Which Nation is “Under God”?

By Michael Didier

We are a people born on the North American continent, which includes Mexico , U.S. and Canada . All have populations who call themselves “Americans.” All these governments, nations are created by men to regulate and govern men. Does the heavenly Father have a proverbial “warm feeling” when His thoughts turn towards Americans? Do we believe, that because we have the words “in God we trust” on our coins and say the words “one nation under God” when we give our pledge of allegiance, to a flag, of a corporation, that “the everlasting God, YHWH, the creator of the ends of the earth”¹ has somehow favored the United Stated above any other nation on the earth? Does not Israel, Mexico, Canada, France, Germany, Holland and others presume, as we do, that they are His people and He is their God? Psalms says, ”Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.”² Which nation has He chosen?

Does the fact that the US is one of the most powerful nations on earth, mean that He is more pleased with the US than other nations? What about the Egyptian, Assyrian, Babylonian and the Roman empire, to name just a few of the most powerful nations throughout the ages; Was YHWH pleased with them? They were very mighty!

Could the heavenly Father be more pleased with the US because we have a high standard of living? Compared to the rest of the world, this nation is rich!

How about wisdom or understanding? The US has a high level of education for it citizenry. The US leads the world in many areas. We are very educated and wise in a worldly sense. Perhaps He has chosen us because of that. Or, maybe, we have all these thing because we already are chosen by Him. 

While the US might be highly educated, mighty and wealthy, these factors alone are not an indication that YHWH has chosen this nation above any other. “Thus says the LORD, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches; But let him that glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD which exercise loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, says the LORD.”³ We are told that “understanding” and “knowing” the Father is something we should glory in. Is understanding and knowing the Father important to anyone?

Could He be more pleased with the US because we say “we are a Christian nation” and that “we are His people;” but, do not other nations profess exactly that? So how do we know which nation God loves?

Let us begin with Abram (soon to become Abraham) who was told by YHWH to “Get thee out of thy country, ... unto a land that I will show thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, ... and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.”⁴ Notice that the nation which comes from Abraham will somehow bless all the families of the earth. How can that nation bless my family and yours? The answer to that question is - BY EXAMPLE! Hebrews says that Abraham “sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange (foreign) country.”⁵ Abraham lived in the land of Canaan, but did not do according to the inhabitants of the land.

The nation grew as it went from Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob (who was renamed Israel). The Israelites went into Egypt with 70 souls and emerged from Egypt under the mighty hand of YHWH, a great multitude (600,000 men beside women and children.)⁶ They did not trust in chariots and horses as the other nations did, but only in the name of YHWH their God.⁷

Moses was used by YHWH as a servant and mediator between their God, their “Elohiym” (judge and ruler) and His people. The first thing YHWH did after they crossed the Red sea and arrived at Sinai was to give His people His commandments, statutes, judgments and ordinances through Moses. Moses was told to “speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, I am the LORD your God. After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not do: and after the doings of the land of Canaan, whither I bring you, shall ye not do: neither shall ye walk in their ordinances. Ye shall do my judgments, and keep mine ordinances, to walk therein: I am the LORD your God. Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments: which if a man do, he shall live in them: I am the LORD.”⁸ Two chapter later our Father says, “Ye shall therefore keep all my statutes, and all my judgments, and do them: ... And ye shall not walk in the manners of the nation, which I cast out before you: for they committed all these things, and therefore I abhorred them. ... I am the LORD your God, which have separated you from other people. ... And ye shall be holy unto me: for I the LORD am holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye should be mine.”⁹ Perhaps the Church, the “ekklesia,” is the “called out” ones for a reason. Moving on in our story, it should be noted that the original people who left Egypt, never made it to the promised land because they were unable to change from the harlotry to which their heart and souls were inclined.¹⁰ Their children, however, did enter and obey the Father for the most part. The next 150 years Israel had many “judges” who were appointed by YHWH to deliver them from their enemies when they had gone astray from obeying the Father. The last judge/priest to serve in this capacity was Samuel, who judged Israel all the days of his life.¹¹

Towards the end of Samuel’s days the elders of Israel came to Him and said, “Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations. But the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the LORD. And the LORD said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I (YHWH) should not reign over them. According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt even unto this day, wherewith they have forsaken me, and served other gods (other “elohiym”), so do they also unto thee (Samuel).”¹²

Listen! Do you hear what is happening? They want to replace God as their god by having Samuel appoint a king. Why? So “we also may be like all the nations; and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles.”¹³ Do not forget - nations fight nations but YHWH fights for His people. Some trust in tanks and some trust in ships but we will remember the name of YHWH our “Elohiym” if we belong to His holy nation.

