When God Brings Nations Low

When God brings a nation low through his remedial judgments, he does so in the hope of bringing her to her knees to return to him in heartfelt repentance. This is seen in the book of Amos in chapter 4. The Jews had turned their backs on God and were living in disobedience to God. God in his mercy sent them a series of remedial judgments, one more severe than the other, to get their attention, to bring them to their knees in humility.

But the judgments went unheeded. In Amos 4, 6 we read, And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places. Yet have you not returned unto me, saith the Lord? Judgment number one was that God sent a famine in the land.

In his mercy he sent them a famine. How did they respond? Yet have you not returned unto me? We see judgment number two in verse 7. And notice, friends, it is more severe than the previous one. And also I have withholding the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest, and I caused it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain upon another city.

One place was rained upon, and the peace whereupon it rained not withered. You can go a week without food, but man cannot live long without water. God sent a drought to his disobedient people.

Do they turn back to him in repentance? No. Yet have you not returned unto me, saith the Lord? When they failed to heed these first two remedial judgments, then God sent a third one, one with more severity. In verse 9 we read, I have smitten you with blasting and mildew, when your gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive trees increased.

The palmer worm devoured them. Yet have you not returned unto me, saith the Lord? God sent them a financial collapse. Our economy is on the verge of a market collapse and a Great Depression.

Mere speculation is holding up the stock market, and there's nothing backing the U.S. dollar. Banks could fail, or cities could burn to the ground in all the ensuing chaos and madness. God sent the Jews a financial collapse, but they refused to listen.

They refused to return to him. Look how severe judgment number four is. I have sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt.

Your young men have I slain with the sword and have taken away your horses, and I have made the stink of your camps to come up onto your nostrils. You can read the rest of the sad and tragic story of the people of God in Amos chapter 4, where after all these terrible things befell them, God still laments, Have you not returned unto me, saith the Lord? The nations of the world have been brought low by sin, and they've been brought low by a persistent pestilence that won't go away. Have they bowed themselves to the God of the Bible? Have they bowed themselves to the ground in humility before an angry God? Have they turned from their wicked ways and turned back in heartfelt repentance to the Almighty? Or have they collectively hardened their heart against God as Pharaoh did before Moses, as neither plagues of frogs or lice or locusts or blinding hail or deep darkness could move him to let the people go? God had to send his death angel into their families to finally get his attention.

I've never seen a time in my life, friends, in this country where one national calamity falls right on the heels of another, from earthquakes to fires and floods to tornadoes and hurricanes. Now a great plague is upon us. The headlines in America read like the pages fresh from the Old Testament.

And still, we refuse to humble ourselves and turn back to the living God of the Bible. At this very moment, the nation stares in the face of another devastating hurricane. Will she just board up her windows and shrug her shoulders? Or will she fall to her knees in brokenness and tears of repentance? What devastation hangs over our heads like a heavy sword of Damocles, ready to descend upon us? Will a nuclear disaster have to fry every single one of us? Heaven, help us all!