“Hear and give ear; be not proud, for the LORD has spoken.

“Give glory to the LORD your God before he brings darkness, before your feet stumble on the twilight mountains, and while you look for light he turns it into gloom and makes it deep darkness.

“But if you will not listen, my soul will weep in secret for your pride; my eyes will weep bitterly and run down with tears, because the LORD’s flock has been taken captive.”

— Jeremiah 13:15-17

Jeremiah was a prophet just prior to the Israelites being taken captive by the Babylonians and removed into exile.

He was in disfavor with the king’s court because he prophesied doom and gloom for Israel, while all the false prophets were saying peace and prosperity. In the scripture quoted above, Jeremiah was trying to warn the Israelites to change their ways before God brought disaster onto the nation.

Pride was at the forefront of their fall. Worship of God had been polluted by worldly outside influences. The people were looking for the good times, the abundance of good things they had enjoyed, while not acknowledging or thanking God for His provision. Jeremiah speaks for God when he says: “But if you will not listen, my soul weeps in secret for your pride…”

The Babylonians (or Chaldeans, as the Jews termed them), once they had conquered Jerusalem in 597 BC, deported the a large number of the people.

The deportations were large, but certainly did not involve the entire nation. Somewhere around 10,000 people were forced to relocate to the city of Babylon, the capital of the Chaldean empire. In 586 BC, Judah itself ceased to be an independent kingdom, and the earlier deportees found themselves without a homeland, without a state, and without a nation. Nebuchadnezzar, the king of the Chaldeans, only deported the most prominent citizens of Judah: professionals, priests, craftsmen, and the wealthy. The “people of the land” (am-hares) were allowed to stay. The land was reapportioned among the people remaining there. A kind of socialism took over, but the land experienced extreme famine, poverty, and unrest.

The Israelite people had been taken captive long before their deportation to Babylon. They had been taken captive by their pride about their own accomplishments, including the alliances they made with surrounding kingdoms to protect themselves from invasion. This proved to be of no value. Also, they had secularized their religion and only went through the motions of religious rituals, thinking that their half-hearted works would appease God. Their hearts were far from God. They were filled with their own pride. They had less use for God than the things that made them “happy,” relying on their own strength of getting what they wanted without God.

I hope you can see some parallels to our own time and our own nation.

Our nation has been trying to do without God. We have taken God out of our government, out of our schools, and out of our daily conversations about our nation’s ailing heart. We have stopped acknowledging that God needs to be at the forefront of everything in life.

In the United States, we rely more on “political” and “technological” solutions than godly ones for the woes we are facing. From the COVID-19 virus, to race relations, to our national security, to our food supply, we believe that human ingenuity and our inherent “goodness” can save us from the messes we are facing.

The first thing we must admit as a people who live under God (whether we believe in Him or not) is that we need a higher, more wise, and stronger power to bring positive change to our nation today. Whether we want to admit it or not, this country was settled and then founded on the Judeo-Christian principles of faith in God. The principles and ethics of our society, the justice of our courts, and the rule of law that maintains our freedoms were all formulated under a higher principle than frail, sinful humans can provide on their own. God was the architect!

“We the people” serve a higher purpose than to merely exist or to succumb to some totalitarian force exerting pressure against us.

That higher purpose is the guiding hand of providence through the grace of God. Without our nod to the supreme and almighty power of God, our prayers are futile, and our faith is a farce.

I pray that we will recapture what truly will make America great again. We need to give glory to God in all things and begin to trust and seek His counsel on all matters.

I have often seen bumper stickers and posters as well as posts on social media that read “God Bless America!” The reality is, God has blessed us and continues to do so!

Then, let us claim our heritage from God instead of relying on our own frail power. It is God who continues to create and sustain us with his power. It is time we turned back fully to him for the restoration of our country.

The Rev. Randall (Randy) Conley is the pastor of Hope Lutheran Church in Hubbard Lake. He is married to his wife of 21 years, Robbie. He has written articles on faith and theology for several publications in his denomination. He enjoys preaching, teaching and gardening at home.