Over 230 years ago, America was founded by some great leaders. This original foundation was based upon a covenant with God; right from the very beginning of the formation of the nation.
A NATION THAT TAKES GOD OUT OF THEIR TRUTH
This fact hasn’t been taught for many generations and there are people who do not realize the truth of it; but it is true.
When America decided to take God out of our schools; we took God out of our truth.
The beginning of this founding time was around 1607 and early settlers came sailing into Jamestown. There they wrote and pledged what we now call The Virginia Compact.
In a journal, one of the group named Eddie Hyatt, wrote the words of their purpose in forming a new nation: “To propagate, to expand the gospel, the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ and to take the gospel to people who were lying in darkness and had no knowledge of the one true God.
This was their goal.
This was what they had intentionally set out to do. You will not find this mentioned in your current history books.
THEY CAME FOR GOD AND NOT FOR GOLD
Later, the pilgrims and the puritans repeated these same words and goals in Massachusetts in 1620; as they came into port on The Mayflower.
Jerry Newcombe recorded the history of these groups as they came for God and not for gold. They were risking their own lives; giving up and leaving all they had known behind, in order to bring glory and honor to God.
To quote John Winthrop as he lead 700 people into the new country; “Others may come to the New World for wealth and furs. We have another goal, another end. We have entered into an explicit covenant with God to be His people in this New World.”
BECOMING THE CITY ON A HILL
They all wanted to be that “city on a hill” spoken of in the scriptures which spoke of a model of Christianity for all of the world to see.
These biblical scholars knew the history of Israel well. They all knew how God had wanted to use Israel as a perfect pattern for all of the nations.
Today we are studying that same Israel as it is being formed and shaped by God to become that pattern. God gave them a perfect pattern for governing.
Later we will learn how Israel went astray from this purpose and was led into ungodly ways and idol worship. Eventually we will see how the people were assimilated into various parts of the world; and there was a need for a new pattern.
God’s pattern had not failed; mankind had failed to keep God’s pattern.
A MERCIFUL GOD OFTEN GIVES SECOND CHANCES
Years and years down the road of history, the Pilgrims and the Puritans wanted to start that same Godly pattern of governing again. They hoped to be more successful and this time they wanted to fulfill it by being obedient and faithful to God in every way in the new country that God had lead them to live in.
All of these first settlers of America actually took the time to write out and record their covenants with God. They were serious about consulting with God and keeping His ways in the founding and the growing of the nation. They wrote it all down to remember every word.
When it came to be time for a formal constitution to be drafted; all of these individual covenants that had been written down and pledged to God in prayer were considered and used in the wording of the new governing document.
AMERICA’S CONSTITUTION WAS A BINDING COVENANT WITH GOD
So many modern-day people have never realized that the founding fathers considered the Constitution to be a binding covenant of the nation with God; just as God had formed a covenant with Noah, Abraham and Israel.
These faithful words were written down as a pledge to God, to follow Him, and it was hoped that God would bestow His blessings on the nation in return and honor the covenant.
God has done that! The blessings have been so much more than we could have ever imagined!
The bounty and blessings of America are uncountable.
NATIONAL PROGRESS HAS ALWAYS FOLLOWED THE KEEPING OF THE COVENANT WITH GOD
For as long as the people have followed God and obeyed his ways and kept covenant with Him, the country grew and progressed. God has certainly blessed America over the years.
These obedient believers who founded America believed that God was the Supreme Judge of the Universe.
They did not hide this fact; but used the words from the Holy Scriptures all through their founding documents.
WE HAVE BROKEN THE COVENANT
Today we see the covenant we made with God is being, and has been; broken.
For a long time now, men who despise God have walked away from God’s ways and they have continuously brought foreign and pagan ways into our land and included these ways and beliefs into the re-making of our laws.
The Godly people of our nation realize we need a wise new leader.
A wise new leader in America would consider Joel 2:13 which says, “Now return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in loving kindness.“
WHAT WOULD A WISE NEW LEADER DO?
A wise new leader would take out the Book of Deuteronomy (which we are studying today) and follow the precepts given in this passage to future kings. It is written in Chapter 17 that the king would be writing down God’s laws on a scroll and preserving and keeping them in his heart.
He would rule the people in a Godly way and not let them turn to the right or to the left; but to stay on course and fulfill the destiny of this once great nation.
A wise new leader would bring the country back into the words of the long forgotten covenant we made with God when the nation first began.
THERE IS STILL HOPE
As long a people turn to God and change; our destiny has not been lost.
There is hope.
The words of Deuteronomy reminds us of how the Torah became like the Constitution of Israel, and how it can also lead and anchor us today. God’s word never changes. If we stay steady; we can reach a better shore.
Is it too late?
