me when I tell you that this isn’t a recent thing, either.
So, what do we do? My suggestion is one of two things: leave the country or, what I would rather suggest, make sure that you are right with God because that is the only way you can be sure that after the tsouris is over, whether or not you survive it alive, you will be with God when you die.
I know that isn’t very comforting, but how can I give you a pleasant future when history shows us that all who have done as our leaders are doing, have suffered greatly?
Bad news, but necessary to hear, so please share this message! Otherwise, while we are still doing OK, let me say that’s it for this week, l’hitraot, and as much as possible, please have a pleasant and restful Shabbat this weekend.
