In Matthew 21:33 Jesus is speaking to the chief priests and the elders of the people in the temple of Jerusalem. He has just cleansed the temple of the vendors and merchants and money changers. And they are asking him by what authority He does these things. So He gives another parable in verse 33 which would have been very familiar to students of the Old Testament as these men were. It was taken from Isaiah 5.
In verse 1 you have a parable regarding the land of Judah in Israel. And God tells through analogy how he planted a vineyard which was Israel and protected and provided for her and nurtured her. How He did everything He could do for her. And as a result of His providence He expected to see Judah produce fruit. But instead, the parable says that Judah produced nothing but worthless sour berries. And so He pronounces a curse upon them and says that He will remove His protection from them and let the animals and the thieves and whatever else may come in and ravage the land.
I cannot help but see the parallels of Judah to the United States today. We too were a nation that benefited from the blessings of God in a very special way. No other nation on earth had the blessings that America has had. No other nation in the world was founded as we are on Christian principles found in God’s word like America was. God used primarily religious persecution to bring a great nation of people together from many foreign countries. And God brought across the sea people from every nation and tongue to become the greatest nation on the face of the earth. This fledgling country with just a ragtag army was set free from the great British empire. From the very beginning it was established in the name of God. There were churches built on every street corner. God’s word is written on our government buildings, its verses were inscribed on our monuments, even our currency stated our trust in God, and for almost 200 years our schools used the Bible as it’s textbook. Our country went on to export Christianity to the world through missionaries to every continent on the globe. Some of the greatest revivals known to man swept across this country, turning men’s hearts to God with great fervor.
Yet as time went on, we like Israel grew complacent, and we grew more and more materialistic. We became consumed with materialism and the passions of the flesh. And little by little America has become a nation that is not defined by their Christian values anymore, but defined by our decadence and rampant consumerism. Even in our churches today, there is no real desire for true righteousness and holiness anymore. The light of the truth, for the most part, has dimmed in most of those churches on every street corner in America today. There is no desire for holiness, but instead the truth of the gospel has been replaced by the prosperity gospel, that teaches that God has granted us His protection and blessing so that we can acquire more and more materialistic things that we might indulge our passions and satisfy the lusts of our flesh. We have found teachers who teach us what we want to hear, or like the Bible says, “tickle our ears.” Our churches are not a place where we go to cry and repent and call out to God for forgiveness of our sins anymore, but instead they have become a mockery of holiness, a similitude of a nightclub or a country club where we celebrate what we think is our preferred status of blessedness, rather than repenting of our harlotry and friendship with the world.
It’s a frightful thing when God takes His hand of protection and blessing off of a nation, or a church, or a person. His providence and protection is designed to enable us to bring forth fruit. But that must begin with fertile ground. The heart broken in repentance produces good ground, fertile ground. Yes, America needs revival. But it must start in the church, and specifically in us.
We have a choice. Mat 21:44 says, "And he who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust." Jesus is that cornerstone. We either fall on Him in brokenness and repentance, or eventually He says we will be broken and scattered like dust, just like Israel was in 70 AD, in fulfillment of Christ’s prophecy.
No comments:
Post a Comment