The torture and death of Jesus foretold more than 700 years before His birth.
“Who has believed our report?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant,
And as a root out of dry ground.
He has no form or comeliness;
And when we see Him,
There is no beauty that we should desire Him.
He is despised and rejected by men,
A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him;
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
Surely He has borne our griefs
And carried our sorrows;
Yet we esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten by God, and afflicted.
But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned, every one, to his own way;
And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
Yet He opened not His mouth;
He was led as a lamb to the slaughter,
And as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
So He opened not His mouth."
Isaiah 53:1-7
Whenever ancient Israel ignored God's truth and "did what was right in their own eyes," God withdrew His protection and, with grief, let His precious people experience "the full terrors of the pathway they had chosen." The devastating consequences were already built into His creation, They included wild animals, famines (due to drought, pests, climate changes...) and the natural inclinations of mankind's capricious human nature when untamed by moral boundaries and the Holy Spirit.
God doesn't change. Nor does human nature. We, like Israel, tend to forget that God (not clever people) is the One who long ago brought peace, prosperity and freedom to this land. When we ignore His ways, He once again withdraws His protection and turns us over to the natural consequences built into His creation. [See 1 Corinthians 10-1-13]
Many may then recognize their need and appreciate His wise, loving and sovereign care for His people. [See America's Spiritual Slide]