Prophet Russ Walden speaks to the sexual scandals breaking out across America that have resulted in so many high profile personalites to be brought down. What is God saying? Is there a secondary, deeper narrative that speaks something redemptive to women and other marginalized peoples? An important perspective for the current distress.

Introduction:

Sex scandals and disgrace are overwhelming our culture today – what is going on in our country?  God wants you to have understanding of our times, even when instability and scandal rock our world to its foundations. In the last many months, the shame of sex scandal has brought down icons in business, politics, the media and it seems this is just the beginning. Is this Satan getting the upper hand, or is it the sovereignty of God at work? We have to look to look back for perspective, and to look deeper than the 24-hour news cycle for understanding.

Judgment First Comes to the House of God:

In the scriptures Peter said the following:
[1Pe 4:17 KJV] 17 For the time [is come] that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if [it] first [begin] at us, what shall the end [be] of them that obey not the gospel of God?
In the 1980’s with the fall of PTL founder Jim Bakker, there commenced a season of scandal, sexual sin and exposure that has shaken the foundations of particularly the American church for decades, over again. If you understand God’s principles, you could only look for the hand of chastisement that fell on the church at that time would eventually make its way to the secular world – and that is what is happening.

Brian Williams, Matt Lauer being Removed – What Does This Mean?

 
With politicians, business leaders, and media personalities falling from grace wholesale how do we interpret this? What is the big picture? It has been said that God steps through time in 500 year strides. Consider the trajectory of history in the last 5 centuries. 500 years before the Obama presidency, African slavery came to North America and the Western World with Christopher Columbus. Then in 2008 we saw Barak Obama come into power. In elevating a black man to the oval office – God says to the African-American people – “first in suffering, first in promotion”.
Now years ago – if you had asked any pundit what the gender and ethnicity of the first minority president would be – the consensus would have been to look for a white woman to take the Oval office before any other minority representative. Instead, and inexplicably it was an African-American man – in fact an African-American of mixed racial extraction. What was God saying? You can’t just conclude that Obama becoming president didn’t have God’s fingerprint on it – if you believe the scriptures:
[Dan 2:21 KJV] 21 And he changeth the times and the seasons: he removeth kings, and setteth up kings: he giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding:
Looking beyond political considerations you have to see that if the man was elected that at some level it was the hand of God moving to make it happen. Likewise, the rise and fall of prominent personalities on the national scene is not random and it can’t all be “the work of the devil”. God is moving by His power and He is saying something to His people and to the world.

First in Suffering – First in Promotion:

 
The African peoples suffered in slavery and have suffered persecution for 500 years and therefore God put an African-American man in the leadership of the most powerful nation of the world before any other marginalized people. Not long after this Brian Williams, according to the polls – one of the most respected newsmen in the media was removed from his position in just a few short weeks and in a dizzying flurry of events an African American man, Lester Holt was put in his place.

God’s Program of Ethnic Justice:

 
From a biblical perspective you can only conclude that God is working in behalf of the marginalized peoples of the earth (including women). God has seen the suffering of women in our culture just as He saw the suffering of African peoples and is saying “Enough is enough!” In Matthew 24:14, Jesus said that the gospel – was the gospel, or good news to the “nations”. That word nations does not describe nation states as we know it. That word “nations” is where we get the word “ethnicity” from. It may be a political minefield but the Gospel of God is the gospel to the nations, or to ethnic groups. The promotion of a black man to the Oval Office and a black man to the post of one of the most powerful anchor desks in the media is by the hand of God. Likewise, the events transpiring before us in popular culture whereby larger than life figures are being brought down and marginalized functionaries being promoted is God saying something. That does not mean He endorses what each of these newly elevated people do or think, but that at a deeper level He is working beyond their understanding and ours.

The Matt Lauer Scandal: What does it Mean?

 
Now, in late 2017 we see Matt Lauer, described even by competing networks as the “king of morning news” was exposed and removed in a 24 period, accused of sexual impropriety that would cause any decent person to blush. Interestingly enough not only did a woman (Hoda Kotb) take his place, but she is of Arabic descent. What does this mean? If you pay attention to what many of the prophets were saying at the end of 2016 there was a constant thread speaking to the empowerment of women and a season ahead in 2017 that women would come to power and to strength as never before in the United States and the world. You have to see that this ongoing exposure of sex scandals is unearthing and exposing a systemic, pervasive misogyny that has run unchecked in the land of the free and home of the brave for many decades and longer. God says enough is enough!

The Implications of Hoda Kotb replacing Matt Lauer:

 
As Lester Holt replaced Brian Williams at the anchor desk of NBC, we now see Hoda Kotb (a woman and a person of Arabic descent) taking Matt Lauer’s place. This is God’s hand adjudicating for women who have been marginalized and objectified for in the US and in the Western World. Not only that, but we cannot overlook the fact that Hoda is of Egyptian extraction. Most Egyptians neither identify as white or black but as Arabic in ethnicity. The events of the last days have implications for Arabic peoples in the West as well.

Arabic Peoples are Not Overlooked by God:

 
Perhaps, and in some ways the most despised and mistrusted and looked down upon people in the Western World and particularly the United States, are the Arabic peoples. Because of terrorism, and the wars ongoing against Islamic extremism – Arabs are looked down on and mistrusted as at no other time in history (just as Germans and Japanese were looked down upon in years past during WWI and WWII). God has not only elevated a woman but elevated an Arab into the seat and place of authority of one of the most (if not the most) high profile men in the United States and in the Media. This is all by God’s hand.

Conclusion: What a Christian’s Response Should Be?

 
In ancient times when Samaria (the 10 northern tribes) went into captivity because of sin, the southern kingdom of Judah rejoiced and considered this vindication of their rule in the south. Because they rejoiced over the misfortune of their brothers, they eventually fell to the Babylonians and were likewise taken into captivity and their nation and temple destroyed. In looking around at the judgments of God poured out upon those who have systemically opposed and vilified and assaulted Christian values and culture, it is tempting for believers to rejoice over this as the people of Judah rejoiced over the destruction of Samaria. This is highly unadvisable.
The counsel of God in a time of judgment is to let your tongue cleave to the roof of your mouth. Let mercy and truth prevail in your thinking and in your words. Extend mercy to the undeserving for you were undeserving likewise when God sent Jesus to die for you. Let truth prevail in your own situation by looking at yourself personally and Christian culture in general that is not standing with universally clean hands and pure hearts when it comes to its own attitude toward women, sexual sin and prejudice against marginalized peoples such as Arabs, Hispanics, African peoples and others. What shall we say then?
“It is the Lord’s work and it is marvelous in our eyes…” (Psalm 118:23)