"You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments." Exodus 20:4-6
Let me start by saying this; I am an American, I enjoy the freedoms we have; however I do not worship them and my faith and hope is in God. I know God is the one that granted us those freedoms, but also realize that God is also allowed to take them away when we, as a nation, start to make them our focus of worship over Him. What I am about to talk about also has nothing to do with the proposed vaccine mandates, while vaccinated myself I believe it should be a personal choice after one prayerfully considers the pros and cons regarding the vaccine. What I am getting at is more in regards to a trend/attitude I have noticed over the last 5-6 years.
Now to the purpose of this post...
History lesson: When the division of the kingdom of Israel into Israel and Judah happened (around 930 BCE) within the first 22 years in the northern kingdom Jeroboam made two golden calves, assigned his own priests, and made his own festivals for them to worship instead of going to Jerusalem to worship the Lord. Then about 50-70 years later (874-853 BCE) the northern kingdom was ruled by Ahab, and it was under him that Baal worship was at its peak; Baal was a rain god, and God displayed Himself to be greater that Baal by causing a drought for three years. It was probably also under Ahab that Israel had irreversibly turned away from God, as all the kings afterwards were compared to him in their wickedness. The northern kingdom lasted for a total of about 200-220 years from the establishment of the idols Jeroboam placed in Dan and Bethel to the Assyrian exile.
Now I wonder if some of America's problems are the result of the dedication of a 151 foot statue of the Roman goddess of freedom, which took place 135 years ago, especially since it appears many people put worship of her higher than that of God?
October 28, 1886 (135 years ago to the date) in New York harbor a statue was dedicated as the embodiment of the American spirit. The figure that was decided upon was that of the Roman goddess of freedom called Libertas, or as translated into English "Liberty;" you can also find various statues and images of this goddess in and around a number of government buildings including on top of the dome to the US Capitol building (statue of freedom). About 40 years after this dedication (dedication of the statue of Liberty Enlightening the World) was the Scopes Monkey trial (1925), which many view as what pushed the theory of evolution into the forefront and replacing the teaching of creation in public education. Then about another 40 years after that (1962-1965) a series of Supreme Court cases placed control of the public school system in the hands of the federal government allowing the removal of prayer, Bible reading, and any religious symbols from the public school. As I stated earlier, over the last couple of years I have been seeing others post on social media complaining about the government slowly taking away or restricting our freedoms to the point I wonder if the god in which they trust is the one whose name is expressly written on our coins, and who has been prominent on our coins from just about the start ... "LIBERTY"
As I stated at the beginning of this, God is the one that granted us our freedoms; but if as a nation we start worshiping Liberty in her many different forms, like we have as a nation, who are we to complain when God decides to prove His power over Liberty by taking our liberties away. Remember just like we as Americans are regarding our freedoms, the Jews in Biblical times thought the same thing about the temple in Jerusalem.
