Vol. XXXVIII January 5, 2006 No 1
A LAND FOR WHICH THE LORD CARES
by Tom McLemore
Once more, we welcome a new year. The past year has been a wonderful year, and yet there have been, and will continue to be, many challenges. We have no doubt given thought to the coming of a new year, and it is hoped that we have made some positive plans as we stand in the threshold of 2006.
We cannot but consider our individual, personal desires and dreams as we contemplate the future, and yet, is there not a great need for us to think of our nation and of the church of Lord which we hold so dear? Many of us are beginning the coming year with prayers for personal prosperity and personal spiritual growth. And yet, we must not forget to pray for our nation and the Lord’s church. Very alarming things are happening in our nation and in the church. Some consider them to be progress, while many of us accept the divine appraisal of them as abominable sins and departures from the faith once for all delivered to the saints. It will take much fervent prayer and courageous standing up for truth and right to keep both nation and church from ultimate disaster.
These twin concerns, anxiety about the nation and the church of our Lord, find an analogy in Israel of old. Israel was a nation, but the citizens of the nation were God’s assembly or church in a manner of speaking. The welfare of the nation was bound up with the relationship of the people with their God. The nation was founded upon a covenant with the God who, in delivering them from tyranny, had brought the assembly into existence. As history would reveal, their ultimate political downfall and their spiritual demise went hand in hand.
While it is clear that the church of our Lord is not so constituted as to be equivalent with the citizenry of any one nation, and while increasing numbers prefer not to consider the United States a "Christian nation," we cannot escape the truth that the fate of our land and the spiritual condition of our people are intimately related.
This idea is supported by many familiar biblical data. It was for the want of ten righteous souls in Sodom that God was compelled to destroy the cities of the plain. Our Lord tells his disciples that we are the salt of the earth and the light of the world. It becomes us to ask, if this is so, how much flavoring and illumination does our nation presently have? The sages of old recognized that righteousness exalts a nation and that sin is a reproach to any people (Proverbs 14:34).
In light of all of this, consider the potential for the land of Palestine which Moses described in Deuteronomy 11:12: "A land which the LORD thy God careth for: the eyes of the LORD thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year." Does this appeal to you? Would you be willing to pray and work for such a condition to prevail in this land? Read the larger context, and see how this is related to the church and in broader terms, to the righteousness of the people of this nation as a whole.
"Therefore shall ye keep all the commandments which I command you this day, that ye may be strong, and go in and possess the land, whither ye go to possess it; and that ye may prolong your days in the land, which the LORD sware unto your fathers to give unto them and to their seed, a land that floweth with milk and honey. For the land, whither thou goest in to possess it, is not as the land of Egypt, from whence ye came out, where thou sowedst thy seed, and wateredst it with thy foot, as a garden of herbs: But the land, whither ye go to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven: a land which the LORD thy God careth for: the eyes of the LORD thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year. And it shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently unto my commandments which I command you this day, to love the LORD your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, that I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil. And I will send grass in thy fields for thy cattle, that thou mayest eat and be full. Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them; and then the LORD’S wrath be kindled against you, and he shut up the heaven, that there be no rain, and that the land yield not her fruit; and lest ye perish quickly from off the good land which the LORD giveth you" (Deuteronomy 11:8-17).
What will you and I be willing to do to promote this kind of hope? What commitments will we make to help this be a land which the LORD our God cares for? Will we do as Ezra purposed to do: "For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the LORD, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments" (Ezra 7:10)? Will we determine to overcome our biblical illiteracy and read the Bible diligently? Will we read in search of understanding, rather than as a mere routine? Will we make a commitment to attend the church’s weekly Bible classes? Will we apply ourselves to genuine, prayerful Bible study in those classes, rather than merely being present or viewing Bible study as a duty and drudgery to be fulfilled?
Will we determine to take a public stand with the people of God by being present when the church assembles for worship? At this time when public exhibition of faith in Christ is coming under ridicule more and more, we must make every effort not to be forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as we see the day approaching (Hebrews 10:25). Will this be the year that you become regular and dedicated in your gathering with the saints for worship?
Will we intentionally prepare to give answer to every person who asks us the reason for the hope that is in us with meekness and fear? This will require a deliberate self-examination of our own faith and assurance and a practical allegiance to Christ as divine Lord in our hearts (1 Peter 3:15). In these times, with the proliferation of peoples of other religions in our land, our defensive preparation offers our greatest offensive opportunity. As never before, the lost are coming to us, and doors of world evangelism open themselves to us as at no other time in history.
Will we pray as Paul urged? Supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, must be made for all men. They are to be offered for kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty (1 Timothy 2:1, 2).
Will we determine to give the people of the land a model for the home? With so much confusion as to what constitutes legitimate marriage and the proper structure of the household, this is most urgent. Will our husbands and wives be loving and faithful to each other, bringing up our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord? Will we put Christian principles to work in our homes and relationships so that all the people in the nation can see that God’s plan for the family is best?
In the final analysis, all national progress is founded upon the progress of our citizens. The church as a whole will never be more committed than its members. Our prayer is that more and more of God’s people, and through our influence, more and more people in our nation will desire for this country to be a land for which the LORD God cares. May the eyes of the LORD our God always be upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year!
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