Nations & God's Laws

Ukraine, Russia, Iran, China, the U.S. and all nations are accountable to God.

“For dominion belongs to the LORD and He rules over the nations” - Psalm 22:28.

When Americans talk about God’s sovereignty - that is, His rule over nations - they often think in binary terms. “God rules over the United States, but not other nations.”

Nothing could be further from the truth.

There’s not one nation, not a government or people, a country’s President, king, dictator, or ruler outside God's direct and sovereign control. That doesn’t mean God is responsible for the ‘evil’ done by a nation or its leaders, but simply this:

‘God either prohibits, promotes, or prevents all things.’

In Ezekiel 5, we encounter a vivid and sobering prophecy delivered through the prophet Ezekiel in 598 BC while he was in exile in Babylon.

King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon took 25-year-old Ezekiel and 10,000 other Jews from Judah (Israel) into captivity in 598 BC, eleven years before the fall of Jerusalem and the Exile of the rest of the Jews in 586 BC. Ezekiel acted out and wrote God’s warnings to his homeland (Judah) while in captivity, forming the book of Ezekiel.

God instructed Ezekiel to perform a symbolic act: taking a razor-sharp sword, he shaved his head and beard, then carefully weighed and divided the hair into three equal parts. One-third he burned on a brick inscribed with "JERUSALEM" (see Ezekiel 4), symbolizing death by famine and disease; one-third he chopped up with the sword, representing death by violence; and one-third he tossed into the air to be scattered by the wind, signifying exile among the nations.

This pantomime, recorded on a scroll and sent back to Jerusalem, foretold the city’s destruction in August 586 BC when Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians. History confirms that approximately one-third of Judah’s people perished by famine and disease, one-third by the sword, and one-third were scattered into exile.

The Reason for Judah’s Judgment

The Destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC by David Roberts

The LORD explains the reason for the severe judgment on Judah in Ezekiel 5:6-7:

“She [Judah] has rebelled against My ordinances more wickedly than the nations and against My statutes more than the lands which surround her; for they have rejected My ordinances and have not walked in My statutes.”

Judah’s rebellion exceeded that of the surrounding Gentile nations, despite having God’s special revelation—the Temple, the priesthood, and the oracles of God. This made Judah’s failure to obey God all the more culpable than other nations.

Natural Law and the Accountability of All Nations

Though lacking the written Law of Moses, the surrounding Gentile nations were accountable to the Creator.

These nations possessed what our Founding Fathers called Natural Law—a universal moral code the Creator inscribed on every human heart.

The Apostle Paul affirms this in Romans 2:14-15:

“For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness.”

• Natural Law can be summarized as worshiping the Creator alone (not the creation or created things), treating others with respect by never encroaching on their Person or property, and resting from labor one day out of seven. This is written on man’s heart.

God judged Judah severely for their rebellion against Him. But Ezekiel 5 reveals that God punishes peoples and leaders from all nations who transgress the Natural Law written on their hearts.

God’s judgment for sin extends to all nations.

God sent Jonah to warn the Gentiles in Nineveh of impending doom due to their wickedness, and in Isaiah, Babylon faces condemnation for its pride and idolatry.

The Bible teaches that all nations, not just Israel, are accountable to the God of Nature and Nature’s Laws, ordinances written by the Creator in every human soul.

Application to Today

Zelinsky and Trump in the White House, Friday, February 28, 2024.

This truth of the nation’s accountability to God resonates in our modern world.

When nations or individuals reject the fundamental principles of Natural Law—whether through idolatry (elevating anything above the Creator), injustice, or immorality—they invite God’s righteous judgment. History bears witness to societies that crumble under the weight of such violations. Famine (inflation), pandemics (sickness), war, and sudden death are the Four Horsemen of God’s judgment on nations.

The Bible reveals God’s universal authority and all mankind’s accountability to Him.

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