Judgments of God on Nations

                      Judgments of God on Nations

INDEX:
- EGYPT
- THE LAND OF CANAAN
- NINEVEH
- CONCLUSION
 

  In the Scriptures of the Bible, God gives us a layout of some of His Judgments on nations, the reasons, His methods, and His desired end for that nation.

 

EGYPT  - If we SHARE the BENEFITS of our nation’s activities, we can be sure we will also REAP the CONSEQUENCES - One of the first nations recorded in the Scriptures on which God exacted judgment was Egypt. God’s prime objective was to liberate His people, His own nation, the Children of Israel. The other objective was to reveal Himself to the nations as the true and living God, and to execute judgments on the pagan gods, which are devils. Deut. 32:16-17, 1 Cor. 10:20, Exodus 9:16, Romans 9:17, Exodus 12:12 Key Verses – “And the Lord said, ‘I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them into a good land, and a large, and a land flowing with milk and honey…now therefore , behold, the cry of the children of Israel is come to Me, and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them.’” Exodus 3:7-9 

 The children of Israel were initially invited to stay in Egypt under the supervision of Joseph and by the direction of Pharaoh. But sometime after they both passed away the Scriptures teach that another Pharaoh which did not know Joseph rose to power and subjected the Israelites to slavery. This apparently went on for many decades. The full duration of Israel’s stay in Egypt was 430 years.

  Here the justice of God is revealed in the demonstration of His deliverance for the Children of Israel and the judgments on the Egyptians who were originally engaged as hosts to God’s people until He was ready to move them into the promise land. The Egyptians, having turned against the Israelites, subjected them to harsh slavery for the purpose of control and advantage, and building the shrines of their gods. Consequently, God, while freeing His people from the hands of the Egyptians also exposed the fallacy of their god’s. The hardening of the Pharaoh’s heart was necessary to be able to completely carry out all the judgments required and ensure a complete release from the Egyptians. Interestingly, the Israelites experienced the impact of the first three plagues, but from that point on God made a distinction between the Egyptians and the Israelites by making a separation so that the Israelites would not be subjected in their dwellings to the plagues that were to follow. Apparently the Lord did not want to completely decimate the Egyptians nor their food sources because in the plague of the hail the Lord told the Pharaoh to warn the people to get their servants and cattle into shelter lest they die. Exodus 7:4-5, 9: 14-19.

  God having to harden Pharaoh’s heart was necessary in order to fully loosen the Egyptian’s grip on the supremely lucrative advantage over the Israelites, but also because of the incredible demonstration of power the Lord was unleashing on Egypt, the Pharaoh would likely have yielded much too soon. The Lord’s intent was to fully avenge their allegiance to their gods by defeating them at their own confidence (Exodus 18:11), and to make full retribution for their debt to Israel (Exodus 12:36).

  On an extra note, in Genesis 47: 13-26, while Joseph was governor of Egypt he purchased all of Egypt for the Pharaoh and thereby secured 1/5 of all its revenue for the Pharaohs. Consequently, the Pharaoh was the prime beneficiary of the prosperity procured through the slaves, and therefore had the most to lose. Now the Lord openly declared that He would harden Pharaoh’s heart so that he would not easily let Israel go (Exodus 4:21…). But in Exodus 3:19, initially He recognizes and states that Pharaoh would have no intention of letting them go. In Exodus 8:32 it specifies that Pharaoh hardened his heart (an indication of his own stubbornness), and in 9:12, it states that the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart demonstrating the Lord’s sovereign control of the situation and thereby bringing both he and Egypt to a conclusive and just recompense.  

  Although the Lord warned the Israelites to never return to Egypt (as it was their first actual home – though not intended for them), there has always been an interesting association between Israel and Egypt. Furthermore God has had a special place for Egypt in His addenda as revealed in Isaiah 19: 19-25.

