The Fifth Mark of Judgment on America: “Hardship, Death, Attacks on our Cities”

Immediately following the dedication of the temple, Solomon prayed for God’s intervention in seven probable national needs. Every time, he besought God’s commitment to ‘hear from heaven and forgive their sin’- if the people would repent. In II Chron. 6: 28-30, Solomon prayed, “When there is famine in the land, pestilence or blight or mildew, locusts or grasshoppers; when their enemies besiege them in the land of their cities; whatever plague or whatever sickness there is; whatever prayer, whatever supplication is made by anyone, or by all Your people Israel, when each one knows his own burden and his own grief, and spreads out his hands toward this temple: then hear from heaven… and forgive….”

Here, Solomon anticipated a more intense judgment than drought. He broadened the impact on his nation to shortages of food, hardship and death due to weather, insects, and diseases affecting plants, livestock and people. By describing this broad range of judgment in terms of “whatever plague or whatever sickness,” he recognized the undefinable but significant impacts that result from personal and national sin. In America, we’ve seen record-setting deadly tornadoes, hurricanes, fires, drought, earthquakes, floods, snow, cold weather and now a disease that’s already killed over a million baby pigs. We shake our heads and wonder what’s going on. On one hand, some would dismiss all that we are witnessing as nothing really out of the ordinary, or dismiss it for some other reason, but Solomon clearly connected the marks of judgment with the sin of the nation, and so should we.

Then, with even more focus and in the middle of this series of natural disasters, Solomon identified enemy attacks on cities within the nation.

In application to the United States, wasn’t 9-11 an undeniable evidence of the enemy besieging our cities? Shouldn’t 9-11 have been a more long-lasting wake-up call for America than just a few weeks or months after the event?

Properly considered, this event was evidence that God had lifted His hedge of protection from around our nation. God gave us a stark warning.  But did we hear? For our leaders and most Americans, the rally cry was, “We will rebuild and we will attack our enemies.” Not understanding that the attack was allowed by God to get our attention, our country went further from Him. How ironic. We seek answers to our increasing hardships but we haven’t yet turned to God or taken consideration of the sin that is causing God’s anger and judgment.

May we learn from Solomon’s prayer that led to God’s response in II Chron. 7:13-14.  May we understand the extent to which God is giving us warning upon warning.

This is the sixth article in an eight-part series, “Can We Know if God’s Judgment is on America? – The Background to Understanding God’s Promise in II Chronicles 7:14”.

1 reply
  1. Doreen Kent
    Doreen Kent says:

    As I read your words about America, i know that we must be under Judgment, as it says Judgement begins in the house of the Lord.
    My husband and I have been church hopping for over 15 years hoping for some Pastor to truly take a stand against the evils of this world, by just (SAYING SO)! When all we get is over and over (irrelevant sermons that have more to do with a life that is just thinking about church life, and not the” real world” that we live in, at all!) I have been busy trying to hand out voter applications and also have asked about bringing in Voter Guides from Ministries, like Christian Coalition and AFR. But when I brought it (one church said, no! because they had a church policy that would not allow any stand on politics, because it would hinder their 501c3 licenses! Can you believe that? Anther church told me that they would leave the voter applications out in their annex, but the pastor told me he didn’t want to mix any politics in his message, because that tends to {make the Gospel murky}. So with that I could leave the voter applications but no “Voter Guides”! A couple of years ago we lived in another city and I contacted my own pastor and about 30 churches in the area about ( Pulpit Freedom Sunday). I had two respond, one was Tony Even’s church and they said ( they already knew about it and planned to hold the event), and the other church thanked me for sending it and said ( they had not heard about it)! Here’s the most shocking thing about my reply, and it is that I live in the Bible Belt, and it is the great state of Texas! I bet you figured I lived in California or New York, right? That’s what I would have thought if I had heard this from someone else and lived in another area of the US.

    Anyway, I believe we have Leaders, but they are very few and far between! I feel that the world has crept in to the church almost the same as the immigrants and Terrorist are creeping into the US and The those that hate America are also running our Nation! Is this because of Judgment? I have to ask that question. When I read your article on AFA in my inbox this morning, I knew I needed to respond with agreement and also reach out to you as I have to others. We once lived in the DFW area and now we live near Austin,TX. I have been on a mission, ( we just found a good church), praise God it is a Baptist one. But I am going this alone and handing the applications out to the churches by myself. I pray that by the next election in 2016 I will have a band of people from my church to help me and bring more Christians to the pols to vote!! Thank you for listening and thank you for your word, sometimes the word has to be shouted out from the roof tops, as a “Watchmen on the Wall”! Sincerely, Doreen Kent

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