Not according to Joel 2:13.
Joel 2:13 says, “Now return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in loving-kindness.”
So today as we study Deuteronomy 17 and see how God was advising Israel to set up their proper government, and as we realize we are about to have a transition of leadership for our country as well; let us take the words that God gave for Kings to follow to heart.
Let’s read them together; Deuteronomy 17:18 – 20: When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the Levitical priests. It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the Lord his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees and not consider himself better than his fellow Israelites and turn from the law to the right or to the left. Then he and his descendants will reign a long time over his kingdom in Israel.
AMERICA FOLLOWING THE PATTERN FOR ISRAEL
What if our current leaders all took this advice?
First of all; they would be copying a scroll with God’s commandments written upon it. The implication is that the King take great pains to follow the letter of the laws of God. All ten commandments would need to be considered every time any new laws came about and this would be what influenced the formation of each new law.
Our country would change quickly.
If we return to God; He will once again return to us!
WHO IS PRAYING?
If you truly love America I beg of you today to get down on your knees and pray for this country as you never have before. We are not following the patterns that God set forth. We must repent and turn.
The greatest thing that we must repent from is what we are now under judgement over; that of taking the lives of innocent children in the bloody act of abortion. This is a very pagan act; performed all through the periods of history where God was so appalled that He turned his back and let his people fall.
We must continuously heed the words of 2 Chronicles 7:14: If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
Unlike Israel in this passage, who was so shiny new and clean as they were preparing to start their nation; America has grown old.
We are over 230 years old now. Time has not proven the pattern of the “city on a hill.” Instead we have become similar to those living in the valley who sacrificed their young to pagan gods.
REMEMBER YOUR HERITAGE AND IDENTITY
We have forgotten our heritage.
America has lost its identity.
We MUST change and repent and turn.
Judgement has already fallen, and we are suffering a plague in the form of pandemic even now as I write these words.
The plague is most harmful to our older people; they are the ones who are being punished the most. This punishment of innocent, older people who are helpless to help themselves is a direct reversal of the main sin that caused the judgement we are under.
We have harmed the innocent younger who were unable to protect themselves. It has been done in the name of prosperity, selfishness and self-worship; as women have worshiped their bodies and their lifestyles instead of choosing to allow life into the world. It was not their choice to make.
When people take the decisions of God alone and try to make these things within their own power instead; judgement always falls.
God is our heritage.
God is our identity.
THE PATTERN GONE WRONG MUST BECOME THE PATTERN OF RIGHT
Israel has not yet gone down this same road as we continue in our study; not yet; but Israel, like all other human groups of people, will make the same mistakes and come under the same pattern of judgment.
Can we not learn from their mistakes?
Can we not stop these horrible murders of the innocent?
Will we not stop using these murders that are the key to the prosperity of the greedy, money-hungry research firms that use aborted baby cells in their research to develop new cures? Does the fact that they help find a new cure (only a small percentage of the time) justify the taking of the lives that have been given?
No! It does not!
Can we not return to ethical research? Will we not quit changing our laws to allow such things? Today New York City has a law approved on its books that allow abortion of a full-term pregnancy. This is the taking of the life of a new born baby. I am very sure that God is horrified at the fact that His loved and blessed creation would commit such a law to its books. It is a total perversion of everything that God stands for.
WHAT SHOULD WE DO?
Can this change?
What is the cure for this pandemic?
The cure is the change. We must turn back to God and follow God’s ways to avoid more and more national judgment. God asked new Kings to write down the commandments and memorize them as a way to keep them fresh and new every day. This exercise is not a bad idea for anyone hoping to see our nation progress.
Time is short.
It needs to happen TODAY, all across America.
This time of repentance and turning and change needs to go on for the length of the time of the committing of the sins. You have heard some call for a “Great Reset?” That isn’t what is needed though.
We NEED a “Great Reversal.”
These national sins basically started in 1970; if you do the research. That means we have fifty years worth of repenting to do in America. Teach your children how to pray and how to repent for our nation.
The years keep stacking up. The sins must stop NOW and the repenting must begin NOW.
Start and end each day with a prayer for our nation. Be sure to repent for the abortions and the immoral thinking that has been a slap in the face to God for the last 50 years. Go out to speak for reversal and change and vote accordingly. Rally those around you to set the books straight, to re-word the re-worded laws and bring them back to a Godly state.
Read and study Deuteronomy. It spells out God’s pattern for how a nation should be governed.
Realize that God is ultimately the Supreme Judge of all of this universe. He is much higher than the House, The Senate and The Supreme Court.
Take your place in the universe that your Father created and stand for the principles of a loving, kind and merciful God.
Live out the change and the change will allow you to live.
Return to God and He will return to our nation.