US Foreign Policy in the Middle East - Is it Biblical? (Part 7) - We Are Likely Modern-day Assyria and Babylon

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X. We are likely modern day Assyria and Babylon and are the rod in God's hand to destroy wicked nations, but will most likely be destroyed by God after he is done with us. 1. God punishes wicked nations at sundry times and in divers manners. A. Sometimes God using the weather to accomplish His chastening of people (Job 37:11-13). B. Sometimes God uses natural disasters (Nah 1:2-8). 2. Sometimes God uses wicked men or nations to punish other wicked men or nations. A. The wicked are God's hand and sword that He uses for His purposes (Psa 17:13-14). B. This may be the only use that God has for some people (Pro 16:4). i. This evil is not sin that God has made the wicked for. ii. Neither is this saying that God made some men to damned. iii. This evil is speaking of judgment that God uses the wicked to accomplish. iv. It is in this sense that God creates evil (Isa 45:7). a. God doesn't create evil in the sense of creating sin. b. People that sin and say that they were predestined to do so are liars (Jer 7:8-10). c. God has never commanded people to sin, nor has the thought of it ever come into His heart (Jer 7:31), nor has it come into His mind (Jer 19:5; Jer 32:35). v. Consider the following verses that refer to evil as judgment: a. God does judgment in a city (Amo 3:6). b. God set His face against Jerusalem for evil (Jer 21:10). c. God's planned destruction of Israel was called evil (Exo 32:10-14). d. God's planned overthrow of Nineveh was called evil (Jon 3:4 c/w Jon 3:10). e. The Lord smote Benjamin and it was evil that was come upon them (Jdg 20:41). C. God used the kingdom of Assyria to destroy Israel (Isa 10:5). i. The Assyrians were the rod of God's anger (Isa 10:5). ii. God gave them a charge to take the spoil and to tread down the people (Isa 10:6). iii. The Assyrians didn't know they were the rod in God's hand, they were just happy to destroy as many nations as possible (Isa 10:7). iv. When God was done using the Assyrians to punish Israel, He would then destroy them for their pride (Isa 10:12). v. Assyria thought that is was by their own might that the were able to destroy other nations, but failed to realize they were the axe in the hand of the hewer (Isa 10:13-18). D. God would later use the Babylonians to destroy Jerusalem. i. God would raise up the Chaldeans which were a wicked nation to destroy His nation Judah and Jerusalem (Hab 1:6-11). ii. God has established them for correction (Hab 1:12). iii. God not only destroyed Israel by Babylon, but also other nations (Jer 25:9). iv. God used Babylon for a time to punish Israel (Jer 25:11). v. But like Assyria, once God was done with them, He destroyed them too (Jer 25:12). E. Many years later, God would once again use the Roman empire, which He called his armies to destroy Jerusalem again (Mat 22:7 c/w Luk 21:20-24). F. Do you see any possible parallels between the USA and the ancient nations of Assyria and Babylon that were world superpowers that God used to destroy and punish other wicked nations and then destroyed them once he was done with them?