Why Does God Judge A Nation?

[AMOS 2:7b]

God condemns the epidemic of sexual dissipation in Israel. The churches briefly roused themselves to speak against the epidemic of homosexuality and transsexualism, but refused to open their mouths to point out the dreadful destruction of the social fabric brought on by the pervasive nature of adultery, pornography, and premarital sex.

I know that some wonder why I speak of the sexual dissipation that marks contemporary society. Some have questioned why I can’t just let matters go. How is it possible to ignore what is taking place when we are compelled to see the destructive attitudes on an ongoing basis? We cannot watch television without the actors and actresses normalising immorality through their acting. The music of the day normalises immorality, making the evil acts so common that we become casual about what they are selling. We use raw sex to sell our cars, to sell candy, to sell clothing. Few items are marketed without an appeal to sex. Let me admit that it is well nigh impossible to have Sunday School thoughts when watching scantily clad women parading about, or when watching the obvious flirting that takes place in order to make the product being hawked somehow more attractive. What do you suppose the Lord thinks of our sexual dissipation today?

Then, God condemns Israel because they denigrated religious commitment. Amos said,

“You made the Nazirites drink wine,

and commanded the prophets,

saying, ‘You shall not prophesy.’”

[AMOS 2:12]

The LORD had commanded the Nazirites not to drink wine, but the people compelled them to drink wine. This was an instance of trying to compel uniformity by making those committed to the Lord GOD conform to community standards. The prophets were supposed to prophesy, but because the culture no longer wanted to hear the warnings that the prophets would speak, they sought to keep them silent. Social pressure conspired to drive the committed out of their lane so that they would stop making others feel uncomfortable.

Something akin to that takes place today when we imply that religion is fine so long as it is practised within the confines of the four walls of the church building. “Don’t bring your religion into the marketplace,” seems to be the message of contemporary society. The tragedy is that in far too many instances, the faithful are willing to abide by these rules which are imposed upon us by a culture that is increasingly fearful of the faithful. What do you suppose God thinks about the decline of religious commitment in our nation today?

JUDGEMENT IS CERTAIN — Eight sins are named—violence, slavery, murder of the unborn, disrespect and ridicule, turning away from the faith, poverty, sexual dissipation, denigrating religious commitment. The Lord God deems these sins sufficiently heinous as to invite judgement of societies, as to invite judgement of cultures. If the Lord judged those ancient cultures named because of these sins, can we expect that our contemporary western culture is somehow exempt from divine judgement?