“A Nation Under God: An Exalted Nation”
Prov. 14:34; Jer. 17:5-13
One of our sons and his family spent some time vacationing at our home. I took some days off to spend time with them – especially to play with our grandchildren. Some months later they went to California to spend time with the other set of grandparents. One evening our 4 year-old grandson was playing with his other grandpa, who had worked during the day, and said to him, “I like it better when we’re at my other grandpa’s. He only works on Sundays.” Oh to see ourselves as others see us!
It was the task of the prophets to help Israel see herself as God saw her. As one such prophet Jeremiah’s task was to help Israel understand what it meant to be a nation under God. And while Israel was, and ever will be, the only nation chosen by God, any nation can experience God’s blessing by seeking to be a nation under God. Therefore the message of Jeremiah holds significance for our nation as well. So to begin this series we turn to these passages in Jeremiah and Proverbs to discover how to be a blessed, exalted nation.
To be a nation under God RIGHTEOUSNESS MUST BE THE FOUNDATION. Righteousness is a relative term in that it pertains to relationships and right dealings with others. It means DOING WHAT IS RIGHT, WHAT CONFORMS TO THE ACCEPTED NORM. Note that there must be a standard of what is right and wrong – otherwise there cannot be righteousness.
In the Bible that norm, THE STANDARD IS GOD. Right and wrong is established by God. To be a nation under God is to conform to His standards. The Psalmist wrote (98:2): “The LORD has made his salvation known and revealed his righteousness to the nations.” (119:142 GNT) “Your righteousness will last forever, and your law is always true.” It’s important to understand that America was founded on Biblical tenets – several of which we will see throughout this series. For now it’s enough to state that many of our founding fathers greatly revered the Bible and had a commitment to the principles and righteousness of God. One important story is recorded in the annals of the Supreme Court. Someone brought a case before the court to remove the teaching of the Bible from the schools. One of the justices – who was one of the signers of the founding documents of America – stated that if someone wanted to have a school where the Bible was not taught, then he should start a private school for that purpose. The standard, the foundation of life in America was to be the righteousness of God.
God’s norm, His standard, is clear throughout the Bible. A nation under God, is one which, first, ENCOURAGES AND PROVIDES OPPORTUNITIES FOR HER CITIZENS TO BUILD AND CELEBRATE THEIR RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD AND, SECOND, WHICH PROMOTES AND ENFORCES EQUITY. The Psalmist said it succinctly (146:7-9) “He upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The LORD sets prisoners free,
the LORD gives sight to the blind, the LORD lifts up those who are bowed down, the LORD loves the righteous. The LORD watches over the alien and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.” God spoke to the prophet Zechariah (7:9-10), “This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor. In your hearts do not think evil of each other.”
Two of the best known summaries of righteousness were spoken by Micah and Jesus. Micah told the Israelites (6:6-8 GNT), “…the Lord has told us what is good. What he requires of us is this: to do what is just, to show constant love, and to live in humble fellowship with our God.” Jesus stated it succinctly in the SUMMARY OF THE LAW. We are to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and our neighbor as ourselves. In this spirit Dr. William Brownson, in preaching on righteousness, asked some clear, concise, pointed questions: “Does a nation nourish the growth and dignity of all its people? Does it labor to create a wholesome environment for every man and woman, boy, and girl within its borders? Does it embody God’s concern for the despised and dispossessed?” (1)
Such righteous living, says Proverbs, LEADS TO EXALTATION. The launching pad for this promise is Jeremiah 17:7-8: “But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.” Ps. 37:34 – “Wait for the LORD and keep his way. He will exalt you to inherit the land; when the wicked are cut off, you will see it.” This blessedness, this ongoing fruitfulness, is the root of exaltation for individuals and nations.
Again, listen to the testimony of Scripture. Dt. 28:1-2 promises “If you fully obey the LORD your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. All these blessings will come upon you and accompany you if you obey the LORD your God…” It then lists all the blessings that befall such an exalted nation. Proverbs 11:10-11: “When the righteous prosper, the city rejoices; when the wicked perish, there are shouts of joy. Through the blessing of the upright a city is exalted, but by the mouth of the wicked it is destroyed.” The Psalmist (144:15) “Blessed are the people of whom this is true; blessed are the people whose God is the LORD.” Righteousness is the foundation for a nation under God, because God exalts the righteous.
