Why Has God Not Destroyed America?

          The people of Israel had been enslaved to Egypt 400 years. The unbearable cruelty they suffered at the hand of Egypt and the continuing pressure to subdue the ever increasing Israelites under the mighty hand of Egypt was coming to a turning point as God was preparing a redeemer sent by God Himself. The question often is – why did God allow Israel to be enslaved to Egypt for 400 years? Much could be said about the finer details of this, but bear with me as I give the simplest answer that we find in the scriptures.

            As God was establishing His covenant with Abram, God prophesied to Abram in Genesis 15:13-14...then He said to Abram; know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years (14) and also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possession. (NKJV). This of course is the reference of Israels enslavement to the nation of Egypt. 


But why, would God permit Abrams descendants to be enslaved to Egypt for four hundred years before bringing them out with great possessions? The answer is given to us in Gen 15:16...but in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete. The reason Israel would be enslaved to Egypt four hundred years was due to the fact that the sin of the Amorites was not yet complete. In other words, the Amorites (who lived in Canaan) were a wicked people living in a wicked nation, but their sin was not yet so great that God would pour out his wrath upon them to wipe them from the face of the earth.

So here now another question jumps to the forefront of our minds...how bad would things have to be before God would pour out his wrath upon a nation to wipe them off the face of the earth? For this let us look at some the instructions God set before Israel as commands that they were not to break which the inhabitants of the land of Canaan openly practiced.

Lev 18:20-25...thou shalt not lie carnally with thy neighbors wife.

...you shall not let any of your descendants pass through the fire of Molech

...nor shall you profane the name of your God

...you shall not lie with a man as with a woman, it is an abomination

...nor shall you mate with any animal to defile yourself with it

...nor shall a woman stand before an animal to mate with it, it is perversion

as God gives the commands to Israel he gives to them a window through which can be seen the sins the Amorites of Canaan were committing. The result of these devastating sins is laid out for us in the next two verses

Leviticus 18:24-25...do not defile yourselves with any of these things for by all these the nations are defiled, which I am casting out before you (25) for the land is defiled, therefore I visit the punishment of its iniquity upon it, and the land vomits out its inhabitants.

This leads me to my next question, how does this differ from what we are seeing in North America today?

Adultery seems to almost be common place today regardless of religion or race. We may not offer our children to the God of Molech through fire, but we abort babies at an astounding rate, likely more then the Amorites ever did. The name of God is being blatantly profaned in our countries, homosexuality is embraced and endorsed even among many religious organizations. And we don't even want to imagine the degradation of the other sins mentioned.

If God destroyed the Amorites and all those who lived in Canaan for these sins, why hasn't God destroyed North America seeing that the sins of our countries mirror those or the Amorites?

Let me give a short 4 point answer to this question.

1 – Ultimately God can do as He chooses...

• The reality is that because all have sinned and have gone their own way, God would by justified if he cast all of humanity under eternal damnation but we are told in Rom 9:15...for He says to Moses, I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion upon whomever I will have compassion.

2 – God is long-suffering...

• there are those in this land who are not yet saved who will be saved and the Lord is long-suffering waiting to the elect to come to salvation. 2 Peter 3:9...the Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is long suffering towards us, not willing that any should perish but that ll should come to repentance...

3 – We are living in a dispensation of grace...

• Rom 11:25...for I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.

4 – there are more than 5 righteous in the land...

• when Abraham talked with the Lord about the utter destruction that was about to come upon Sodom and Gamorrah Abraham asked the Lord how many righteous he would have to find in order for him not to pour out the wrath of upon them Gen 18:32...then he said, Let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak but once more, suppose ten (righteous people) should be found there? And He said, I will not destroy it for the sake of ten.