Articles
God's Judgment Against Nations
When we think of the “day of judgment,” we rightly think of this eternal judicial reckoning as an individual accounting. The NT so pictures it:
Ø “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad” (2 Cor 5:10).
Ø “But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and … the righteous judgment of God, who ‘will render to each one according to his deeds …’” (Rom 2:5-6).
The final judgment is an archetype of lesser judgments that occur in this world, events wherein God interposes His punishing wrath against nations and other corporate powers (think terrorist groups and rogue quasi-political factions) who foment evil on a grand scale. The Old Testament is full of such declarations of judgment against both Israel/Judah as well as heathen nations. Some sample passages:
God’s Warning via Ezekiel “Son of man, when a land sins against Me by persistent unfaithfulness, I will stretch out My hand against it; I will cut off its supply of bread, send famine on it, and cut off man and beast from it. Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they would deliver only themselves by their righteousness …” (Ezk 14:12-14). In context, Judah is the nation under consideration, but the statement is generic (“a land”) and certainly describes what God has done to other nations besides his covenant people. The degree of depravity is expressed by the imagined presence of three OT greats who, though their godliness would be substantial, would not be able to appreciably move the needle of corporate righteousness.
God’s Warning via Azariah. “Hear me, Asa … The Lord is with you while you are with Him. If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you. For a long time Israel has been without the true God, without a teaching priest, and without law; but when in their trouble they turned to the Lord God of Israel, and sought Him, He was found by them. And in those times there was no peace to the one who went out, nor to the one who came in, but great turmoil was on all the inhabitants of the lands. So nation was destroyed by nation, and city by city, for God troubled them with every adversity” (2 Chr 15:2-6).
In this warning the prophet explains to Asa the reason for the chronic chaos among the nations: God was troubling them for their abandonment of Him – including Israel and Judah. The exhortation finds its mark and Asa embarks upon national reform in which the people “entered into a covenant to seek the Lord God of their fathers with all their heart and with all their soul … And all Judah rejoiced at the oath … and He was found by them, and the Lord gave them rest all around” (15:14-15).
The Words of Elihu. “For His eyes are on the ways of man, and He sees all his steps. There is no darkness nor shadow of death where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves … He breaks in pieces mighty men without inquiry, and sets others in their place. Therefore He knows their works; He overthrows them in the night, and they are crushed … because they turned back from Him, and would not consider any of His ways … When He gives quietness, who then can make trouble? And when He hides His face, who then can see Him, whether it is against a nation or a man alone? – That the hypocrite should not reign, lest the people be ensnared” (Job 34:21-30).
If we can trust Elihu’s words as sound (various opinions are held), God takes account of wickedness and, in the case of extreme degrees of it, punishes the perpetrators in order to arrest the influence of evil. As the psalmist notes, “The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; He makes the plans of the peoples of no effect. The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of His heart to all generations. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, and the people whom He has chosen as His own inheritance … No king is saved by the multitude of an army; a mighty man is not delivered by great strength. A horse is a vain hope for safety … Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him, on those who hope in His mercy, to deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine …” (Ps 33:10-19).
Truly, “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people” (Pr 14:34). The OT thoroughly documents God’s judgments against nations for their treachery, violence, idolatry and its resultant immorality. But here’s the rub: the only way we can know what God’s judgments are against individuals and/or nations is if He tells us via His prophets, and God is not giving us such revelation today – at least not in specific terms. This leads to a great difference between God’s ancient dealings with men and now under the new covenant. Previously, “God … at various times and in different ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets [but] has in these last days spoken to us by His Son …” (Heb 1:1-2). Prophets of old gave judgments against Egypt, Edom, Tyre, Sidon, Philistia, Ammon, Moab, Syria, Babylon, etc. for their extreme wickedness. Future events bore out the accuracy of these pronouncements and nation after nation fell according to the righteous judgment of God.
Application: In a few days our nation will hold elections that both sides warn will set the country on a path of destruction. Some of this is political hype, but there are some substantive issues facing us that are certainly serious. But where is the line between God’s patience and His decision to punish a people for their sins? A case can be made that the United States has engaged in deep moral evils (abortion, divorce, drug abuse, unjustified war, random violence, homosexuality, etc.), and a case can also be made that America has blessed the entire globe in many positive ways. Further, history and revelation has shown that God’s longsuffering with ungodly nations can last centuries (cf. God’s prophecy to Abraham in Gn 15:16).
The bottom line is that we are incapable of predicting the divine purpose of a given election. It is folly to assume outcomes of current events given that God takes long-term views of elections, coronations, wars, moral ebbs and flows, etc. So, what is the Christian to do? Pray that God’s will be done and ask for the strength and wisdom to faithfully endure whatever that will brings.
