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Which Nation is “Under God”?

By Michael Didier

In Psalms 24:1 we read that "the earth is the LORD's and all its fullness; the world and those that dwell therein." We are a people born on the North American continent, which includes Mexico, U.S. and Canada. All have populations who call themselves “Americans.” All these governments/nations are created by men to regulate and govern men. Does the heavenly Father have a proverbial “warm feeling” when His thoughts turn towards Americans? Do we believe, that because we have the words “in God we trust” on our coins and say the words “one nation under God” when we give our pledge of allegiance, to a flag, of a corporation, that “the everlasting God, YHWH, the creator of the ends of the earth”¹ has somehow favored the United Stated above any other nation on the earth? Does not Israel, Mexico, Canada, France, Germany, Holland and others presume, as we do, that they are His people and He is their God? Psalms says, ”Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.”² Which nation has He chosen?

Does the fact that the US is one of the most powerful nations on earth, mean that He is more pleased with the US than other nations? What about the Egyptian, Assyrian, Babylonian and the Roman empires, to name just a few of the most powerful nations throughout the ages; was YHWH pleased with them? They were very mighty!

Could the heavenly Father be more pleased with the US because we have a very high standard of living? Compared to the rest of the world, this nation is rich!

How about wisdom or understanding? The US has a high level of education for it citizenry. The US leads the world in many areas. Its people are very educated and wise in a worldly sense. Perhaps He has chosen them because of that. Or, maybe, we have all these thing because we already are chosen by Him. 

While the US might be highly educated, mighty and wealthy, these factors alone are not an indication that YHWH has chosen this nation above any other. “Thus says the LORD, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches; But let him that glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD which exercise loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, says the LORD.”³ We are told that “understanding” and “knowing” the Father is something we should glory in. So how do we know which nation God loves?

Let's begin with Abraham who was told by YHWH to “Get out of your country, ... to a land that I will show you: And I will make you a great nation, ... and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”⁴ Notice that the nation which comes from Abraham will somehow bless all the families of the earth. How can that great nation bless my family and yours? The answer to that question is - BY EXAMPLE! 

Hebrews says that Abraham “sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange (foreign) country.”⁵ Abraham lived in the land of Canaan, but did not do according to the inhabitants of the land. YHWH nation grew as it went from Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob (who was renamed Israel); and the Israelites went into Egypt with 70 souls and emerged from Egypt under the mighty hand of YHWH, a great multitude (600,000 men beside women and children.)⁶ They did not trust in chariots and horses as the other nations did, but only in the name of YHWH their God.⁷

Moses was used by YHWH as a servant and mediator between their God, their “Elohiym,” their ruler and judge, and His people. The first thing YHWH did after they crossed the Red sea and arrived at Sinai was to give His people His commandments, statutes, judgments and ordinances through Moses. Moses was told to “speak unto the children of Israel, and say to them, I am the LORD your God. According to the the doings of the land of Egypt, where you dwelt, you shall not do: and according to the doings of the land of Canaan, where I am bring you, you shall not do: nor shall you walk in their ordinances. You shall observe My judgments, and keep My ordinances, to walk in them: I am the LORD your God. You shall therefore keep My statutes, and My judgments: which if a man does, he shall live: I am the LORD.”⁸ Two chapter later our Father says, “You shall therefore keep all My statutes, and all My judgments, and perform them: ... And you shall not walk in the statutes of the nation, which I am casting out before you: for they commit all these things, and therefore I abhor them. ... I am the LORD your God, which have separated you from the people. ... And ye shall be holy unto me: for I the LORD am holy, and have severed you from other peoples, that you should be mine.”⁹ It should be noted that the original people who left Egypt, never made it to the promised land because they were unable to change from the harlotry to which their heart and souls were inclined.¹⁰ Their children, however, did enter and they obeyed the Father for the most part. 

Moving on in our story, for the next 150 years Israel had many “judges” who were appointed by YHWH to deliver them from their enemies each time they had gone astray from obeying the Father. The last judge/priest to serve in this capacity was Samuel, who judged Israel all the days of his life.¹¹

Towards the end of Samuel’s days the elders of Israel came to Him and said, “Look, you are old, and your sons not 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, who said heed the voice of the people in all they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I  should not reign over them.”¹²

Listen! Do you hear what is happening? They want to replace YHWH as their King by having Samuel appoint a king. Why? So “we also may be like all the other nations; and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles.”¹³ Do not forget - nations fight nations but YHWH fights for His people. Some trust in tanks and some trust in ships but we will remember the name of YHWH our “Elohiym” if we belong to His holy nation.

So Israel received their King after a stern warning about what a king would do to them, their sons and their daughters.¹⁴ Deuteronomy 17:14-20 gives the requirements for any king the Father would but over His people. His kings most importantly, were chosen and anointed by Him to rule His holy nation. They were never picked by the majority of the population. For the most part, even His kings (I use this term loosely) fell far short of meeting His requirements for a king.

Israel was split into two kingdoms because Solomon was such a burdensome task master and his son Rehoboam, far exceeded him in putting an even heavier yoke on the people.¹⁵ The tyranny of having a king proved worse than the Father said it would be because neither the kings, nor the people, would obeyed Him.

