What’s the point in praying for our nation?
We pray because we know that nations succeed when they submit to God, and they doom themselves when they don’t.
A nation doesn’t first-and-foremost need good social policies, nor a strong economy, nor a healthy justice system. To be sure, these things are all incredibly important – but what a nation needs first-and-foremost is a heart that submits to God – for from it all else flows (Proverbs 4:23).
The Greatest Commandment (Mark 12:29-30) is to love God with everything we have. And if you think about it, these incredibly important things like good policies, strong economies, and healthy justice systems are applications of the second Greatest Commandment; to love your neighbour.
But you can’t love your neighbour well if you don’t first love God well, because God is the foundation for all good that will ever flow. Any other foundation will always run up dry and broken.
This is why we must pray for our nation. We pray that our nation and our nation’s leaders would love God and submit to him, because that offers us the only hope for a flourishing society.
So, here are a few biblical examples that demonstrate the benefits of kingdoms accepting God’s way, and the consequences of kingdoms rejecting God’s way.
Obeying God in the Old Testament
In the book of Jonah, the great monarchical city of Nineveh was entrenched in wickedness and not following God’s good pattern – and because of this they were destined for God’s judgement. However, when the Ninevites responded to Jonah’s warning by turning from their wickedness and believing in God, Jonah 3:10 says: “And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.”
Disobeying God in the Old Testament
GotQuestions explains: “Many nations of antiquity are non-existent now, having brought God’s judgment upon themselves for their sin. Edom (Jeremiah 49:17–22), Assyria (Zephaniah 2:13–15), Sodom (Genesis 18:20), and Babylon (Jeremiah 51) were all wiped out, according to the biblical prophets, for their evil before the Lord….”
A hefty number of nations and rulers in the Old Testament persecuted God’s people – and rejected God’s way for a flourishing society. But in the Bible, rejecting God’s way and persecuting his people never ends well for the foreign rulers who do so.
The Old Testament example of Israel
2 Chronicles 7:14 says: “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”
Deuteronomy 30:16 says: “In that I command thee this day to love the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the Lord thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it.”
In the Old Testament, when Israel and its leaders honoured the Lord and sought his help, he clearly moved powerfully and protected them.
However, the Bible also shows us the devastating consequences of Israel refusing to obey God, in particular with the nation’s two exiles (the Northern Kingdom exiled into Assyria in 2 Kings 17; the Southern Kingdom to Babylon in 2 Kings 25).
The Lord had warned Israel repeatedly of the devastation that would come from rejecting his good pattern, but when they refused to listen, they lost his hand of protection and were removed from the land. Sin brings negative consequences.
What about the New Testament?
God does not show favouritism (Romans 2:11). It is not just Israel that is called to believe in the one true God (Joel 2:32; Romans 10:13). Acts 10:34-35 says: “Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.”
In the New Testament, Jesus clearly says that he has authority over all the earth and that he wants disciples from all nations. Matthew 28:18-20 says: “And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”
Jesus says that his way is the only way, and that people should be taught to obey his commands. Governments are made to rest on his shoulders (Isaiah 9:6).
Not only this, but the famous [passage] in Philippians 2 ends (in Philippians 2:9-11) by saying that every knee in heaven and earth and under the earth will one day confess that Jesus is Lord.
If Jesus is the good King, then that can and should be done right now, before the day of judgement.
But we are witnessing the collapse of our society before our very eyes, and it is not first-and-foremost because of the laws and policies we’ve pursued.
Our collapse is first-and-foremost due to our rejection of God’s good pattern and our relinquishing proclamation of Jesus as Lord.
We must pray that our nation returns to God.
Proverbs 14:34 KJV – “Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people.”
Psalm 33:12 KJV – “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.”
