Pictured to the left is a copy of a version of the Holy Bible, known as the New International Version ( NIV ). Lamentations 2:1-14 read as follows: "How the Lord has covered the Daughter of Zion with the cloud of his anger! He has hurled down the splendor of Israel from heaven to earth; he has not remembered his footstool in the day of his anger. Without pity the Lord has swallowed up all the dwellings of Jacob; in his wrath he has torn down the strongholds of the Daughter of Judah. He has brought her kingdom and its princes down to the ground in dishonor. In fierce anger he has cut off every horn of Israel. He has withdrawn his right hand at the approach of the enemy. He has burned in Jacob like a flaming fire that consumes everything around it. Like an enemy he has strung his bow; his right hand is ready. Like a foe he has slain all who were pleasing to the eye; he has poured out his wrath like fire on the tent of the Daughter of Zion. The Lord is like an enemy; he has swallowed up Israel. He has swallowed up all her palaces and destroyed her strongholds. He has multiplied mourning and lamentation for the Daughter of Judah. He has laid waste his dwelling like a garden; he has destroyed his place of meeting. The LORD has made Zion forget her appointed feasts and her Sabbaths; in his fierce anger he has spurned both king and priest. The Lord has rejected his altar and abandoned his sanctuary. He has handed over to the enemy the walls of her palaces; they have raised a shout in the house of the LORD as on the day of an appointed feast. The LORD determined to tear down the wall around the Daughter of Zion. He stretched out a measuring line and did not withhold his hand from destroying. He made ramparts and walls lament; together they wasted away. Her gates have sunk into the ground; their bars he has broken and destroyed. Her king and her princes are exiled among the nations, the law is no more, and her prophets no longer find visions from the LORD. The elders of the Daughter of Zion sit on the ground in silence; they have sprinkled dust on their heads and put on sackcloth. The young women of Jerusalem have bowed their heads to the ground. My eyes fail from weeping, I am in torment within, my heart is poured out on the ground because my people are destroyed, because children and infants faint in the streets of the city. They say to their mothers, 'Where is bread and wine?' as they faint like wounded men in the streets of the city, as their lives ebb away in their mothers' arms. What can I say for you? With what can I compare you, O Daughter of Jerusalem? To what can I liken you, that I may comfort you, O Virgin Daughter of Zion? Your wound is as deep as the sea. Who can heal you? The visions of your prophets were false and worthless; they did not expose your sin to ward off your captivity. The oracles they gave you were false and misleading." What we see, in this passage from the Holy Bible, is the LORD's anger at sin. Please read all of Lamentations, chapter 2, to get the context.
From 1 Peter 2:9, we learn that God's spiritual nation consists of everyone who is a Christian ( see also Psalm 50:5, Acts 2:38, 41, 47; 8:26-40 ( especially verses 36-39, for example ); 11:26, Romans 6:1-4 ( especially verses 3 and 4, for example ); 15:3, 4, Galatians 3:26, 27, Hebrews 10:22, and 1 Peter 1:1, 2, for example ). In short, God's spiritual nation is the New Testament church ( the church of Christ - see Matthew 16:18 and Romans 16:16, for example ). False teachers will wrongly assume that the word "nation," in 1 Peter 2:9, is a reference to a physical nation, such as the United States of America. However, there are a lot of unholy things occurring in America, such as the sin of homosexuality ( see Leviticus 18:22, Psalm 119:65-72, 142, 151, John 1:1, 14; 3:16, 17; 7:16; 8:26; 10:30; 14:6; 17:17, Romans 1:20 ( see Romans 1:20 ( KJV, for example; with center-column references ) to get the equivalent translation for the word "Godhead" ); 1:24-32 ( especially verses 26 and 27, for example ), Colossians 2:8, 9, 2 Timothy 3:16, 17, Titus 1:1, 2, 1 John 3:4; 5:6-8, for example ), for example.
Daniel 4:2, 17 teaches that the God is Most High, and that He is sovereign with regard to the kingdoms of men ( please read all of Daniel, chapter 4, to get the context ). The book of Lamentations describes the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. [ See Holy Bible, The New King James Version, THE NEW OPEN BIBLE STUDY EDITION, THOMAS NELSON PUBLISHERS, Nashville, Copyright 1990, 1985, 1983 by Thomas Nelson, Inc., p. 907. ] The statement "He has brought her kingdom and its princes down to the ground in dishonor," in Lamentations 2:2, should serve as a warning to the United States of America. America was humiliated before the entire world at the 2014 winter Olympics at Sochi. God is displeased with America, as a physical nation, due to the sin of homosexuality, for example. President Vladimir Putin has the moral courage to condemn homosexuality, while President Obama encourages this sinful behavior. Is it any wonder, then, that Russia finished in first place at the 2014 winter Olympics, while America finished second? God hates wickedness ( see Psalm 45:6, 7, for example ).
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