When a Nation Sins

Somewhere in mans search for a personal God, a God who understands what it’s like to be human, a God who can feel and even bleed the same blood that a human bleeds, we forgot that a personal God will also punish. The punishment may come individually on one person or it may come collectively on the nation.

There was a time in Israel of old, when David was king that he wanted to know how many soldiers were available for war. Now this was a serious sin. It doesn’t seem so bad today. If you’re going to war you want to know whether you have an army as large as your opponent. But that means you’re trusting in your own strength to fight the battle. And that was the sin God warned against.

It there was anything Israel understood it was that they were the chosen people of God. He was their protector. He was the one who performed miracles to bring them out of Egypt. The death angel passed over them. They knew they should look to him for protection.

When a king started counting soldiers he was not looking to God. To put this in perspective, if a man’s wife asks another man to provide her with a house and living expenses, she has undermined the role of her husband. It’s the husband’s role to care for his wife and God was the husband of Israel.

When Israel looked for someone else to provide for her God became jealous. We don’t like to think of God as having an emotion like jealousy but he does. He even tells us “I the Lord thy God am a jealous God,” (Exodus 20:5) It is a natural emotion that springs from a personal relationship.

The relationship with Israel was personal. “Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself. Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine:” (Exodus 19:4-5)

Why wouldn’t any nation jump at such a chance? A tiny nation of slaves scrounging for existence offered the opportunity to be the personal favorite of the Creator of the Universe. What’s the downside? Well, there really isn’t one but there are laws. The first and most important one being that Israel must be faithful to God. God knew that all men sin but if Israel remained faithful to him he would always lead them back to the right path when they got off.

And that’s where punishment comes in. Man doesn’t return to the right path without pain. God would be the Father who would use measured punishment on Israel. Small sins get small punishment. Major sins get major punishment. “Eye for eye; tooth for tooth.” (Exodus 21:24) But, when Israel accepted the punishment and maintained faith with God, he always forgave and restored them to the high road.

However, this episode with David leads to another question. The plague on Israel killed 70,000 people. David realized his sin had caused these deaths so when he saw the angel of death he fell down before God and asked “Lo, I have sinned, and I have done wickedly: but these sheep, what have they done? let thine hand, I pray thee, be against me, and against my father's house. (2 Sam 24:17) Fair question. Why should the people be punished for the sin of their king?

The answer to David’s question is in the first verse of the same chapter. In 2 Samuel 24:1 the writer says, “God was displeased with Israel and he incited David to sin.” Ah, that explains a lot. Punishment was already decreed for Israel. The people had sinned and David was merely the leader who succumbed to temptation.

What does this tell us? When a leader sins the people suffer. When God withdraws protection the leader is subject to serious mistakes for which a nation can pay a heavy price. Sometimes a nation is given a leader who sins because the people don’t deserve any better. But that brings up more questions which there is not time to explain here. If you want to know more about this subject ask for the sermon tape on “When a Nation Sins” by return email.

Until next time,