When the kingdom of Israel split off from the kingdom of Judah, Jeroboam, the new king of Israel did many wicked acts. Jeroboam was concerned about his kingdom and “said in his heart, Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David: (Oh, that we all would!) If this people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, then shall the heart of this people turn again... kill me, and go again to Rehoboam king of Judah.”¹⁶

So Jeroboam made new places to worship instead of Jerusalem, one in Bethel and one in Dan¹⁷ (very convenient for His people, but not what YHWH commanded). He made his own “priests of the lowest of the people, which were not of the sons of Levi”¹⁸ and who did not know YHWH’s ways. All they had to do was go to “cemetery” and be licensed by the king. The Levites, who were YHWH’s appointed priest, left their land in Israel, because of the abominations which Jeroboam and Israel had committed, and went to Judah.¹⁹ 

“And Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like unto the feast that is in Judah ,...”²⁰ YHWH had His feast in the seventh month on the fifteenth day.²¹ There are feasts in the US which are like the feasts of YHWH. Easter is like Passover only it is not Passover but instead comes from paganism. Thanksgiving happens in the fall, at the end of the growing season and is like the feast of Tabernacles but it is not what He told us to do. Christmas, (Father please forgive us and open our eyes) is not like anything that our Father commanded us to keep, it just comes from pagan worship.²³ Our Father says that all of His feasts, are to be a “a statute for ever in all your dwellings throughout your generations.”²²

The point of all this is that a nation that does not follow the Father’s ways, is not His nation. All the nations of the world have their own feast days, 4^th of July, Cinco de Mayo, etc, etc, etc. Amos, speaking for YHWH said, “I hate, I despise your feast days, and I do not savor your solemn assemblies.”²⁴ Very strong words coming from the God we say we love. His nation keeps His feasts and as a result “all the families of the earth shall be blessed”²⁵ because they see what a great and awesome God we serve. 

Moses said, “Surely I have taught you statutes and judgments, ... for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what great nation is there that has God so near to it, as YHWH our God is to us, for whatever reason we call upon him? And what great nation is there, that has such statutes and righteous judgments as are in all this law which I set before you this day?”²⁶ His nation keeps His statutes and judgments also and becomes a light to the world (all the families of the earth).

For the next 350 years Judah and Israel had many kings, the quality of which ebbed and flowed (mostly ebbed) in the sight of YHWH. There were a handful of outstanding kings; these men always kept the Father’s commandment, statutes, judgments and ordinances. During this period and after the loss of the temple, the fall of Jerusalem and the exile of YHWH’s people to Babylon, many prophets were appointed by God to speak to His people. There message was to turn from their wicked ways and their harlotry, back to the Father. Nothing has changed! “The thing that has been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: there is no new thing under the sun.”²⁷ He is still wanting His people to “circumcise  the foreskin of your heart, and be stiff-necked no longer. For YHWH your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome ... you shall fear YHWH your God ... He is your praise, and He is your God.”²⁸

“And you shall know that I am YHWH; for you have not walked in My statutes, nor executed My judgments, but have done according to the customs of the Gentiles which are all around you.”²⁹ “I will gather you from the peoples, and assemble you the countries where you have been scattered .... Then I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them; and take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh: That they may walk in My statutes and keep My judgments and do them: and they shall be my people (My nation), and I will be their God.”³⁰

Do you see that we, the Fathers people are “to come out” of the all the nations of the world and only then will He will give us a new heart and a new spirit? Only then can we become part of His holy nation. Paul said, ”Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you. I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters...”³¹

It is now approximately 27CE (common era), the “word [which] was made flesh”³² was born 30 years prior and is now ready to begin His ministry. Jesus has just arrived in Galilee “preaching the gospel (the Good news) of the kingdom of God, And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel (the good news about of the kingdom of God).”³³ Our Father can reign over us! But we must choose today, to follow Him!³⁴

“Blessed is the nation whose God is YHWH; the people whom he has chosen as his own inheritance.”³⁵ The Father’s people, the people of His holy nation, the people He has chosen as His own inheritance, the nation who has Him as their “Elohiym” (their God), obey Him!

If you realize now that we have not been obeying Him but you want to start, it's not hard. We simply “Repent, and turn ourselves from all our transgressions, so iniquity shall not be our ruin. Cast away from you all your transgressions which you have committed, and get  yourself a new heart and a new spirit: ... therefore turn and live!”³⁶

Please pray with me. “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence, nor take Your holy spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation ... Then will I teach transgressors Your ways; and sinners shall be converted to You. ...  For you do not desire sacrifice or else would I give it. You do not delight in burnt offering. For the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart - these, O God, you will not despise.”³⁷ Father, I am sorry I have disobeyed you my whole life, I do not even know what your ways are, but I want to begin today to learn them. I thank you for the precious blood of Jesus which covers all my sins, I want today to make Him my Lord, to start coming out today³⁸ and begin to walk in the light of Your kingdom! I want to become part of Your holy nation.

“All nations before him are as nothing;

and they are counted to him as less than nothing, and worthless.”

Isaiah 40:17