Deuteronomy 28 -- If you shall hearken to the voice of the Lord
1 And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of Jehovah thy God, to take heed to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that Jehovah thy God will set thee supreme above all nations of the earth;
We saw this at the time of Solomon and we also saw it during the days of Truman and Eisenhower. There was a time when the US was set supreme above all the nations of the earth. What have we done since then? We prohibited prayer in school. We legalized abortion. We have become very tolerant of fornication and idol worship. We said that Banks were too big to fail so despite them robbing widows houses we did nothing. The US was humiliated in Vietnam, on 911 and in Afghanistan. It seems that since the assassination of JFK the US government has been plagued with one scandal after another.
2 and all these blessings shall come on thee and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of Jehovah thy God. 3 Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field.
Perhaps the 50s was our most blessed time, though the highest standard of living was during the 70s. California was the bread basket of the world, today it is a basket case. Plagued with droughts and forest fires. We won the world wars because of our incredible manufacturing power, today that is gone.
4 Blessed shall be the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the offspring of thy kine, and the increase of thy sheep.
During that time people in other countries were amazed at how big and healthy Americans looked. The people were big, the grocery stores were overflowing and even our cows were big and fat.
5 Blessed shall be thy basket and thy kneading-trough. 6 Blessed shalt thou be in thy coming in, and blessed shalt thou be in thy going out.
The rest of the world blessed us when we came to them and when we left. We were helping Europe rebuild from the war, we were helping defend countries from attack and we were the major charitable donor to the poor.
7 Jehovah will give up, smitten before thee, thine enemies that rise up against thee; they shall come out against thee one way, and by seven ways shall they flee before thee.
The Japanese, Italians and Germans all fled from us. Today we flee from the Vietnamese and the Afghanis.
8 Jehovah will command blessing on thee in thy granaries, and in all the business of thy hand; and he will bless thee in the land which Jehovah thy God giveth thee.
The US is called the breadbasket of the world. More than any other country our granaries have been blessed and it is a major source of our power. But, no more, we can't even supply baby formula for our new mothers.
9 Jehovah will establish thee unto himself a holy people as he hath sworn unto thee, if thou keep the commandments of Jehovah thy God, and walk in his ways. 10 And all peoples of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of Jehovah, and they shall be afraid of thee. 11 And Jehovah will give thee abundance of good, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy ground, in the land that Jehovah swore unto thy fathers to give thee. 12 Jehovah will open to thee his good treasure, the heavens, to give rain unto thy land in its season, and to bless all the work of thy hand; and thou shalt lend unto many nations, but thou shalt not borrow.
This was our case, but no longer. We are a major debtor nation now. I grew up in Norman Rockwell's America (he went to my high school). His paintings remind me quite a bit of what it was like then, compare that to now. Norman Rockwell grew up in NYC and then moved to the suburbs. Instead of painting a land of plenty that was blessed he would be painting a crime ridden landscape that was cursed.
13 And Jehovah will make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if thou hearken unto the commandments of Jehovah thy God, which I command thee this day, to keep and to do them, 14 and if thou turn not aside from any of the words that I command thee this day, to the right hand or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.
I would say that the period between 1963 to 1973 was the peak of the blessings to the US. The assassination of JFK was the turning aside to worship the god of war. The military industrial complex began to become ascendant from those days on. Since those days we have fabricated reasons to go to war just so our military war machine would get a fresh infusion of government orders and so we could display all our weapons for sale. 1963 was also when prayer was taken out of schools. This was followed by Roe v. Wade. The legalization of abortion is a form of worship of Baal (your career) and Molech (fornication). We also had Watergate and the oil crisis of 1973. Harbingers of things to come. Malcolm X was assassinated, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, Medgar Evers was assassinated. Because we let killers into our country to run it they ultimately brought us to the defeat in Vietnam, the various scandals in other countries, and 911. They were crooks, we could see that with the mortgage meltdown in 2008. They robbed us blind. That expression, to be robbed blind, comes from this chapter: 29 At midday you will grope about like a blind person in the dark. You will be unsuccessful in everything you do; day after day you will be oppressed and robbed, with no one to rescue you.