2 Kings 16-17  and 2 Chronicles 28
Published on July 22, 2012

2 Kings 17 beginning with verse 7 is an excellent summary of why the nation of Israel crumbled.   It would not become a autonomous again until 1947.     The people  returned after captivity, but were subject to the Babylonians, and the Persians, and the Greeks, and the Romans, etc.

What Ahaz did (putting a different altar into the temple, and removing the bronze sea from it's stand, and changing the structure).....simply causes me to cringe.   How anyone could be so unintelligent is a mystery to me.    Then I think of the ungodly practices in this country.   We routinely put unborn children to death, we declare that homosexuality isn't wrong, and we teach many different religious beliefs and practices to our children.  We make TV shows and movies with plots and story lines that directly violate the tenets of the faith, and even further, we idolize the people who act in them.    We pass laws saying that the Bible cannot be taught in our schools, and teachers are not allowed to pray, or influence their students in any way to believe in Jesus.    The biblical accounts of creation are not to be taught, but rather mocked as false and ridiculous.

As a result, our children take the name of God in vain, they listen to music and chant lyrics that defy all the specific teachings of the Bible, and they behave as ungodly pagans, instead of as righteous, God fearing young adults.    They watch their parents imbibe too much alcohol, in in some cases they observe them using illegal drugs...and they imitate, and then exaggerate the behavior.
The downward spiral of this country cannot be denied.  Although we sit atop the world with the most powerful weapons and the largest bank account we cannot escape the judgment of God Almighty.    If we do not repent of our ungodliness, we will travel the road that nations before us have traveled.   Our wealth will evaporate, our armies will become ineffective and no longer feared.   Our position of respect will be taken from us.

My heart grieves when I think of the uninformed way of living that our nation, and our families have adopted.  There is really only one ray of hope for any of us:   God is loving and forgiving, even willing to restore us after he has already decided to crush someone.   If we will repent and change our ways, and take seriously our covenant to live in an honorable way before Him, He may yet spare and heal our land.

Let's pray that together.