Over two and one half millennia ago a sinful nation that had been blessed with the "oracles" of God was judged for her iniquities. Her Northern neighbor had already been judged of God for her idolatry and her wickedness. Both times they fell victim to a people who were even more wicked and idolatrous than themselves. Habbakuk plaintively cried out to the Lord…

"Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity: wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he?" Habbakuk 1:13

The answer to Habbakuk’s question was that God was not blessing the Assyrians or the Babylonians in giving them victory over their neighbors, he was merely using them as his instruments to chastise his sinful people. Later he would deal with his sinful instruments in their turn when they had fulfilled his purposes in their existence. As he revealed through his prophets…

"O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation. I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets." Isaiah 10:5

And now have I given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant; and the beasts of the field have I given him also to serve him. And all nations shall serve him, and his son, and his son’s son, until the very time of his land come: and then many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of him. And it shall come to pass, that the nation and kingdom which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, and that will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation will I punish, saith the LORD, with the sword, and with the famine, and with the pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand. Therefore hearken not ye to your prophets, nor to your diviners, nor to your dreamers, nor to your enchanters, nor to your sorcerers, which speak unto you, saying, Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon: For they prophesy a lie unto you, to remove you far from your land; and that I should drive you out, and ye should perish. But the nations that bring their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him, those will I let remain still in their own land, saith the LORD; and they shall till it, and dwell therein. Jeremiah 27:6-11

Assyria is styled the rod of God’s anger and Nebuchadnezzar as his servant. He used them to accomplish his purposes in history. He used them to judge his people Israel. And when he was finished using them they in turn fell under his wrath and disappeared from the pages of history. Truly, he is the Potter and nations are but the clay. He is still sovereign, as Nebuchadnezzar himself was compelled to confess…

And at the end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the most High, and I praised and honoured him that liveth for ever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation: And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou? Daniel 4:34-35

Now, with these truths on our minds let us fast-forward to the events of September 11, 2001. How should we react? We have taken a severe blow from people who by unanimous consensus are considered more wicked than ourselves. Now we can complain about that and pride ourselves that we hold the moral high ground in this conflict. Or we can ask the more penetrating question, "Why has God allowed people so wicked to successfully attack us and slay thousands of our citizens?" And the only answer to that, the only answer that the Scriptures allow, is that God is judging us for our sins. If God is holy in his hatred of sin and righteous in his judgments on sin then if he has allowed us to be so smitten it can only be for our sins. And then we can see that these "Islamic terrorists" are merely his instruments to deal with America and her sin. And when we reflect on that a couple of thought come to mind…

God has allowed three to four thousand innocent persons to be killed in the tragic events of last Tuesday. (I use the word innocent in the judicial sense that these were persons that no human government had any right to execute. Before God of course we are all guilty unless our sins have been covered by the blood of Jesus Christ.) In the past thirty years since the decision in Roe V. Wade was promulgated by our highest court there have been over thirty million innocent children slaughtered in the womb in America! The very day before the attacks a report was released in the news media about a study regarding the sexual exploitation of children in America. It estimated that about 400,000 innocent children are abused in the nation’s sex trade. These are children that are used in child pornography or as child prostitutes. Now God has said in his word that he is the avenger of the innocent and that he will visit in judgment to avenge innocent blood. Are we being judged?

Our nation is ready to go to war to avenge the terror attacks of last Tuesday. We are ready to go anywhere in world and do whatever it takes to eradicate these terrorists. But are we ready to go to war against the abortionists who have drenched this land in innocent blood? Are we ready to go to war with the pornographers, pedophiles, and perverts who are sexually exploiting our children? Are we ready to do whatever it takes to eradicate these evils? The answer is all too obvious. We are not! It is far too easy to concentrate on other people’s sins. It is far too easy to posture on the moral high ground and call for a crusade against other men’s sins. 

How does the Islamic world look at this? On the issue of last Tuesday’s events they appear to be divided. Many have condemned it, but there are also those that have justified it. However, they are united in their opinion of America. They see us as a very immoral and decadent society. They are shocked at the depravity of our culture. In most Islamic countries the culture is much different. They do not tolerate pornography. A number of Islamic countries have eradicated the drug trade they inherited from Western style rulers, by harsh laws and death penalties for drug dealing etc. They do not legalize sodomy as we have done. They punish adultery and forbid degenerate films and music from corrupting their culture. They have their own set of sins (and their own ways of justifying the immoralities of their societies) that they choose to overlook as they caricature the United States as the "Great Satan."

God however does not overlook anyone’s sins, and in his sight as Job stated, even "the heavens are not clean". Rather than the pot calling the kettle black and vice-versa, all nations need to repent and examine themselves in the light of God’s law, his holy standards for personal and national conduct. And repentance, like reformation, starts at home and not with someone else.

If America, like Israel of old, is an idolatrous nation then the judgments of God that fell last Tuesday were uniquely suited to point that out.  Do we worship the Almighty Dollar?  God struck the World Trade Center, the symbol of the nation's commerce.  Do we trust in our military to defend us, rather than in the protection of the Living God?  God struck a blow on the Pentagon, the heart of our nation's military establishment.  Are their lessons here?  Are we learning them?  