Yet Jeremiah is quick to warn that the opposite is also true. Whereas righteousness exalts a nation, SIN IS THE WRECKING BALL that destroys a nation. (17:5) “Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD.” Judah was PLACING CONFIDENCE IN HUMAN RESOURCES and power. She had turned to worshiping idols and when threatened, rather than cry out to God, they formed alliances with neighboring countries. Back in the 2nd chapter (2:13) Jeremiah was even more specific: “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.”
The root of the problem, according to Jeremiah (9), is that “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.” When we turn from God we begin to follow the desires of our hearts – and OUR HEARTS CANNOT BE TRUSTED. God had warned Israel before they entered the Promised Land (Dt. 8:10-18): “When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you. Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God… You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth…” When we trust our hearts we begin to think that life and blessings are ours by right. Life becomes a matter of preferences and choices, rights and demands, rather than submitting to a standard of right and wrong. It was true for Israel but also for us. As Dr. Albert Mohler has written, “One of the most formative shifts in the nation’s public consciousness is the reduction of moral argumentation to…’rights talk.’ All moral debates…are now reduced to debates over individual rights…Our collective moral imagination has shifted from matters of right and wrong to mere contests for your rights, my rights, and their rights…right and wrong no longer have any meaning as categories in the law. According to the critical legal theory now being taught in law schools, there is no right or wrong, only competing rights.” (2)
It is clear that THERE ARE DISASTROUS RESULTS from turning away from God and following our hearts. Notice three curses. First, there will be DISGRACE AND ABANDONMENT (Jer. 17:6): “He will be like a bush in the wastelands; he will not see prosperity when it comes. He will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives.” There will be emptiness and loneliness rather than fullness and popularity. Second, there will be POVERTY AND RIDICULE. (17:11) “Like a partridge that hatches eggs it did not lay is the man who gains riches by unjust means.
When his life is half gone, they will desert him, and in the end he will prove to be a fool.” Jeremiah had observed that the partridge acted like a surrogate mother, sitting on another bird’s nest to hatch another’s eggs. But once hatched, the birds, because they were not partridges, flew away. The partridge is left with nothing but ridicule from the other birds. Such it is with those who turn away from God; they live unrighteously assuming that what they have is theirs – when it is not. And the third curse for turning away from God is DEATH. (17:13) “O LORD, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you will be put to shame. Those who turn away from you will be written in the dust because they have forsaken the LORD, the spring of living water.” As one pastor put it, “Where there is no water, there is no survival. In the same way, there is no spiritual life without the living water of God’s grace.” (3)
On occasion I give Barb some flowers. She likes them - and I like that she likes them! But we both know that such a gift is not long lasting. The flowers will always die. Why? Because they are cut off from their roots. What’s true of flowers is true of nations – apart from God, there is no lasting life. Righteousness is the foundation for a nation under God but sin is the wrecking ball. If we, as a nation, put our ultimate hope in any human resource - science, medicine, knowledge, alliances, military, government, economics, environmental recovery – in anything other than the righteousness of God, we will completely cut ourselves off from our roots – and we will die. Perhaps we are already on the road to the cemetery.
What will it take for us to become an exalted nation? That’s what this series is about. But for now, here’s four TAKE HOME LESSONS to ponder this week. These lessons may well occur again, and we may examine some of them more closely; that only emphasizes their importance. So here we go. First we must REMEMBER OUR HISTORY. There are ongoing attempts to rid our history of its godly, Christian heritage. But let us remember the record. John Adams: “We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” James Madison, the “Chief Architect of the Constitution”: “We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all of our political institutions upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves…according to the Ten Commandments of God…” Supreme Court, 1892: “Our laws and our institutions must necessarily be based upon and embody the teachings of the Redeemer of mankind. It is impossible that it should be otherwise. In this sense and to this extent, our civilizations and our institutions are emphatically Christian.” Pres. Thomas Jefferson (Danbury) – “The 1st amendment has created a wall of separation between church and state, but that wall is a one directional wall, it keeps the government from running the church, but it makes sure that Christian principles will always stay in government.” In fact, I was reminded this past week that the reason the founding fathers decided not to tax churches was that they understood that once the government taxed any entity it had the power to control that entity – and they did not want the government in a position to control the Church.
I like what Edward Markquart has pointed out: “As one observer has noted, even our system of government is a product of those values. Where did our Constitution come from? It was authored by Thomas Jefferson. Where did he get his ideas? The French Enlightenment. Where did the French Enlightenment get its ideas? The Renaissance. Where did the Renaissance get its ideas? The Reformation. Where did the Reformation get its ideas? From the Bible.” (4) Consider that Is. 33:22 might well have provided the model for our structure of 3 governmental branches: “For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; it is he who will save us.” Judge – the judicial branch, lawgiver - the legislative branch, and king - the ruler or executive branch.
