14 if my people, who are called by my name, will 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.
In the last days, Jesus warned us that many would turn away from him- much like the ancient days of Israel in the Old Testament ...Israelites forgot the Way of their fathers who followed under the covenant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They worshipped Baal, idolized their own creations, and many other atrocities that their children surely suffered for. Their necks stiffened and their hearts hardened toward God and their neighbors. God saw their worm-like writhing of the flesh and yet still loved them enough to forgive them IF ONLY THEY WOULD OPEN THEIR EYES TO HIM and SEEK HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS.
My heart-felt sense is God plead as only an all-knowing all-powerful Holy Father can for his childrens' reciprocation of love that he wanted to give them, but they refused to accept his love. As I see it, the love they witheld from God manifested the pain and suffering that eventually returned the nation to bondage and death for generations...This was not the arbitrary will of God, but the will of mankind who denied their sole redemption. They chose to wallow in their own filth and misery of this world, just as the prophets cried out against it. Our nation now suffers the same fate that we are manifesting by turning against the faithful sacrifices of our forefathers. A nation is made up of individual souls...
More personally, if Peter, as Jesus foreknew, denied Christ three times after walking with Him on the water and eyewitnessing thousands fed on a single meal could still be called by God to be martyred for his Glory, then you and I and every American are surely fit by His Mercy and Grace to be raised up daily in the Spirit to shepherd all who are lost among us and hunger for his Truth before the last hour passes away.