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ND it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth: 2 And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God. (Deuteronomy 28:1-2)
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UT it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee. (Deuteronomy 28:15)
Today’s devotion might be considered a sequel to yesterday’s on Blessings.
Adam was created in a perfect world of serene beauty and security. Having no earthly parent, his close Father was the Creator of the worlds. He was born free and was perhaps the last of men to be so born without the scourge of sin coursing through their veins. The animal kingdom as well was created for pleasure of their Maker without the pail of death hanging over their countenance.
God gave only one Commandment to Adam: And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat ( incidentally, this included the Tree of Life representing our Lord): But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. (Genesis 2:26-17) It is interesting to note that God gave this Commandment directly to Adam and not directly to Eve. It may be true that Adam did not convey that Commandment to Eve with convincing force.
It may be that Eve went to the Serpent’s Tree in the dwindling light of day. I say this because after partaking of the forbidden fruit, God found in the in cool of the day the pair trying to cover their nakedness. (Gen 3:8)
It seems that lost his free-born status with a single bite of the fruit. Immediately, the process of atrophy and death began to work in his innermost being. Now, Adam would suffer death, and all his progeny as well.
The influence of sin and disobedience is pervasive and insidious. All the beautiful animals of the Garden began to assume a nature that thus far had been foreign to their characters. They, too, would suffer death resulting from the disobedience of their Garden sovereign, Adam. Sin always leads to misery and chaos.
In the case of our primitive parents, God provided an avenue of escape from the death penalty through the promise of a coming Savior.
The only time man was free to make that first choice was before sin entered his heart. Since that time, man’s heart is in bondage to Satan. The only escape from that tainted blood of sin is to be reborn from that death sentence. Being spiritually dead, he could not choose to follow God without the intercession of the Holy Ghost into his dead soul to awaken him to life. (Ephesians 2)
God rules in the affairs and destinies of both men and nations. He establishes the kings on their thrones, and He deposes them according to His own will and purpose.
There is a nation today that experienced a similar birth as Adam at Eden. The founding of that nation began with the fervent preaching of the perfect Law of Liberty from the pulpits of that nation. The Hand of God interceded on every hand to establish that nation as a chosen vessel unto Himself – separate and apart from every other nation of the world. Though the Sovereignty had been incorporated in its founding documents, the hearts of the people as well were devoted to that Providential Hand that established them a nation.
The care and protection of an Omniscient Father was upon the power levels of that nation from its early founding. The people dwelt securely in unwalled cities. No foreign enemy has yet to place a boot on the soil of the United States of America.
That great nation has become bored today with the principles upon which its foundation is anchored. Licentiousness seems to overrule any love of freedom. The blood of patriots that watered and nurtured our liberties is dishonored and shunned in our day. The nation stumbles along as a drunk man unable to hear or understand reason, logic or truth.
The following words are taken from a quote given in a sermon to the Connecticut General Assembly by the Reverend Ezra Stiles on 9 May 1783:
Taught by the omniscient Diety, Moses foresaw and predicted the capital events relative to Israel, through the successive changes of depression and glory, until their final elevation to the first dignity and eminence among the empires of the world. These events have been so ordered as to become a display of retribution and sovereignty; for, while the good and the evil hitherto felt by this people have been dispensed in the way of exact national retribution, their ultimate glory and honor will be of the divine Sovereignty, with a Not for your sakes do I do this, saith the Lord, be it known unto you, but for mine Holy Names sake.
However it may be doubted whether political communities are rewarded and punished in the world only, and whether the prosperity and decline of other empires have corresponded with their moral state as to virtue and vice, yet the history of the Hebrew theocracy shows that the secular welfare of God’s ancient people depended upon their virtue, their religion, their observance of that Holy covenant which Israel entered into with God on the plains at the foot of Nebo, on the other side Jordan. Here Moses, assembled three million people – the number of the then current population of the United States – recapitulated and gave them a second publication of the sacred jural institute, delivered thirty-eight years before, with the most awful solemnity, at Mt. Sinai. A law dictated with sovereign authority by the Most High to a people, to a world, a universe, becomes of invincible force and obligation without any consent of the governed.
The above quote is only a small portion of an extensive sermon delivered to the governing body of Connecticut. In those days, there was no façade of ‘separation of church and state.’ Regardless of the decision of nine black-robed miscreants on the Supreme Court, there still is no such separation – please read the First Amendment again!
America has historically been blessed. Our free Republic, in which all laws apply equally to every citizen, has degenerated into what our founding Fathers most feared – a democracy! Hear the words of Alexander Fraser Tytler:
A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; From spiritual faith to great courage; From courage to liberty; From liberty to abundance; From abundance to selfishness; From selfishness to apathy; From apathy to dependence; From dependence back into bondage.
Alexander Fraser Tytler[1]
Wake up America!
We are swirling ever so close to the abyss of no return. We cannot, in America, blame Caesar for, In America, the people themselves are Caesar. We are responsible for the men and women we elect to lead us whether righteous of sinner, and we are responsible for holding them to account!
[1] Scottish advocate, judge, writer and historian who served as Professor of Universal History, and Greek and Roman Antiquities at the University of Edinburgh. (15 October 1747 – 5 January 1813)