As a great summary, James Robison and Jay Richards list the most crucial points of agreement among our American Founders: the Church has a proper authority that the state must respect; the federal government should neither establish nor prohibit the free exercise of religion; every person should enjoy religious liberty; religion, and especially Christianity, is vital to the survival and prosperity of the American Experiment; we know by reason that God and a natural law exist; and public displays of respect for God are right and good, and don’t constitute an establishment of religion. (5) We need to remember our history.
The second lesson is that we need to RESTORE OUR PRIORITY OF GOD. Isaiah (33:5-6) recognized such a priority for Israel as a nation under God: “The LORD is exalted, for he dwells on high; he will fill Zion with justice and righteousness. He will be the sure foundation for your times, a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge; the fear of the LORD is the key to this treasure.” You may recall a few weeks ago the situation in New York where the mayor, of his own accord, decided that churches could no longer rent space in public school facilities for worship or religious activities – even though any other group is allowed to do so. He cited ‘separation of church and state.’ Hold that picture for a moment. Recall also that when the ‘Occupy’ movement invaded New York they were allowed to take over the sidewalks and even a city park for days on end. Noe pull up the church and school situation. When the mayor gave his edict, pastors and other Christians knelt on the sidewalk to protest and pray – and were arrested in five minutes.
Let me bring it closer to home. At a recent school board meeting, during a public hearing, one speaker chastised Christians on the school board by stating that it was not up to the pastors, churches, or Christians of this community to make this particular decision, and that these board members had to set aside their Christian convictions and act as board members. It’s just one more example of how the church is being told to back out of the public arena. We must stand our ground. Like the apostles in Acts who were told to stop preaching Jesus, we must obey God rather than men.
General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, on the deck of the battleship Missouri at the surrender ceremonies with Japan, said, “Military alliances, balances of power, leagues of nations—all in turn have failed, leaving the only path to be by the crucible of war… The problem basically is theological and involves a spiritual … improvement of human character … It must be of the spirit, if we are to save the flesh.” (6) President Abraham Lincoln, upon proclaiming a national day of fasting and prayer, said, “It is the duty of nations, as well as of men, who owe their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon, and to recognize the sublime truth announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by a history that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord.” (7) It’s quite different from the recent Presidential Thanksgiving Day Proclamation which made no mention of God, isn’t it? 2 Chronicles 7:14 drive home the point: “…if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
A third lesson is that we must REVIVE RIGHTEOUS LIVING. Ps. 37:5-6 puts is clearly: “Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.” Hear Isaiah (58: 6-8) “…loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter — when you see the naked, to clothe him and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.” As Jesus summarized it (Mt. 25:40) “…whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did it for me.”
The fourth take home lesson is to RECONNECT WITH JESUS. If we want to harvest righteousness tomorrow, we must plant the seeds of righteousness today. We can only be righteous through Jesus and the power of his Holy Spirit. Yes, we need to transform culture; but we need first to be transformed ourselves. We need our hearts – which are so deceptive – changed. And that only happens in Jesus. (2 Cor. 5:17, 21) “…if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation…God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Missionary David Brainerd, who spent his brief life ministering to American Indians, wrote, “I never got away from Jesus and him crucified. When my people were gripped by this…I had no need to give them instructions about morality. I found that one followed as the sure and inevitable fruit of the other.” Reconnect with Jesus.
Hosea’s invitation is for us today (10:12): “Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the LORD, until he comes and showers righteousness on you.” Let us seek Him.
(1) Dr. William Brownson, Words of Hope, 7/3/88
(2) R. Albert Mohler, Jr. Desire and Deceit – The Real Coast of the New Sexual Tolerance, Multnomah Books, Colorado Springs, CO © 2008, pg. 46-47, 147.
(3) Ryken, P. G. (2001), Jeremiah and Lamentations : From sorrow to hope. Preaching the Word (275–276). Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books.
(4) Edward F. Markquart, http://www.sermonsfromseattle.com/series_c_the_mustard_seed.htm
(5) James Robison & Jay Richards, Indivisible, Faith Words, New York/Boston/Nashville, © 2012 by James Robison and jay W. Richards, p.44
(6) Ibid
(7) Ibid
(8) Illustration for Biblical Preaching, Edited by Michael P. Green, Baker Bok House, Grand Rapids, MI, © 1989 by Michael P. Green, #656
