America in Crisis Part One

                                                 Michael Plemmons

                                     

       - We are living in unprecedented times. America and the world around us are facing challenges any one of which holds the possibility of global destruction. America as the world’s foremost superpower as never before is being put into the crucible by world events and the choices we make will determine our course and our fate. It is my opinion that America’s greatest problems have been brought on by the deliberate choices of both our leaders and our people to forsake the God of our Fathers.


The problems facing our nation are unparalleled in our history. I must confess that the agonies our nation is undergoing in this hour drove me to my knees in prayer in a desperate search for the answer to one question. When does God bring judgment on a nation? We must ask ourselves more to the point is America simply undergoing an economic crisis, or can we see the hand of God in judgment being extended in this hour?

I felt the Holy Spirit brought to my heart an understanding that by looking into the judgments that God brought on the nations and peoples of the past I would find my answer. In conducting my search I found an amazing parallel in the judgments he brought on the nation of Egypt as shown in the book of Exodus and that which America is dealing with in our day. This devotion is but the first in a series as we examine the evidence from the past, which I believe, gives us a revelation of what we can expect in the days ahead.

In that day the nation of Israel was living as slaves in the land of Egypt. The Egypt of that day like America in our day could have been rightly considered the foremost superpower on earth. God sent Moses to Egypt with a simple message of warning and God has sent messenger after messenger to the people of our nation. Like the Egypt of that day in the arrogance of pride and rebellion our national leaders and our people by and large have turned their back on the message.

It is not my point at this time to enter into a discussion of the sins of America but rather to point with I believe with a biblical clarity to the Egypt of that day as a roadmap to what we see occurring in our day.

God brought ten judgments on the land of Egypt in that day. One by one as we examine them we shall see the hand of God at work in our own. The Bible speaks clearly and definitively in both the old and new testaments that God has and does bring judgment on a nation.

When can judgment be expected and have we in America today crossed the line and by so doing found ourselves undergoing the judgment of God?

God sent Moses a simple shepherd, a man eighty years of age, to Pharaoh with a simple message, let my people go. We read of this meeting in Exodus chapter 5 verses 1 and 2.

“1 After this presentation to Israel’s leaders, Moses and Aaron went and spoke to Pharaoh. They told him, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Let my people go so they may hold a festival in my honor in the wilderness.”

2 “Is that so?” retorted Pharaoh. “And who is the LORD? Why should I listen to him and let Israel go? I don’t know the LORD, and I will not let Israel go.”

- As Pharaoh in Moses day so the political leadership in our day by words and deeds is thrusting their fist in the face of almighty God and asking this very same question. Who is the Lord that we should obey him? We have seen this nation transformed in a few short years from a Christian nation to a secular one. All the landmarks of decency and morality are being swept away in our day. To turn one’s back on the one true God as our people have done brings tragic consequences, as the land of Egypt in that day was to discover.

I love this nation and all it has stood for. American has been a beacon of hope to countless millions around the globe of decency and freedom. Yet I fear if we as a people do not return to the God of our Father’s in a national outpouring of repentance the dark days of the present are as Egypt discovered long ago but a prelude to darker days yet ahead.