So Israel received their King after a stern warning about what a king would do to them, their sons and their daughters.¹⁴ Deuteronomy 17:14-20 gives the requirements for any king the Father would but over His people. His kings most importantly, were chosen and anointed by Him to rule His holy nation. They were never picked by the majority of the population. For the most part, His kings (I use this term loosely) fell far short of meeting His requirements for a king.

Time again, went by, Israel was split into two kingdoms because Solomon was such a burdensome task master and his son Rehoboam, far exceeded him in putting an even heavier yoke on the people.¹⁵ The tyranny of having a king proved worse than the Father said it would be because these kings, nor the people, obeyed Him.

When the kingdom of Israel split off from the kingdom of Judah, Jeroboam, the new king of Israel did many wicked acts. Right away he “said in his heart, Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David: (Oh, that we all would!) If this people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, then shall the heart of this people turn again... kill me, and go again to Rehoboam king of Judah.”¹⁶

So Jeroboam made new places to worship instead of Jerusalem, one in Bethel and one in Dan¹⁷ (very convenient for His people, but not what YHWH commanded). He made his own “priests of the lowest of the people (who did not know YHWH’s ways), which were not of the sons of Levi.”¹⁸ All they had to do was go to “cemetery” and be licensed by the king (my words, sorry). The Levites, who were YHWH’s appointed priest, left their land in Israel, because of the abominations which Jeroboam and Israel had committed, and went to Judah.¹⁹ 

“And Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like unto the feast that is in Judah ,...”²⁰ YHWH had His feast in the seventh month on the fifteenth day.²¹ We have feasts in the US which are like the feasts that is in Judah. Easter is like Passover (only in that it is a similar time), Thanksgiving is like the feast of Tabernacles, which, like all our Father’s feasts, are to be a “a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.”²² Christmas, (Father please forgive us and open our eyes) happens near the feast of dedication, but it and Easter are not like anything except pagan worship.²³

The point of all this is that a nation that does not follow the Father’s ways, is not His nation. All the nations of the world have their own feast days, 4^th of July, Cinco de Mayo, etc, etc, etc. Amos, speaking for YHWH said, “I hate, I despise your feast days, and I do not savor your solemn assemblies.”²⁴ Very strong words coming from the Elohiym we say we love. His nation keeps His feasts and as a result “all the families of the earth shall be blessed”²⁵ because they see what a great and awesome God we serve. His nation keeps His feasts!

Moses said, “Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, ... for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the LORD our God is in all things that we call upon him for? And what nation is there so great, that has statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day?”²⁶ His nation keeps His statutes and judgments also and they become a light to the “families of the earth.”

For the next 300 to 350 years Judah and Israel had many kings, the quality of which ebbed and flowed (mostly ebbed) in the sight of YHWH. There were a handful of outstanding kings; these men always kept the Father’s commandment, statutes, judgments and ordinances. During this period and after the fall of the temple, the fall of Jerusalem and the exile of YHWH’s people to Babylon and other countries and nations, many prophets were appointed by the Elohiym to speak to His people. There message was to turn from their wicked ways and their harlotry, back to the Father. Nothing has changed! “The thing that has been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.”²⁷ He is still wanting His people to “Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked.”²⁸

“And ye shall know that I am the LORD: for ye have not walked in my statutes, neither executed my judgments, but have done after the manners of the heathen that are round about you.”²⁹ I (YHWH) “will even gather you from the people, and assemble you out of the countries where ye have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel (Jesus said, “I give you a kingdom). .... And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh: That they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.”³⁰ I want to be His people!

Do you see that we, the Fathers people are “to come out” of the nations of the world and only then will He will give us a new heart and a new spirit? Only then can we become His holy nation. Even Paul said, ”Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, says the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”³¹

It is now approximately 27CE (common era), the “word [which] was made flesh”³² was born 30 years prior and is now ready to begin His ministry. He, Yahshua (God’s salvation), Jesus has just arrived in Galilee “preaching the gospel (the Good news) of the kingdom of God, And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel (the good news about of the kingdom of YHWH).”³³ Our Elohiym  can again reign over us! But we must choose today, to follow Him!³⁴

“Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.”³⁵ The Father’s people, the people of His holy nation, the people He has chosen as His own inheritance, the nation who has Him as their “Elohiym” (their God), obey Him!

If we realize now that we have not been obeying Him but we want to start, it is not hard. We simply “Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin. Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: ... wherefore turn yourselves, and live.”³⁶

Please pray with me. “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not your holy spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with your free spirit. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto you. Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips; and my mouth shall speak forth thy praise. For you desire not sacrifice; else would I give it: you delight not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”³⁷ I thank you for the precious blood of Jesus which covers my sins and I want today to make Him my Lord. I want to start coming out today³⁸ and begin to walk in the light of your kingdom! Amen.

“All nations before him are as nothing;

and they are counted to him as less than nothing, and vanity.”

Isaiah 40:17