God's Judgment vs. Destruction of Nations

Then the Lord appeared to Solomon by night, and said to him: "I have heard your prayer, and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice. When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

(2 Chronicles 7:12-14)

Sadly, it is only when a nation begins to experience God's judgment that many saints, for the first time, begin to pray in earnest for the nations in which they reside. Their motivation is normally sparked by fear as they see the way of life they have taken for granted start to change for the worse. When the church finally begins to pray, they petition the Lord to reverse His judgment on the nation so that their lives can return to "normal," using the above passage as the scriptural basis for their prayers.

Unfortunately, because the saints and many ministers of the gospel do not rightly divide the word of truth in this area, they use this passage erroneously, and their prayers therefore prove ineffective. In this passage, God is addressing the nation of Israel, not the church. We need to recognize this fact to understand what God is saying, for God clearly promises to reverse His judgment pronounced upon the nation of Israel if they meet certain requirements. God tells Israel that if they "as a nation" will humble themselves before Him, seek His face, and repent of their wickedness, then God will forgive their sins, reverse the judgment He has pronounced upon them, and heal their land.

The church mistakenly takes this passage out of context by applying it to themselves. Their viewpoint is that they are God's people who are called by His name and therefore qualify. So they humble themselves, seek His face through prayer, and repent of their wicked ways, expecting God to reverse the judgment He has pronounced on the nation and heal the land in which they reside.

There are two problems with this viewpoint, however. First, unlike the Jews, the nation that the saints reside in is not their land, for they are sojourners in a foreign land and their citizenship is in heaven. Second, just like with the Jews, God pronounces judgment on the citizens of the nation—the unbelievers—not on the church. Therefore, unless the citizens of that nation humble themselves, seek His face, and repent of their wicked ways, God's judgment will stand. No amount of praying by the church will change that, for the whole purpose of the judgment is to bring the citizens of that nation to repentance.

The early church understood this principle clearly. When God pronounced the judgment of famine on the Roman Empire, the church's response was to prepare themselves for that famine. They didn't petition the Lord to reverse His decision simply because it would make their lives more uncomfortable, for they understood that God was dealing with the unbelievers. Unless the unbelievers repented, there was nothing the church could do about it.

The church should, in humility, correct those who are in opposition to God's laws, hoping that God perhaps will grant them repentance so they may come to their senses and escape His judgment. The church can also petition the Lord to soften the hearts of the leadership and citizens of the nation so they will come to their senses and repent of their wicked ways. However, they cannot repent before the Lord on behalf of the nation, for that won't work.

There is an account in Scripture of the city-state of Nineveh repenting at Jonah's warning of God's impending judgment (Jonah 3:1-10). We see that it is possible for a nation to come to its senses and repent of their wickedness when confronted with God's judgment. Whether anyone petitioned the Lord on behalf of the citizens of Nineveh, we don't know, for Scripture makes no mention of that happening. We do know, however, that Jonah certainly didn't pray for them, because he was upset when God relented from the disaster He had pronounced upon them.

And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, "Son of man, say to her: 'You are a land that is not cleansed or rained on in the day of indignation.' The conspiracy of her prophets in her midst is like a roaring lion tearing the prey; they have devoured people; they have taken treasure and precious things; they have made many widows in her midst. Her priests have violated My law and profaned My holy things; they have not distinguished between the holy and unholy, nor have they made known the difference between the unclean and the clean; and they have hidden their eyes from My Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them. Her princes in her midst are like wolves tearing the prey, to shed blood, to destroy people, and to get dishonest gain. Her prophets plastered them with untempered mortar, seeing false visions, and divining lies for them, saying, 'Thus says the Lord God,' when the Lord had not spoken. The people of the land have used oppressions, committed robbery, and mistreated the poor and needy; and they wrongfully oppress the stranger. So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall, and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one. Therefore I have poured out My indignation on them; I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath; and I have recompensed their deeds on their own heads," says the Lord God.

(Ezekiel 22:23-31)

In this passage, God plainly tells us that He looks among men to find individuals who will be prepared to stand in the gap before Him on behalf of the nations. Why does God need individuals to do that? God tells us in this passage that He needs them to intercede on behalf of the nations so that He doesn't destroy them.

To understand this concept, we need to understand the difference between God judging a nation and God destroying a nation. As we have already discussed, when God judges a nation, He allows certain judgments to come upon them in the hope of persuading them to correct their wicked behaviour. In these instances, God never looks for an individual to stand in the gap for the nation to prevent His judgment from falling, precisely because the judgment is necessary to bring the nation to repentance.

When God decides to destroy a nation, however, it is because they have persistently refused to repent of their wickedness and have finally reached the point where there is no longer a remedy. At that point, God's anger is aroused to destroy the nation for its wickedness. In these instances, God looks for an individual to stand in the gap before Him, for if no one stands in the gap for the nation at that point, the nation will be completely destroyed by Him.

Scripture reveals that on more than one occasion, Moses stood in the breach for Israel, preventing God from completely destroying them as a nation (Psalm 106:23). There is another account when Aaron had to run into the midst of the nation with his censer filled with incense to stop a plague that had broken out among the people because of God's anger being aroused against them. Fourteen thousand seven hundred people died on that occasion, and had Aaron not intervened, the nation would have been completely destroyed (Numbers 16:44-50).

Another account recorded in Scripture is when the Israelites had begun to commit harlotry with the women of Moab and bow to their gods, arousing the Lord's anger against the nation. Aaron's grandson Phinehas stood in the gap on that occasion and killed an Israelite and a Midianite woman with a javelin as they practiced sexual immorality in the midst of the camp. Twenty-four thousand people died on that occasion, and had Phinehas not intervened, the nation would have been completely destroyed (Numbers 25:7-11). In all these instances, people standing in the gap before the Lord on behalf of the nation prevented Israel from being completely destroyed.

And the people spoke against God and against Moses: "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and our soul loathes this worthless bread." So the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and many of the people of Israel died. Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, "We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord that He take away the serpents from us." So Moses prayed for the people. Then the Lord said to Moses, "Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live."

(Numbers 21:5-8)

Moses recognized the difference between God's judgment and God's destruction and therefore reacted differently on each occasion. As we have already mentioned, when Moses recognized that God was about to destroy the nation, he stood in the gap for them to prevent the nation's full destruction, even though the people themselves had not repented of their wickedness. On the other hand, when God judged the nation, Moses did not act until the nation repented and asked him to intervene on their behalf.

This truth is made clear in the above passage. Here we see that God had judged the nation with fiery serpents, and even though many people died from that judgment, Moses recognized that this judgment would not destroy the nation, so he did not intervene. When the children of Israel repented, however, and asked him to intervene, it was at that point that Moses prayed to the Lord on behalf of the nation, and God gave Moses the remedy to remove the judgment.

In the same manner, the church needs to discern between the Lord's judgment of a nation and His potential destruction of a nation, because just as Moses did, the church needs to respond differently on each occasion. Too often, due to ignorance, the church tries to stand in the gap before the Lord on behalf of the nations of the world when God begins to judge those nations, praying for the Lord's judgment to be withheld. Those prayers prove ineffective, however, because they are based on ignorance of God's word.

Michael E.B. Maher

The Church and the State

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