Washington's Warning

America was founded on prayer.  Therefore, the removal of prayer from its public life was a central part of its fall from God.  A nation that runs away from prayer will ultimately find itself in desperate need of it (The Harbinger, p. 223).

 

Immediately upon the inauguration of George Washington at Federal Hall in New York City, then our nation's capital, he led the new Congress to a small chapel in the city for public prayer for the blessings of God upon the newly-established nation.  In his inaugural address, Washington had said, "The propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself hath ordained." (April 30, 1789)

 

Then Washington and all his newly-sworn-in cabinet and officers walked to St. Paul's Chapel to pray.  St. Paul's Chapel is at Ground Zero today, and it is the only structure that was preserved when the twin towers exploded.  It became the center of emergency coordination, the resting place for the first responders, etc.  The wrought-iron fence of the church yard was covered in concrete dust and debris, as was the church itself and the surrounding areas.  But the church stood.

 

And Washington's statue, the memorial of that first inauguration, still stands today, with his hand outstretched to lay on the Bible, outside the New York Stock Exchange, the site of Federal Hall, where he took the oath of office.  I think the words of his inaugural address are bearing fruit today. 

 

In Isaiah 9, the prophet says this:

 

The Lord has send a message against Jacob;

it will fall on Israel.

All the people will know it--

Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria--

who say with pride

and arrogance of heart,

"The bricks have fallen down,

but we will rebuild with dressed stone;

the fig trees have been felled,

but we will replace them with cedars."

But the Lord has strengthened Rezin's foes against them

and has spurred their enemies on....

 

But the people have not returned to him who struck them,

nor have they sought the Lord Almighty (9:8-13).

 

Now here is the really scary part.  On the morning after the twin towers fell, America issued its response in the form of a joint resolution of Congress.  The Senate majority leader summed up the nation's response to the calamity:

 

...there is a passage in the Bible from Isaiah that I think speaks to all of us at times like this...

"The bricks have fallen down,

but we will rebuild with dressed stone;

The fig trees have been felled,

But we will replace them with cedars." 

 (Washington file: Sept. 12, 2001)

 

Without realizing it, the Senate majority leader was publicly pronouncing judgment on America!  He did not realize the context of Isaiah's quotation, so he thought he was inspiring America even while announcing our coming destruction.  He did not see that the words he quoted had been said with "pride and arrogance of heart."

 

Six days later, when the New York Stock Exchange re-opened, it suffered the greatest loss in its history; it was an aftershock of 9/11.

 

Three years later, on the anniversary of 9/11, the vice-presidential candidate would speak the same words, to be followed in 2008 with the total collapse of Wall Street and its financial institutions.  On February 24, 2009, with the nation's economy in freefall, Obama comes to the joint session of Congress one month after his inauguration and says this:

 

While our economy may be weakened and our confidence shaken; though we are living through difficult and uncertain times, tonight I want every American to know this--WE WILL REBUILD.

 

[The Lord has send a message against Jacob; it will fall on Israel.  All the people will know it.]

 

And now, still not understanding Isaiah 9:10, this President wants to strike at Syria (Rezin's foes).

 

I wonder if anyone knows what happened to Israel after Isaiah's prophecies.  I wonder if anyone sees what is coming to the United States as a result of this current situation.  Both the Blessed Mother in Medjugore and the Pope have recently warned us that this Middle-East situation will affect the entire world.  Both have called for prayer and fasting to avert the danger.   But, given the recent history of America, given that the blood of our aborted innocents has been crying from the ground for well over 30 years now, I cannot be hopeful that America will heed the warning George Washington gave us in his inaugural address. 

 

Israel ignored both Isaiah and Jeremiah to its utter destruction.  Can we afford to do the same?