This week the front pages of every important national newspaper around the world, with the exception of China and a few communist nations, bore pictures in honour of our Queen, at her passing.
Only a very few people in the world today can remember a time when the Queen did not reign, and it was President Macron of France who summed up the feeling: “To you, she was your Queen,” Emmanuel Macron said to the camera in English, as he addressed his own nation. “To us, she was THE Queen!”
That obviously applies to many nations around the world, even outside the Commonwealth, where guns sounded in tribute to the departed Queen.
Truely, there was something special about her reign, as she held together a nation declining from world Empire to almost empty rhetoric, but it was her calming presence and wise counsel which ensured a tragic but peaceful decline in her constitutional monarchy during a period which would have brought most nations to their knees in chaos and violence.
It is strange though, that at this time of reflection, and much remenicence, there has been no mention of this amazing fall from world influence, no questioning of the causes of this national loss, in the many pages of the tributes and discussion.
And yet, there can be few homes in ethnic Britain that do not contain a Bible, and though they may lay unopened and dusty, they hold the answer, Hosea 3:6-7, “My people are being destroyed because they don’t know me. Since you priests refuse to know me, I refuse to recognize you as my priests. Since you have forgotten the laws of your God, I will forget to bless your children.”
Hosea 7:8-10, ‘Ephraim mixes himself with the peoples;
Ephraim is a cake not turned.
Strangers devour his strength,
and he knows it not;
gray hairs are sprinkled upon him,
and he knows it not.
The pride of Israel testifies to his face;
yet they do not return to the LORD their God,
nor seek him, for all this.’
Hosea 13:6-9, ‘When they had pasture, they became satisfied; when they were satisfied, their hearts became proud, and as a result they forgot Me. So like a lion I will pounce on them; like a leopard I will lurk by the path. Like a bear robbed of her cubs I will attack them, and I will tear open their chests. There I will devour them like a lion like a wild beast would tear them apart.You are destroyed, O Israel, because you are against Me—against your helper.’
Hosea 14:4-9, ‘His shoots will sprout,and his splendor will be like the olive tree his fragrance like the cedars of Lebanon.They will return and dwell in his shade; they will grow grain and blossom like the vine. His renown will be like the wine of Lebanon.O Ephraim, what have I to do anymore with idols? It is I who answer and watch over him. I am like a flourishing cypress; your fruit comes from Me. Whoever is wise, let him understand these things; whoever is discerning, let him know them. For the ways of the LORD are right and the righteous walk in them, but the rebellious stumble in them.