 

The Land of Canaan (Devoted to Destruction) “A little Leaven Leavens the whole lump.”: The people of this land were the direct descendants of Ham, one of Noah’s three sons. Canaan was cursed by his grandfather when his father, Ham, mocked his father’s nakedness. The land eventually became full of wickedness and all the practices that God warned Israel to flee from in the books of Exodus to Deuteronomy were practiced there in the land of Canaan. Leviticus 18:24-30. The sin was so heavy in the region that the Lord said, “and the land itself vomited out her inhabitants.” The Lord used the Nation of Israel to execute His fierce wrath on the peoples of this land, and gave them the Land as their inheritance in their place; however, they were not able to move in until the behavior of the inhabitants of Canaan had reached its punishable climax. “…for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.” Genesis 15:16.
  By the time Israel was ready to depart from Egypt, the depravity of the peoples of Canaan was to the point where it needed to be punished. Actually, the corruption was so inset, that the Lord needed to purge the entire region, and this He intended to do through the nation of Israel. Interesting enough, the Lord warned the Israelites that if they learned the practices of the people of that land that He would be required to do to them as He had them do to the peoples of the land of Canaan. Centuries latter He brought in the Assyrian armies and finally the Babylonian armies under king Nebuchadnezzar to execute His judgments on the unrepentant behaviours of the Israelites.
 

Unrepentant sinful behavior is infectious which can, and will spread like a plague – “Know ye not that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Purge out (means the complete removal of everything affected and contaminated), therefore, the old leaven…” 1 Corinthians 5:6-7.
   Because the Israelites never completely removed all the inhabitants and their idols from the land they began to embrace the very practices that brought about its destruction. For centuries the Israelites constantly struggled with the same sins and practices of the people of Canaan, which prevailed to the point where Israel and Judah, though punished time and again, were eventually (but temporary) removed. Furthermore, in the book of Judges, chapters 19-21, so early into their occupation of the land of Canaan, actually during days of Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the city of Gibeah had given themselves over to homosexuality to the same extent as Sodom and Gomorrah. That led to such a bloody battle that the tribe Benjamin, which heroically rallied to the support of the men of Gibeah, was almost completely obliterated. Clearly unrepentant sin infects and spreads.

 

Nineveh: “Say unto them, ‘As I live,’ says the Lord, ‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn form his way and live. Turn, turn, from your evil ways…’” Ezekiel 33:11.  Another city/nation mentioned in the Bible that eventually faced God’s retribution was the city of Nineveh. Nineveh was noted for its violence and cruelty as it raided and pillaged other nations. In the book of Jonah we have the account of God sending Jonah to warn the people of Nineveh of pending doom and giving the people of Nineveh a chance to mend their ways and repent. Jonah’s reluctance reflected the understandable resentment for these people and their brutal treatment of his people, and demonstrated it by fleeing in the opposite direction. Then, when the people actually and genuinely repented he was resentful because he felt they had escaped the justice due them Jonah 4:1-11. But here God reveals His heart and understanding vs 11, “And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand, and also much cattle?”  This is amazing understanding and compassion. By mentioning the 120,000 who cannot discern between their right hand and their left, could mean the amount of children in their midst, or perhaps He is describing the sheer ignorance/lack of moral understanding of the people of the city. The apostle Paul explains the grace and mercy of God on himself, “Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious, but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.” 1 Timothy 113-15.  We must note that regardless of this understanding and compassion their behavior warranted punishment, and had they not repented it would surely have come swiftly, which it eventually did some time later as they fell back into their sin. The book of Nahum and history brings this out. “…Your judgments are a great deep, O Lord, You preserve man and beast. How excellent is Your loving kindness, O God! Therefore the Children of men put their trust under the shadow of Your wings.” Psalm 36:6 -7.

 NOT EVERY CONFLICT OF NATIONS ARE GOD'S JUDGMENT 

  As with the conflicts between two individuals, so it is with nations, in that as with individual people, nations have the choice to act according to their will. God can use their choices to fulfill His purposes as He demonstrated with the Babylonian empire, but consider this statement where God is addressing Israel, "If anyone does attack you, it will not be My doing: whoever attacks you will surrender to you." Isaiah 54:15 NIV   Now as with the individual, the nation's responsibility is to ensure that it's behavior is not deserving God's judgment.

CONCLUSION - In the book of Ezekiel, God refers the nations as plants in His garden. He is the designer and builder of the nations, their borders, and languages, and each one is also subject to His judgments. But during the age of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, God's greatest concern for each nation is that their people get to hear the Gospel of His Son. Furthermore, all that happens in and to the nations will fit into His overall plan according it His will and purposes. The Scriptures also teach that He builds and uproots the nations as He sees necessary, all are subject to His judgments.