"why sit here until we die?"(pt.1)

And it happened after this that Ben-Hadad king of Syria gathered all his army, and went up and besieged Samaria. And there was a great famine in Samaria; and indeed they besieged it until a donkey's head was sold for eighty shekels of silver, and one-fourth of a kab( 4 cups) of dove droppings for five shekels of silver. Then, as the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried out to him, saying,"Help, my lord, O king!" And he said "If the Lord does not help you, where can I find help for you? From the threshing floor or from the winepress?" Then the king said to her, "what is troubling you?" And she answered, "This woman said to me 'Give your son, that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.' So we boiled my son, and ate him. And I said to her on the next day, "Give your son, that we may eat him'; but she has hidden her son." Now it happened, when the king heard the words of the woman, that he tore his clothes; and as he passed by on the wall, the people looked, and there underneath he had sackcloth( a symbol of mourning and repentance, a typical response to avert impending trouble) on his body. Then he said, "God do so to me and more also, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat remains on him today!"

2 Kings 6: 24-31 NKJV)

"what is troubling you?"

The world we live in today, is much more "complicated"(I wanted to say chaotic, but I'll be polite), than the generations before. Technology advances at such a fast rate, that in order for people to keep up, it consumes our most precious commodity...time. The very thing that is to"simplify" our lives, only seems to occupy our time,to the point where, we're almost oblivious to the world around us...outside of social media, and the internet, unless it directly affects us. We have grown to the point in society, where we can do everything, from the "comfort and security" of our own homes. Work from home, on-line shopping, fast food delivery, paperless billing, internet banking, electric vehicles,charged in your own garage.Even business and social meetings via zoom, are a few of the advances in technology, to make our lives "simpler and more convenient". After "the pandemic" they (government,news media, and anyone else who believed it) called it "the great reset". The "new normal".

This "new normal" is the desensitization of society to accept the radical change coming to this world. This process started generations ago, and it's not the end of it. The world is running, farther and farther from God, as a society. We are heading in the direction described, of the great tribulation. In the book of Revelation, John the Apostle describes his vision of Jesus, in His Glory. The Lord tells John to,"write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after this". The state of the nation, and the world for that matter, are a precursor of things to come.

In today's text, we see Israel's capital coming under attack, and a great famine in the land so severe, that common food and commodities are scarce, and extremely expensive. Even waste was being sold for outrageous amounts. The desperate conditions, caused some to turn to cannibalism. Israel had been warned, from the beginning, and thru-out history, that national disobedience could reduce people, to such desperate and disgusting acts.(Lev. 26:29, Deut.28:53) Our country, is under siege. We are in a spiritual civil war. The soul of our country is at stake, and it's survival. We can draw parallels between our country today, and Israel then.

The internal strife within our country today, is only growing worse, with each new dilemma that unfolds. The house speaker selection process, exemplifies not only the vast differences, but our leaders indecisiveness on a variety of fronts. The economic issues of inflation, the national debt only being compounded by government spending, and a lack of financially sustainable budgets, the continual influx of migrants, to the point where cities resources are stretched thin. And let's not forget all the civil unrest about our foreign policies, sparking protests on both sides of the issues. All barometers indicating the spiritual climate in our country.

In 2006, then President Obama made a statement that, the U.S. is no longer just a Christian nation, but a nation of other religions also, even atheists. Whatever his intent in that statement was, he was right. We , as a nation, have abandoned the God of our forefathers, as Israel of old did. Sin has opened the door, as it did in Samaria. Granted, we're not eating our young, but we're killing them. And as the king blamed the man of God, for Israel's problems, so does the morally liberal government blame the Christians. So, just how far does our country have to fall, before we tear our clothes and put on sackcloth, and wake up and realize, "what is troubling you!"