America has a choice to make. We can repent and seek the Lord’s favor. We can mourn over our sins and humble ourselves before God. We can purpose to eradicate the evils in our own land and so seek the Lord’s blessing. We can recognize that no navy, or army, or air force can protect us from the righteous judgments of a holy God. We can turn to God in true repentance and seek him as our "Strength and our Shield." Or we can start a frenzy of mindless flag waving (a flag that was legal to burn yesterday), and vow to overcome this scourge in our own strength. We can lead the world-wide crusade against other men’s sins, as we remain blind to our own. In short, we can do as Israel of old. As Jeremiah, who tried to call his nation to repentance and to humble themselves under God’s judgments, recorded it…

And Hananiah spake in the presence of all the people, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Even so will I break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon from the neck of all nations within the space of two full years. And the prophet Jeremiah went his way. Jeremiah 28:11

Judah was confident that they would prevail. The "patriotic" prophets were prophesying it. It was politically correct! They would overcome these wicked Babylonians. God was with them. God Bless Judah!!! Sound familiar? Meanwhile Jeremiah was cast in a dungeon. His warnings were considered treasonous. But God’s word, scorned as it was, prevailed.

Then the word of the LORD came unto Jeremiah the prophet, after that Hananiah the prophet had broken the yoke from off the neck of the prophet Jeremiah, saying, Go and tell Hananiah, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Thou hast broken the yokes of wood; but thou shalt make for them yokes of iron.

For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; I have put a yoke of iron upon the neck of all these nations, that they may serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; and they shall serve him: and I have given him the beasts of the field also. Then said the prophet Jeremiah unto Hananiah the prophet, Hear now, Hananiah; The LORD hath not sent thee; but thou makest this people to trust in a lie. Therefore thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will cast thee from off the face of the earth: this year thou shalt die, because thou hast taught rebellion against the LORD. So Hananiah the prophet died the same year in the seventh month. Jeremiah 28:12-17

"God is not mocked." And it is still "a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." America needs to repent. The problems that face the nation are much deeper than simply carrying out the elimination of Osama Bin Laden. We need to pray for our rulers that God will convict them of their impotence to defend the nation without the blessing of a sovereign God. We need to pray that they will call for a national day of repentance and of mourning for our sins. We need to pray for the Congress that instead of mindlessly voting 40 billion dollars to deal with other men’s sins, they will change our laws and vote billions to eradicate the moral evils in this land. And pray that God will bless his people and make them as the salt of the earth and the light of the world, and raise up prophets to call the land to remember its sins and seek the true and the living God. AMEN!

Post-Script:
We are off to a bad start in our national reaction to the tragic events of September 11.  Instead of humbling ourselves before God we have confidently (arrogantly?) asserted that we will prevail.  We have named the campaign to eradicate world terrorism, "Operation Infinite Justice".  This is almost blasphemous!  The only "infinite justice" that the world will ever see is the justice that will be meted out at the Judgment Throne of Jesus Christ at his return.  That justice will be absolute.  It will be eternal in its consequences.  It will be comprehensive, dealing with every sin in thought, word, and deed of all of God's creatures.  It alone deserves to be called "infinite".  If we as a nation provoke God with our pretensions we are not likely to bring down his blessing on our efforts.  It is one thing to go it alone without our allies, if necessary.  It is quite another thing to go it alone without full and sincere reliance on the the "Lord of Armies".  May we repent of this also. 

Super Post-Script: 
We are going from bad to worse.  Last Lord’s Day (September 23) there was an Interfaith Prayer Service held in Yankee Stadium in New York City.  The place was packed, with many dignitaries in attendance, including Rudolph Guliani, The Mayor of NYC, George Pataki, the Governor of New York, and Bill and Hilary Clinton, etc.  They were treated to a succession of clerics representing an assortment of pagan religions all parading their prayers and petitions to their god.  Liberal “Christianity” was also represented by the Anglican Bishop of New York and the Roman Catholic Archbishop of New York, etc.  It was appropriately moderated by Oprah Winfrey, the celebrated talk show host, as this performance was obviously more in the realm of entertainment than a true religious worship service.  One thing was obvious and that was that the celebrants were under a couple of strict rules.  All the speakers invoked their particular deity as god or lord, without specifically naming their god and taking the name of Jahweh (Jehovah) or Allah etc. on their lips.  Secondly, and most emphatically, the name of Jesus Christ was not mentioned.  This was especially obvious in the prayers of the spokesmen for “Christianity” (?).  The Anglican bishop of New York after addressing God as the Almighty  etc. closed his prayer by saying by again addressing God and saying, “and in thy name we pray, Amen.”  This is somewhat of a logical impossibility, praying to God in the name of God.  We pray in the name of a mediator.  A mediator is a person who is distinct from either of the estranged parties, sinful man and a holy God.  As the Apostle Paul stated it, “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5).  The Scriptures make it clear that this mediation is absolutely essential to any access to the true God.  Jesus himself taught, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6).  And the Apostle Peter taught, “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12). 

What is true for individuals is true for nations as well.  If we as a nation reject Jesus Christ and his mediation with the Father our prayers will fall to the ground rather than rise to the heavens.  If we reject Jesus Christ God will be neither a God nor a Father to us.  Instead he will judge us as a nation for our rejection of his only beloved Son in whom he is well pleased.  God is a great and a glorious God and he does not accept anything and everything that sinful men conjure up in the worship of God.  We will either worship him his way in and through Jesus Christ or we will be rejected as the sacrifice of Cain.  It is not for nothing that the Scriptures declare, “The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD: but the prayer of the upright is his delight.” (Proverbs 15:8) and “He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination.”  (  Proverbs 28:9).