Is God cursing America?
God told the Israelites what He expected of them when they went into the land of promise. Hear what He said to them – “Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord your God: Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country…The Lord will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before your face; they shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways. The Lord will command the blessing on you in your storehouses and in all to which you set your hand, and He will bless you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you. The Lord will establish you as a holy people to Himself, just as He has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in His ways…The Lord will open to you His good treasure, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand. You shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow…And the Lord will make you the head and not the tail; you shall be above only, and not be beneath, if you heed the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, and be careful to observe them.” (Deuteronomy 28: 1-14) In summary, if they obeyed His word, their cities and farms would flourish, they would have many children and crops, they would have plenty of food to eat, their work would be successful, they would be able to defeat their enemies, rain would come at the right times, they would be God’s special people, they would have plenty of money to lend to others, their nation would be a leading nation and would be both wealthy and powerful.
But…
God also warned them – “But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you. Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the country. Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Cursed shall be the fruit of your body and the produce of your land, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks. Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out. The Lord will send on you cursing, confusion, and rebuke in all that you set your hand to do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, because of the wickedness of your doings in which you have forsaken Me. The Lord will make the plague cling to you until He has consumed you from the land which you are going to possess.” (Deuteronomy 28: 15-21) God’s warning of curses continues through 27 more verses. God’s curses upon them included: their cities and farms would fail, there would not be enough to eat, their efforts would be confused, they would suffer terrible diseases with no cures, there would be droughts, they would experience insanity and confusion, their plans for their normal activities of life would be shattered, their nation would need to borrow money, their nation would become weak and be a follower and not a leader.
Around 800 years later Jeremiah, the ‘weeping prophet’ who tried to warn the Jews for forty years about their ultimate downfall, wrote Lamentations. It is made up of 5 elegies (or requiems or dirges) ‘lamenting’ the destruction of Jerusalem. Jeremiah begins – “How lonely sits the city that was full of people! How like a widow is she, who was great among the nations! The princess among the provinces has become a slave!” (Lamentations 1: 1) “Her adversaries have become the master, her enemies prosper; for the Lord has afflicted her because of the multitude of her transgressions. Her children have gone into captivity before the enemy. And from the daughter of Zion all her splendor has departed. Her princes have become like deer that find no pasture, that flee without strength before the pursuer. In the days of her affliction and roaming, Jerusalem remembers all her pleasant things that she had in the days of old. When her people fell into the hand of the enemy, with no one to help her, the adversaries saw her and mocked at her downfall. Jerusalem has sinned gravely, therefore she has become vile. All who honored her despise her because they have seen her nakedness; yes, she sighs and turns away.” (Lamentations 1: 5-8) … “The Lord has purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion. He has stretched out a line; He has not withdrawn His hand from destroying; therefore He has caused the rampart and wall to lament; they languished together. Her gates have sunk into the ground; He has destroyed and broken her bars. Her king and her princes are among the nations; The Law is no more, and her prophets find no vision from the Lord.” (Lamentations 2: 8-9)
America is not Israel. It is not the Promised Land. America is not found in the Bible. America is a Gentile nation that was established by God fearing people who sought the freedom to worship Him according to their own consciences. Like Israel, and any other nation, however, America is subject to God’s judgment. Proverbs teaches us – “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.” (Prov. 14: 34) From Psalms we learn – “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people He has chosen as His own inheritance.” (Ps. 33: 12) and “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.” (Ps. 9: 17) Is there any doubt that our nation has forgotten God? We have wanted everything but God, and we are reaping the consequences.
