Government corruption is a plague to its people. Where there are corrupt people, there is a corrupt government. Where there are good people, the corrupt government will eventually come to God’s justice. Sadly, corrupt governments mostly represent corrupt societies especially those that are democratic. There is certainly something wrong when a nation consists of political attacks against each other, and yet does not observe their own immoral behavior.

Every national government that has ever existed and ceased has killed itself by it own unrighteousness. Nations like the United States of America can slowly kill itself little by little by turning away from God. The first President of the U.S., George Washington, declared,

It is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favors (Thanksgiving Day Proclamation 1789).

The Fall of Nations of Canaan

The Bible describes the fall of the nations of Canaan. The nations of Canaan were the descendants of Ham (Gen 10). Noah cursed Ham and his son Canaan (Gen 9:24–27). These nations lived in the area of the Promised Land. Canaanites and Perizzites lived around Abraham before the nation of Israel was formed according to (Gen 12:6, 13:7). God told Abraham that when the sins of the Amorites were complete then Abraham’s descendants would come back to the Promised Land (Gen 15:16).

The nations of the land of Canaan were extremely evil. God said to Israel in Deuteronomy 9:5,

It is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you go in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD your God drives them out from before you, and that He may fulfill the word which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

The sins of these nations consist of:

(1) These nations worshiped false gods (Exod 23:24). Revelation warns about worshiping a ruler (the Beast), the great city (the Harlot of Babylon), and the nation that government that gives them prosperity and luxury. Do people worship governments today for what they can give them?

(2) The nations of Canaan offered their children to their false gods. Archaeological digs have shown jars of sacrificed children and the bodies of children built into the walls of their homes. From native Americans to Polynesian islanders to African tribes to Hindu India, these all have practiced infanticide. Roman historians record their practice of infanticide too. God told Israel in Leviticus 18:21, “And you shall not let any of your descendants pass through the fire to Molech, nor shall you profane the name of your God: I am the Yahweh” (cf. Lev 20:2–3) Leviticus 18:24 says that this was a sin of the nations that were being cast out of Canaan. Psalm 106:37–38 spoke against Israel’s sins in comparison to the Canaanites saying,

They even sacrificed their sons And their daughters to demons [false gods], And shed innocent blood, The blood of their sons and daughters, Whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan; And the land was polluted with blood.

In other words, corrupt nations find a way to justify killing their children.

(3) These nations were practicing sexual perversions. Today, many people want to be identified by their sexual desires as who they are. They want everyone to recognize, tolerant, and even accept their behavior. Leviticus 18:22–24 describes these perversions,

You shall not lie with a male as with a woman. It is an abomination. Nor shall you mate with any animal, to defile yourself with it. Nor shall any woman stand before an animal to mate with it. It is perversion. “Do not defile yourselves with any of these things; for by all these the nations are defiled, which I am casting out before you.“

This is happening today. Homosexuality is the sign of a depraved society. Christ’s Spirit says about those who turned from the Creator in Romans 1:26–27,

“For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.”

Does this resemble the United States today? Is this nation truly “one nation under God indivisible”? Our country is changing. Many people sacrificially slaughter their unborn children for their pride and selfish ambitions.

Christians and the Nation

What are Christians doing? Are we saying anything? Do we have the boldness to confront social evils? Are we telling people that they cannot save themselves? May God bless us that our whole nation is not yet so morally depraved as the nations of Canaan.

Loyalty to country comes from God. God commands us to obey our government. He set these powers up, but like Saul who was chosen by God, these rulers have free will to leave God and His righteousness. However, David respected God’s appointment of Saul and would not take his life when he had opportunity. He has blessed us with freedom with freedom of religion, and the responsibility to stand as Christians when the government opposes Christ. God told Israel in Deuteronomy 18:9, “When you come into the land which the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominations of those nations.”

Will the children of Christians follow after the sins of this world? Will parents raise them in Christian homes? Will fathers oversee their education? Will parents teach them God’s word everywhere that they go? There is a judgment coming to all.

