SCRIPTURE: See, I have taught you decrees and laws as the Lord my God commanded me, so that you may follow them in the land you are entering to take possession of it. Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations, who will hear about all these decrees and say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.” Deuteronomy 4:5-6 NIV
QUOTE: “To omit the words ‘under God’ in the Pledge of Allegiance is to omit the definitive factor in the American way of life. Atheistic American is a contradiction in terms….if you deny the Christian ethic, you fall short of the American ideal of life.” – Reverend George Docherty, New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C., 1954
THOUGHT: God’s desire – which was thwarted, I might add – was for Israel to be an example to the rest of the world, not a monument unto themselves. These verses were some of the final words of Moses, that giant of the faith who was their leader from Egypt to the promised land. Just two verses capture God’s strategy for the new nation: observe my decrees and laws as the nations are watching for this will show your wisdom and understanding. People will talk.
Watching our own nation become twisted and unrepentant makes me long for the days when the nations said about us, “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.” As imperfect as we are and have been, there did exist an honor toward us and for good reasons – and there does exist an honor for us still if you take a moment to listen to legal immigrants, those who’ve fought hard for the prize of being called a citizen of the United States. We’ve taken for granted (forgotten) what they are very aware of. We, like Israel, are one nation, under God – a phrase added to the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954 to distinguish us as a nation from the communism around us and within us.
What has been most forgotten in our national rhetoric is God. And that was true for ancient Israel too. If you take God and God’s rules for human flourishing out of the equation, you just end up with a lot of human wisdom, a lot of arguing, a loss of history, a loss of identity, a loss of purpose, a loss of reputation, a loss of nation. Just read Scripture.
PRAYER: Oh God, forgive us for our national forgetfulness of you and your rules for human flourishing.
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I contend that God’s purpose for Israel was not thwarted. He knew and expected Israel would fail to keep His commands. Which of us has kept His commands and we have the Holy Spirit’s leading. Israel is still an example to the world. They are an example of what happens to the disobedient. The whole world is watching. Reference: the special UN session called because an Israeli minister walked on the temple mount. God’s purposes are never thwarted.
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That’s an interesting perspective, Victor. Thwarted doesn’t mean stopped, I agree with you that in the big picture God’s will will be accomplished, but I also see evidence in Scripture that he makes way for free will of the humans he gave life to. We can thwart him all our lives — in the end his will will be accomplished at the judgement. The whole arc of Scripture teaches a God who grieves his plans and purposes that cannot be accomplished in chronos due to sinful mankind.
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