If you would say that America is not in a mess today, you would clearly be deceived. Our economy is in a terrible state, our debt is so much that only a miracle from God could fix it, and our leaders are passing ungodly, anti-christian laws like never before, our culture is being eroded by sin like never before, and the church has been infiltrated by seducing spirits leading ministers and ministries to preach a shallow, half-truth Gospel. We are not in good shape.

Now I don’t want to sound all glum and doom. But I don’t want to white wash the truth either. There is a reason why our country is in the mess it is in today and there is hope for us as well. If we look to the Word of God, we can see exactly why we’re in this mess. It has happened to nations before. We’re not alone.

Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. – 1 Corinthians 10:11

If we look to the Old Testament, we can see two examples of the type of leadership and type of a nation. In Genesis 41 we see Egypt, a secular nation, who had a Godly leader. …and the seven years of famine began to come, as Joseph had said. The famine was in all lands, but in all the land of Egypt there was bread (Genesis 41:54). We see in this scripture that even though Egypt was a secular nation, even though there was a famine, the nation had bread. In fact, they had enough for their own nation and for surrounding nations.

Joseph was the leader of the nation, second only to Pharaoh. And even though this was a secular nation, who really had no desire to serve God, because they honored Joseph and even more – their leader honored God, they were saved in a time of famine.

On the other hand, if we look to 1 Kings 16, we’ll see the opposite. Ahab was King of Israel, a Godly nation – the Lord’s own people. But look what the Bible says about King Ahab in verse 33 – And Ahab made a wooden image. Ahab did more to provoke the LORD God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him.

Ahab provoked God more than all the kings of Israel before him. Wow. Now during Ahab’s rule, the Prophet Elijah spoke with a Word from the Lord and declared a famine on the land.

‘And Elijah the Tishbite, of the inhabitants of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the LORD God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, except at my word.”’ -1 Kings 17:1

For three years, the nation of Israel suffered from a famine. Even though they were God’s chosen people, a Godly nation, they suffered from a famine. Why? Their leader was ungodly and under him the nation slipped into ungodliness. It was not necessarily the nation that slipped, as it was the leader, and the nation followed. A godly nations suffered because they had a secular leader who ignored the will and ways of God while a secular nation prospered because they had a Godly leader who honored the will and ways of God.

The Bible backs this up of course.

“When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan.” – Proverbs 29:2

God As King vs An Earthly King

In 1 Samuel 8 we read the story of the children of Israel wanting a king for their nation. They wanted a king so they could be like other nations. To this time, God was their king. But they wanted a king and God responded.

“Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah, and said to him, “Look, you are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.” But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” So Samuel prayed to the LORD. And the LORD said to Samuel, “Heed the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them. According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt, even to this day-with which they have forsaken Me and served other gods-so they are doing to you also. Now therefore, heed their voice. However, you shall solemnly forewarn them, and show them the behavior of the king who will reign over them.” So Samuel told all the words of the LORD to the people who asked him for a king. And he said, “This will be the behavior of the king who will reign over you: He will take your sons and appoint them for his own chariots and to be his horsemen, and some will run before his chariots.  He will take your daughters to be perfumers, cooks, and bakers. And he will take the best of your fields, your vineyards, and your olive groves, and give them to his servants. He will take a tenth of your grain and your vintage, and give it to his officers and servants. And he will take your male servants, your female servants, your finest young men, and your donkeys, and put them to his work. He will take a tenth of your sheep. And you will be his servants.” – 1 Samuel 8:4-11, 13-17

Before this time, the tenth belonged to God, and they gave it to him. Now they had a king that took the tenth (this is not to say the tithe was done away with, of course). Before this time, God was their judge. Now there a man who was their judge. Before this time, the Lord fought their battles. Now a man fought their battles.

Of course there were times after this that God did intervene and fight their battles after this time. But it came when the leader asked Him to.

“And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the LORD, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. So Judah gathered together to ask help from the LORD; and from all the cities of Judah they came to seek the LORD.” – 2 Chronicles 20:3-4

“And the fear of God was on all the kingdoms of those countries when they heard that the LORD had fought against the enemies of Israel. Then the realm of Jehoshaphat was quiet, for his God gave him rest all around.” – 2 Chronicles 20:29-30

Constitutionally Speaking…

As you can see, having the right kind of leader is important for a nation – any nation. Without proper leadership, without Godly leadership, a nation will suffer. Our founders new this. They knew the importance of Godly leadership and the importance of a Godly, moral culture. The second President of the United States, John Adams once said, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” By religious, he did mean Christian.

