Forgetting God

Like most of my friends, I have long held Ronald Reagan in high esteem. It is hard to imagine that his last day in office as our president happened almost twenty-five years ago. I remember the hopeful feelings I had when he first was elected to office in 1980 almost thirty-three years ago. We had lived through the tumultuous 60’s and the Watergate-debacle-malaise-stricken-Nixon-Ford-Carter ‘70’s. Reagan was a breath of fresh air and a sign of hope for a new era.

But jump back a decade and a half to the mid-to-late ‘60’s. It was in those years that a revival sprang up in America. I was a part of that revival, coming to Christ in 1968. For about a decade—from the late sixties to the late seventies—the Holy Spirit was poured out upon our land. We experienced miracles, signs and wonders, healings, manifestations of prophetic utterances, the Baptism of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of other tongues, anointed Holy Ghost inspired teaching, and most of all, the manifest presence of God in our meetings which arrested us, shut up a full room of souls completely silent for minutes on end as we sat quietly, drinking deeply, some falling to their knees in worship as God moved so powerfully among us. Early on we were called Jesus People and our movement was dubbed the Jesus Movement. Many of the non-denominational, evangelical/charismatic churches and organizations of today find their origins in that movement.

And yet we all saw that on the whole, our nation was moving slowly, inexorably, away from God. On our watch the US Supreme Court made abortion the law of the land. And as the 1970’s drew to a close, we saw the beginnings of the Christian conservative movement with folks like Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and James Dobson coming on to the scene. And then he appeared out of the mist—or should I say out of the silver screen. A Moses-like figure in our minds—a deliverer, a godly man with the rights kinds of principles and deeply-rooted convictions. Voted into office in 1980 and swept into office again in 1984, we all but worshiped this man. He was our George Washington, tall rugged, courageous, virtuous, articulate, Reagan represented the true, historic American spirit. We loved him.

Jump forward to a couple of weeks ago. In my class on Judeo-Christian Worldview and the founding of our nation, we looked at I Samuel chapter 8—the story of Israel’s rejection of God and their request for a “king like the other nations.”Hold that thought.

Joel McDurmon of American Vision just yesterday published an article on the first part of I Samuel 8 titled National apostasy (I Samuel 8:1-9). In it he explains that Israel had just come through a nation revival (I Samuel 7) and that after a very short period of time (one generation) they had forgotten God. He writes:

“In reading this account quickly in the space of just a few verses, we probably do not understand the full weight of the situation. As I said a minute ago, this change signals a drastic swing in the faith of Israel compared to the great revival of the previous chapter. After all, Samuel set up the stone called Ebenezer specifically as a memorial device so Israel would not forget what had happened. And now here we are a couple decades or so later witnessing just that: Israel forgetting God.”

But then McDurmon begins to question whether Israel was actually forgetting God, or just getting nervous because Samuel was getting old:

“There is no doubt that Samuel’s leadership had been established among the people. They trusted him or else they would not still have come to him for approval even though they were about to sell him out. The problem here is that the people apparently did not learn the heart of the lessons Samuel had led them through. The mighty revival in chapter 7 was all about God’s presence and particularly God’s preeminence in all things. The Israelites in 7:11 would not have been able to rout the Philistines as they did had not God first moved with a great thunder to put the enemy in a flight of terror (7:10). We recall that the chapter 7 episode was a return to God’s Law and the idea that the battle is the Lord’s (Deut. 20:3–4). But now how far have they come from that reality? Now it appears that it was Samuel himself whom they had ben trusting all this time, for the moment he begins to show signs of aging, they start to fear about their future. Had their faith been squarely in the God to whom Samuel pointed, their concerns would have been quite different. Instead of inquiring about a king, they may have been resolved in the fact that God Himself was their king, and that they needed nothing else but to trust in Him.”

I am seeing some parallels here, aren’t you?

We came off of a revival (70’s), elected a great man to lead and deliver us (80’s), and when he exited the stage, immediately began our quest for his replacement. McDurmon continues:

“Adding to the elders’ fear, however, and to their condemnation, is the fact that they assessed their chances for the future upon their current corrupt leadership. Samuel had appointed his two sons as judges under his command. Despite their wonderful names—Abijah (“My father is Yaweh”), and Joel (you can’t get a much better name than Joel, or “Yaweh is God”)—they failed to live up to them or to walk in the righteous ways of their father. They reversed the reign of justice that Samuel had established in chapter 7. They accepted bribes, a vice which perverts justice in favor of those willing to pay. This favors the wealthy who will pay large sums to sway a decision. It also crushes the poor who are either found unfairly on the losing end of such suits, or who must scrape together and sacrifice virtually their life savings to get a favorable ruling. In the end, bribery means that justice according God’s Law is superseded by the material gain of the judge. The elders had enough moral sense to know that this practice was wrong. They did not want a society in which it was perpetuated. But again, they were focused upon the men and not upon the God who had previously delivered them. Thus, instead of turning to God, they despaired and turned to human devices.”

History repeats itself.

McDurmon then explains that the Israelite’s rejection of God as King, and their clamor for a “king like the other nations,” is DEMOCRACY in action. “This is what the people want,” God said. “I am going to let them have it.” McDurmon next offers four “applications.” I will call them lessons or warnings:

1. 1. Be wary of proposals made in times of crisis and fear.
2. 2. Be critical of all political discourse.
3. 3. Beware of the lust to rule.
4. 4. Government must be transformed by God’s Word, not conformed to this world.

And yet, we continue to look for the next Ronald Reagan.

We do need good leaders. Perhaps if we sought God first, and not good leaders first, He would provide the good leaders we need.

I HIGHLY recommend your reading of McDurmon’s article.