When a Nation Does Not Listen to God
Lesson Overview
When a Nation Does Not Listen to God with Kay Arthur
This standalone message is given by Kay Arthur, co-founder of Precept Ministries International and a well-known teacher of the inductive Bible study method (this is a companion to her study of Daniel 7). Here she walks through the book of Jeremiah, drawing out its repeated theme, “you have not listened,” and applies it as a warning: that nations, not only ancient Judah, are accountable to God, and that a people who will not listen to Him face judgment. Use this overview to review the key points after watching the full video, ideally with an open Bible.
The Theme: “You Have Not Listened”
Arthur begins in Jeremiah 25, set in the fourth year of King Jehoiakim (about 604 BC), just after Babylon’s first approach to Jerusalem. There God, through Jeremiah, says that for 23 years He has spoken “again and again,” calling the people to turn from evil, and “you have not listened.” This refusal to listen is the thread she traces through the whole book. She sets it against the covenant of Deuteronomy, where God had long before laid out the blessings for obedience and the terrible curses for disobedience, including siege so severe the people would face starvation.
Her central application, drawn from Ezekiel 14 and Romans 15, is that God is not only the God of Israel but the God of all nations, so that a nation like America is likewise accountable to Him, and the Old Testament was written for our instruction.
The Call of Jeremiah
Turning to Jeremiah 1, Arthur shows the prophet’s call: God knew and set him apart before birth (Jeremiah 1:5) and appointed him “a prophet to the nations,” to pluck up and tear down and also to build and plant. God tells him not to be afraid of the people’s faces and touches his mouth, putting His words there. Arthur applies this to believers today: that God likewise chose His people before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1) and calls them to know His Word and speak it faithfully, whatever the cost. Her recurring exhortation is that Christians must know Scripture thoroughly for themselves (“all 66 books, the whole counsel of God”) so as not to be deceived.
The Two Evils and the Emptiness of the Culture
From Jeremiah 2, Arthur draws the people’s condition: they did not even miss God or ask “where is the Lord?” The priests, scribes, rulers, and prophets had all turned away, some prophesying by Baal. She summarizes their sin in Jeremiah 2:13, “my people have committed two evils”: they forsook God, the fountain of living waters, and they dug for themselves “broken cisterns that can hold no water.” She connects the fountain of living water to Jesus’ offer to the woman at the well, and argues that a culture that abandons God and tries to satisfy itself by the works of its own hands ends in emptiness.
The Burning of the Scroll
A centerpiece of the study is Jeremiah 36. God tells Jeremiah to have his words written on a scroll, hoping the people will hear and repent. The scroll is read publicly, and eventually read to King Jehoiakim. Arthur contrasts this with the earlier revival under King Josiah, who tore his clothes in repentance when the lost book of the Law was found and read. Jehoiakim does the opposite: as the scroll is read, he cuts off columns with a knife and throws them into the fire, piece by piece, until the whole scroll is burned, and he and his servants “were not afraid.” For Arthur this is the picture of a leader and a people who hear the Word of God and refuse to listen.
She follows the decline through the last kings, Jehoiakim, Coniah, and Zedekiah, none of whom listened, to the final siege and the destruction of Jerusalem and Solomon’s temple in 586 BC, exactly as God had long warned. Even the remnant left in the land, after promising to obey whatever God said, rejected Jeremiah’s word and fled to Egypt.
Her Testimony and the Call to Return
Woven through the study is Arthur’s own testimony: raised in church but not converted until age 29, divorced and, by her own account, living immorally, until she was challenged to stop telling God what she wanted and to confess that Jesus Christ was all she needed. On her knees the next morning she found that He was, and she was made new. She uses this to underline Jeremiah’s repeated appeal, “return, O faithless one, and I will heal your faithlessness.”
Application to America (2009)
Arthur applies the message pointedly to the United States as she saw it in 2009, arguing that the nation’s “cup of iniquity” is overflowing and that God has been sending warnings (she names events like 9/11 and the economic crash as calamities meant to turn the nation back, which produced only brief, fading repentance). She voices sharp concern about the moral and political direction of the country and its leaders, and warns that hate-crimes legislation could, in her view, lead to Christians being imprisoned for calling certain things sin or for saying Jesus is the only way to God.
This portion is dated and politically pointed, and it names contemporary figures. This overview does not reproduce those specific partisan claims as fact. Her prediction that hate-crimes law would imprison Christians for preaching did not come to pass and reflected a contested reading of that legislation; her characterizations of particular leaders and policies are her political opinions from that moment; and her position that homosexuality is sin is the traditional conservative Christian view, which many Christians hold and many others reject. Students should treat this section as her dated political and moral commentary and weigh it critically (see the note), while the enduring point, that a people is accountable to God and should listen to Him, stands on its own.
The Closing Charge: Take Up the Cross and Be Faithful
Arthur closes by turning from the nation to the individual disciple. From Mark 8:34-35 she stresses Jesus’ call to deny oneself, take up the cross, and follow Him, losing one’s life to save it. She contrasts this with a “prosperity gospel” that she says has weakened the church by promising blessing and comfort rather than the way of the cross (she critiques a well-known pastor’s stadium event by name as an example of a message that, in her view, omits sin and the cross, while also expressing personal affection for him). From Luke 12 she urges believers not to worry but to seek God’s kingdom, keep their lamps lit, and be ready for the Lord’s return. She ends with the letter to the church in Smyrna (Revelation 2:8-11), a persecuted but spiritually rich church told to be faithful even unto death and promised the crown of life, applying it to a coming time of testing and calling believers to be overcomers who have already, in effect, “died” to themselves.
Key Terms
“You have not listened”: the recurring refrain of Jeremiah that frames the whole message.
The two evils: forsaking God (the fountain of living waters) and digging broken cisterns (Jeremiah 2:13).
The burning of the scroll: King Jehoiakim’s cutting and burning of Jeremiah’s scroll (Jeremiah 36), a picture of refusing God’s Word.
A nation accountable to God: Arthur’s theme that all nations, not only Israel, answer to God.
Taking up the cross: Jesus’ call (Mark 8) to self-denial, which Arthur sets against a comfort-centered gospel.
Overcomers: the faithful of Revelation 2, called to endure to the end.
Verses to Know
Jeremiah 1:5, before I formed you in the womb I knew you. Jeremiah 2:13, my people have committed two evils. Jeremiah 25:3, these 23 years I have spoken, but you have not listened. Jeremiah 36, the writing and burning of the scroll. Mark 8:34-35, deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me. Revelation 2:10, be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.
Takeaway
Arthur argues from Jeremiah that God speaks patiently and repeatedly to a nation, but that a people who will not listen, whose leaders even burn His Word, finally face the judgment He warned of, and that the response God seeks is to return to Him, to know His Word for oneself, to take up the cross, and to remain faithful as an overcomer whatever may come.