This week the world witnessed the most rapid decline and overthrow of a nation in at least fifty years. Trillions of dollars were spent on bolstering it’s defenses and training it’s people. Lives were sacrificed on behalf of the cause over the course of twenty years. Yet, in less than a week, the old regime muscled it’s way back to power and claimed victory over the nation once again. For some, it brings back memories of the fall of Saigon or the communist takeover of Cuba. The best military experts never believed it would happen so expeditiously. Why did nobody see this coming?

There is an illusion that many people believe in regards to the nations of the world and especially their own country. National confidence, patriotism, and general self-assured hubris all tend to impact our thinking about the stability, longevity, and indestructability of our own country. There is often a pervasive thinking that our economy will always be stronger than the rest of the world’s, our military will always be more powerful, our people will have greater resolve to preserve their freedom, and that God will always be on our side. However, this is not always true.

There are some truths that should inform our thinking about our own nation in light of what was witnessed this past week. First, it is God’s place to both establish and destroy nations. Job 12:23 tells us that “He increaseth the nations, and destroyeth them: he enlargeth the nations, and straiteneth them again.” He makes nations rise and fall at his command and according to His sovereign will. No amount of human effort can thwart these plans which God has ordained for the history of the world. He sits on the throne as the King of kings and His sovereign will always prevails despite the most desperate of man’s efforts.

Second, God blesses those nations that honor Him. Psalm 33:12 assures us that “Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.” I believe this to be the reason that the United States has been historically so successful, bountiful, and has become a superpower in the world today. The original pilgrims came here for religious liberty, the constitution was built on the principles found in God’s Word, and many of our founding fathers (as well as the leaders which came later) placed their faith in God to some degree. Yet, the American culture today is often hostile towards true, Biblical Christianity. Believing that Jesus Christ is the only way is looked upon as prejudiced, narrow, and even dangerous by some. The Christian voice has gradually been squelched in our country and it concerns me that God may choose to remove His blessing from our nation at some point because of this rejection of Him.

The good news is that there is a solution to both the fall of a nation and the fate of its people: the Gospel! God’s blessing will only be brought to a nation as the hearts of it’s people are turned to Him. Our solution is not in better-equipped military, exercising our civil rights, crafting better electoral maps, or other methods of man. Our solution and hope is found only in Jesus Christ. As we do our work to share the truth of redemption in Jesus Christ, lives are changed, homes are transformed, culture is altered, politics are exposed, truth prevails, and a nation is preserved. Another bit of good news is that the truth shall prevail in the end. Psalm 22:27-28 tells us: “All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the LORD: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee. For the kingdom is the LORD'S: and he is the governor among the nations.” There is coming a day when the people of every tribe, tongue and nation shall call upon Jesus Christ as King. Until then, let’s be in prayer for the people (and especially the Christians) in Afghanistan while remembering to be in prayer for the spiritual dearth that has overtaken our own nation as well.