Consider Assyria, once a cedar in Lebanon, with beautiful branches overshadowing the forest; it towered on high. – Ezekiel 31:3

Today's Scripture Reading (August 14, 2023): Ezekiel 31

The United States began as a group of colonies located in the New World in the 1600s. The Mayflower landed with its 102 passengers and 30 crew in 1620. As far as I can figure out, my first New World ancestors came from the Netherlands, about 30 years after the Mayflower landed in territory that would one day become the United States. More specifically, they landed in New Amsterdam, which correlates to the current island of Manhattan, New York.

In 1775, a conflict began between Britain and what was then its 13 American colonies. The war would solidify the formation of the United States in 1776, but the American War of Independence wouldn't end until 1783. An interesting trivia question, at least to me, is that while the United States was born in the early years of the Revolutionary War on July 4, 1776, George Washington, the nation's first President, did not take his place as the leader of the country until April 30, 1789. For almost thirteen years, the United States did not have a President. And even when Washington rose to power, becoming the first President of the United States, his authority was severely limited compared to contemporary Presidents.

During the War of 1812 (1812-1815), the United States took further steps toward being a nation, even though the results of the war were inconclusive. Maybe one of the significant American war losses was when the British, or soon-to-be Canadians, burned Washington, including the White House. However, the President, James Madison, wasn't home at the time.

Questions of the essential character of the nation led the United States toward its Civil War when brother picked up arms against brother to decide the nation's direction. The Union victory and the assassination of Abraham Lincoln left its scars on the country but also fostered its growth.

By 1900, the United States economy had made the nation a power on the world stage. Their entrance (late) into both World War I and World War II enhanced the nation's reputation as a World Power. And by the close of the Second World War, the United States and Russia emerged as the world's only, or at least most recent, superpowers. I have never known a world in which the United States was not a superpower. And it is hard for me to imagine what would cause the fall of the United States. Surely we would never allow things to get to that point. Right?

It was the question that Ezekiel was suggesting for Egypt. As Ezekiel considered his African neighbor, Egypt had been a world power for literally a couple thousand years. They had built the pyramids, the Sphinx, and other phenomenal buildings, proving their abilities as engineers and builders. And it was hard to imagine that Egypt could ever suffer the failure that Ezekiel predicted. But Ezekiel reminds his readers of the collapse of the Assyrian Empire, those remembered days not long past when no one believed that Assyria could fall. Assyria had been like a massive tree that spread its branches over the world's nations. And yet the tree that was Assyria had tumbled, and Assyria had disappeared. And the same could happen to any country, even those who believed they would never fall. And that included Egypt and any other nation that rose to a position of power on the world stage.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 32