By Pearl G
It was mentioned in the article, “Where will Covid take us?, June 23, 2020, that “some church goers quote Bible verses to claim this is a curse from God” and to which a question has been raised, “If this pestilence is from God, why are we taking measures to curb it, instead of humbly accepting our just punishment?”
First, it is not the intention of this article to go into the details of the origin of the cause of coronavirus. It simply wants to clarify on the position of many “church goers” regarding the cause of the coronavirus. It is possible that the virus is a judgment from God (supernatural) but in the absence of any revelation or a direct word from God on covid-19, it seems unlikely. Indeed, we must be extremely cautious before we ascribe the pandemic or anything else to the judgment of God. It is also possible that the virus could have crossed from certain animal species to human beings (natural) in a seafood market where wildlife was sold illegally. It is much more plausible to see the coronavirus as a “manifestation of the curse of God’s good world as a result of sin.” (John Stevens, “What is God teaching us through Coronavirus?”) To explain, like other natural diseases and disasters, the virus could have come as a result of living in a fallen world. Genesis tells us that, upon their rebellion, though humans had to leave God’s presence, they were not immediately discharged from their role as custodians of God’s good creation (Genesis 2:15). Nonetheless, humanity’s failure to fulfill the sacred trust assigned by God to them – made by God in His image to serve as faithful caretakers of creation and to share in the abundance of God’s good creation – meant that God’s very good creation became flawed and fractured. As Prof. John Lennox puts it, “To eat from the tree is to have a frame of mind that asserts the creature’s will against the creator’s; that pushes the creator aside and makes central to everything the pursuit of one’s own egotistical interests and interpretation of life. That is, in principle, what ‘sin’ is.” (John Lennox, “Why did God make a World with Corona virus?”)
Far from cursing, God permits evil or allows human beings to experience the consequences of our own choices. Hence, although there have been great and significant strides over the centuries in terms of progress and development of the earth and its resources, yet the world is also fractured –filled with violent and immoral behavior, diseases and disasters, viruses and infections and now, the coronavirus pandemic.To quote from the above article by Lennox, “A rower in a boat who refuses to row the correct way will affect not only themselves but also all others in the boat- and may even damage the boat itself.”
Yet, in the midst of all this, the covid-19 pandemic can also become a moment of critical self-introspection and reflection aboutwhat has gone wrong with ourselves and with the world. Perhaps, it may have more to tell us about ourselves than it does about God.
Yes, we do find plagues mentioned in the history of the Israelites and from what we read about them, these plagues are either a demonstration of God’s power and of his purpose such as the 10 plagues of Egypt, or God’s judgment on the Israelites due to their rebellion in the wilderness. The difference between these plagues and the coronavirus is that these were inflicted on a specific group of people and for a specific purpose. They also come and go at God’s command. They seem very different to our modern covid-19 pandemic.
Moreover, whenever the Israelites were afflicted with plagues in the wilderness, it was the prayer and intercession of Moses their leader, that brought an end to those plagues (Examples are, Exodus 32:32; Numbers 14:19; Numbers 16:48). At another time, when King David’s kingdom was afflicted with a plague because of his disobedience, it was King David’s prayer of repentance and confession that finally put an end to the plague (2 Samuel 24:17). True, the people of Israelites had to go through a humbling experience but it was not to “humbly accept the plagues” because they were from God, but to humble themselves before their God in repentance and prayer for the plagues to stop. And sure enough, as in the case of King David, the plague stopped.In 2 Chronicles 7:13-14 it says, “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
We are living through a moment of crisis. And in moments of crisis, what come out clearly are our limitations and inadequacies as human beings and hence, the need to look beyond ourselves to an all-knowing God for wisdom, help and answers. For even when scientists and medical experts are working round the clock to come up with vaccines and treatments for the prevention and cure of covid-19, the number of cases and deaths keeps rising with a record rate every day. From a biblical perspective we do know that God has sovereign control over all things (Romans 11:36) and that ultimately, He will bring forth good from evil (Romans 8:28). So while we are going through ‘unlock 1.0’, we might as well take time to turn to God in prayer for when all is said and done, prayer could be that key to unlock heaven’s door to bring healing and health to a world reeling under a pandemic crisis.