Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. (Deuteronomy 28:1)
Before he died, Moses informed Israel of the blessings that would overtake them if they obeyed God and what would befall them if they did not. Consequently, our Jewish friends refer to this particular chapter as “the Warnings.” Interestingly, when George Washington took the oath of office as the first President of the U.S., he placed his hand on this same passage. In the midst of his address to those gathered he said:
“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. … We ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself ordained.”
Without a doubt, Washington was acknowledging that a nation who owes its existence to the Almighty, such as the United States, should live by His rules. This is exactly what Moses conveyed to the people of Israel. Furthermore, both men made it clear that a nation raised up by God should count on prestige and blessing only when they are being true to the principles ordained in Scripture. Obviously this means that should they abandon those principles, the blessings would begin to dry up. In that vein of thought, Washington also wrote that the U.S. would endure:
“Until the people of America shall have lost all virtue … until they shall have been reduced to such poverty of spirit as to be willing to sell that pre-eminent blessing, the birthright of a freeman, for a mess of pottage: in short, until they have been found incapable of governing themselves and ripe for a master.”
Washington’s warning to America parallels the one Moses gave to Israel — the nation would suffer oppression and hardship if we turned our back on the principles that brought about the birth of our nation. If we became so obsessed with the blessings rather than the One who bestowed those blessings, in time, we would become as Esau and reject what is holy for what is common. It seems apparent that the nation has done just that. However, you and I don’t have to follow the trends of society. We can and should be those who resist the tide of disobedience and stand fast in what we know to be true and eternal. In spite of the environment we find ourselves in, the promise to the obedient still stands — “I will set you high above all.”
Blessings and Shalom,
Bill
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