What should we like this generation? What shall we compare it to? America in recent times is like Nabal of old who had crops and herds that God blessed so that he would be very prosperous. However, he was an arrogant fool who neither thanked nor honored God for his blessing, nor did he honor David who, with his four hundred men, camped near Nabal’s property protecting it from robbers and robbers.
After the harvest, David sent messengers to suggest payment for his services. Nabal was drunk and giggled at the request. Later, hearing this, David was outraged. He and his soldiers, riding on his mounts, swore that no male belonging to Nabal would live to see another day. Nabal had a wise and beautiful wife named Abigail who saw what was coming. Knowing David’s reputation, she moved in fear and quickly packed a large supply in carts and on donkeys and put David on the road. Bowing humbly, she confessed the sin and folly of her husband, pleading for the lives of all men in her husband’s estate. David, moved by his beauty, wisdom, faith and humility, received gifts and reproaches from him. He turned and went her way, thanking God for her. Nabal is America, prosperous but arrogant and foolish. Abigail is the Church, clothed with beauty, wisdom, and faith, who, knowing the character of God, moves fearfully to intercede for a foolish generation. David represents God who receives the intercession of the Church and forgives Nabal (America). Those who know how to pray better do it! By the way, God himself struck Nabal, and he died about ten days later. David took the beautiful Abigail as his wife. America, don’t you think God can’t give you a death blow too? Let’s turn to God from: divorce, adultery, teenage sex (fornication), pornography, unfair taxes, abortion, evolutionary self-will, feminism expressed in numerous forms, lewd and violent television and movies. All of which adds up to the Son of Heaven’s rejection of him.
Of this generation, it is true what Cotton Mather, a Puritan preacher, said of his generation: Religion engendered prosperity, and the daughter devoured the mother. America, don’t you understand that it was God who gave birth to you? Was it the Almighty who brought understanding and conviction for our national fathers to establish a government that allowed greater civil liberties than any other country in all of history? Don’t we understand that it was He who gave us this portion of the North American continent with its rich resources and beauty? It was He who provided the strength, cunning and wisdom to bring prosperity. Do we not understand that it was He who allowed the great and terrible Civil War to purge us of our pride and oppression of those who were in slavery? Those we had in dishonor, in murder, having stolen their dignity and the wealth of their work. Why did He do these things? That we may be a nation filled with his light, a beacon to the other nations of the world, testifying to the majesty of his wisdom, protection and provisions, which He has bestowed on us by his grace. We have become a people steeped in our arrogance, stubborn and rebellious. A people who throw off God’s restraints on all sides, a people who delight in the dark and think we should be blessed and honored for it. Such is our extreme confusion. We would do well to follow the biblical admonition. (James 4:6-10) God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw close to God and He will draw close to you. Clean your hands, sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, and lament, and weep. Change your laughter into mourning and your joy into sadness. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will exalt you. Let us turn from our sin to God so that we can once again be filled with His vision for us as individuals and as a people.
to the watchman,
Consider: 1 Samuel 25:1-14, 1 Tim. 2:1-4, John. 5:34