Jeremiah 2:20-21

"Long ago you broke off your yoke

and tore off your bonds;

You said, 'I will not serve you'!

Indeed, on every high hill and under 

every spreading tree, you lay down as a prostitute.  

I had planted you like a choice vine --

of sound and reliable stock.

How then did you turn against me

into a corrupt, wild vine?"

    In view of my posts over the last two days, I was drawn to the writings of Jeremiah, the Old Testament prophet.  I have to admit that Jeremiah is my favorite.   He expresses what I have been feeling for some time now.  

     Although he prophesied to the nation of Israel about the coming judgments due to their disobedience to God, I sense that our own nation has fallen away from recognizing the part that Divine Providence played in the founding of this great nation.  Indeed, George Washington, himself, acknowledged this concept when he said in First Inaugural Address, "No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand, which conducts the affairs of men, more than the people of the United States.  Every step, by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation, seems to have been distinguished by some token of Providential agency."

     Alas, I am afraid, as the Scripture charges, that we have "broken off this yoke and tore off our bonds" to this "invisible hand".  We have removed Him from our schools, our town squares, our houses of Law, and are increasingly diminishing His true voice, even in our churches.  Within the halls of our Government, and throughout our Literature and the Arts, we have declared, "I will not serve You!"  

     We have sacrificed our morals, values and principles for the sake of tolerance, greed, and popularity.         Indeed, like a prostitute, we have cheapened and perverted who we were as a nation;  we have abandoned the true meaning of "equality" and "liberty" and lowered the standards in which we were rooted.   

     Divine Providence blessed us with a unique opportunity....we were planted "like a choice vine"; the first nation in the history of the world founded on the principle that "all men are created equal".  We have traded self-sufficiency and liberty for entitlements and servitude.  Is it really that hard to imagine God questioning, "How then did you turn against me in a corrupt, wild vine?"  Can you deny that God has every reason to pull up such a profane and dishonorable root?  

     As in the case of the nation of Israel, God will not be patient forever.  It is time to recognize our decline and set things back on the path towards reclaiming our heritage.  In the words of President George Washington, in his First Inaugural Speech, "The propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right, which Heaven itself has ordained."