Daring to say that our founders were Christians in today’s society will get you lambasted by those that how to marginalize and minimize your voice and influence on culture itself. The truth is though, the majority of our founders were Christians and government and early years are based off the Bible and people who loved God and wanted to rule His way. For more on our founder’s faith, you check out David Barton’s wall builders here.

Now what John Adams said was not just his opinion, but was the prevailing opinion of the founders. John Jay, the first Supreme Court Justice said, “Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is their duty – as well as privilege and interest – of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers.”

The founders of America understood the importance of the character and beliefs of their leaders, even if we do not today. Our nation is turmoil today because it is not being governed properly. Look at what John Adams said again –  “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” The Constitution of the United States was not designed for any old nation. It wasn’t made just any people in the world. That’s why our form of government rarely works when applied to other nations. It was intended for a moral and religious (Christian) people. If you look at the original laws of our nation, you’ll see that there weren’t that many. Why was that? Because this nation was meant for a moral and Christian people. Moral, Christian people won’t kill, won’t steal, won’t do things that laws are enacted to stop.

However, because immoral, non-Christian people filled our society, filled our government, more laws were put in place. More things were added to the government to make the nation run smoother. But originally our government was very open and free.

In fact, most of our laws originally were delegated to the states. That’s the Tenth Amendment. The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

The federal government is not allowed to have a federal religion. However, states can. In fact, during the founding of many states, they indeed had their own religion (all of which was one denomination or another of Christianity). And many of the states actually had laws that barred non-Christians from serving in political, elected-government offices. Violation of the 1st Amendment? No. It was a right given under the 10th Amendment.

During this time we didn’t have the Supreme Court interfering and telling the states they couldn’t do this or that. In fact, the federal government did little more than make sure the states were a cohesive unit. They printed a national currency and did a few other things, but mostly the laws were left to the states. In fact, the Supreme Court when it first started having session had little power. It first held court in a basement, not the grand building we see today. And when the Supreme Court ruled that something wasn’t right, lawmakers ignored their rulings and went on like they weren’t even there.

But today we have handed over power to them as the almighty watchdog that can tell us, the states, the nation – that something we the people choose is wrong. We have the Supreme Court telling states that they cannot ban homosexual marriage, even though the 10th Amendment says the states have every right too. We have the Supreme Court telling the states that even if the entire state, the entire nation votes to do something, if they say the states can’t, they can’t. They are not the almighty power. God is.

And that is where we are today. We have elected bad leaders who have placed more bad leaders over us. We have chosen our leaders, and God has allowed us to have what we wanted. Yes, not all of us chose these bad leaders. But the majority of us have.

Now it is up to the church to change it. It is up to the body of Christ to fix the problem that we allowed to be created. Yes, we allowed it. It is our fault. But we can also solve it.

“Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence.” -1 Timothy 2:1-2

According to 1 Timothy, one of the first things that we should do is pray for our leaders. Have we prayed for our leaders? Is that one of the first things that we have done in our lives?

Why are we to pray for our leaders? “…that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence.” We can see that as a result of Christians praying for our leaders, we will live a quiet and peaceable life. Thus, if we fail to pray for our leaders, we will live a life full of strife and disorder, even chaos. If you look around at the nation, you can tell that we are not living a quiet and peaceful life.

So, how can we correct this? Well, pray for our leaders. We must pray for our leaders. We must pray for wisdom for them, protection for them, that they make the right decisions according to God that we may live a quiet and peaceful life. And we must also pray that if the wrong leaders are in office, that they would be removed.

But we must also realize that we got into this mess because we failed to do what we were told. We got into this mess because of sin. We got into this mess because Christians didn’t do what Christians are supposed to. Thus, we look back to the scriptures.

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. -2 Chronicles 7:14

Yes, we must repent. I know for some that is a dirty word, but that is what we must do. We must repent for what we have done and have not done. We must repent for our sins and wicked ways. We must pray for the Lord to help our leaders and our land. I know. We must pray. That too has become a bad word. But that is exactly what we must do.

If we will do what the Bible tells us to do, if we follow the pattern God has set before us to be a peaceful and prosperous land, then we will have it. God is on our side. He wants us to overcome the mess that we are in and that is why He has given us His Word on it. We will overcome in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.