God’s Judgment of the Nations of Canaan

God judged the nations of Canaan. His judgment was just and unlike that of other nations. God told Israel in Deuteronomy 20:16–17,

But of the cities of these peoples which the LORD your God gives you as an inheritance, you shall let nothing that breathes remain alive, but you shall utterly destroy them: the Hittite and the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite, just as the LORD your God has commanded you. (cf. Deut. 9:4)

The destruction of these nations comes from the Hebrew word herem meaning the destruction of these nations by driving them out of the land and into non-existence (Deut 9:4–5). This destruction was not mass murder. 

God did not want one living within these nation to turn Israel aside including children. The evil nations around them would not think anything of a nation who raised the children of another nation and allowed depraved foreign beliefs into their own society.  In Deuteronomy 7:2, Moses instructed, “…when the LORD your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them.” However, the Scriptures report that Israel did not accomplish this (Judg 1:27).

God’s Justice

What is God’s message here with such a punishment? Those who worship anything or anyone other than God, murders their own children, and practices sexual immorality, then that nation deserves complete destruction by being driven out and assimilated among others. God was acting on these nations with civil justice. Moses’ law commanded to execute those who murder (Lev 24:17). Leviticus 18:25 described these evil people saying, “For the land is defiled; therefore I visit the punishment of its iniquity upon it, and the land vomits out its inhabitants.” Their sin was so sickening that they deserved to be vomited out of the land. Therefore, the Israelites were to completely destroy them. Why the Israelites? In Deuteronomy 7:4–5, Moses reported,

For they will turn your sons away from following Me, to serve other gods; so the anger of the LORD will be aroused against you and destroy you suddenly. But thus you shall deal with them: you shall destroy their altars, and break down their sacred pillars, and cut down their wooden images, and burn their carved images with fire.

When it comes to tearing down altars and sacred pillars, we need to do this today. Everything that exalts itself against God tear it down (2 Cor 10:4–6). These nations will corrupt. God tells Israel why they should cast out these nations in Deuteronomy 20:18, “lest they teach you to do according to all their abominations which they have done for their gods, and you sin against the LORD your God.”

God’s Mercy to the Nations

What do we learn from all of this? God extended mercy to the nations of Canaan for over 500 years to repent. This was the extent of God’s mercy. God is merciful today. The Spirit of Christ says in 2 Peter 3:9, “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but [the Lord] is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” God is patient and gives us time to repent. Many people simply cast that aside.

God will punish the unrighteous that rebel against Him. God still has this kind of wrath. In Romans 1:18, the apostle Paul declared, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.” People cannot see Christ in another’s life when that person lives in sin, because they are suppressing the Truth.

This suppressing sin of Canaan is the world today. The world that needs Christ and needs to repent to be saved. The nation does not repent is justly condemned. Today, the church is God’s holy nation. The church of Christ is the greatest nation in the world! Psalm 33:12 says, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people whom He has chosen as His heritage!” The church is the greatest nation and God fights for the church more than God fought for the Israelites. In 2 Thessalonians 1:6, Paul revealed, “since it is a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble you,” Therefore, Romans 12:19 teaches, “Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord.” This is the Christian resistance. Revelation 12:11 describes Christian victory, “And they overcame him [Satan] by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.” This is how Christians fight today.

The Christian’s Service to Nation

What can Christians do today for their earthly nation? Christians must pray. The apostle Paul instructed, “Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence” (1 Tim 2:1–2).

Christians must submit and obey the leaders of this nation. Peter taught,

Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake, whether to the king as supreme, or to governors, as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. (1 Pet 2:13–15)

Christians must serve as the nation of God in Christ.

Lastly, Christians cannot forget that they cannot save themselves. Everyone needs Christ, His word, and His church. Everyone needs Jesus’s death, burial, and resurrection to be saved (1 Cor 15:1–4). The gospel is the power of God unto salvation (Rom 1:16). Believers must obey the gospel (2 Thess 1:7–9; Heb 5:8–9). All must die to sins, be buried in water in Jesus’s name, and rise to a new life in Christ.