I believe the global predicament with COVID-19 is far more than just a medical crisis. In fact, everything we are facing — economic crises, political crises, financial crises, familial crises — goes much deeper than what's on the surface. Everything visible and physical is preceded by that which is invisible and spiritual. If you want to address the visible and physical, you must identify the cause and cure to that which is invisible and spiritual. To put it another way, if all you see is what you see, then you do not see all that there is to be seen.
I believe this disruption we are experiencing has been allowed in order to precipitate a spiritual realignment and center us back toward God. Second Chronicles 15:5-6 says,
In those times there was no peace for those who went about their daily activities because the residents of the lands had many conflicts. Nation was crushed by nation and city by city, for God troubled them with every possible distress.
In these verses the Bible describes a world in chaos and individuals without peace. When the people of Judah and Benjamin went home, there was family conflict. City rose up against city and nation against nation. There was no peace in the land.
At the end of verse 6 it says,
For God troubled them with every possible distress.
Wait a minute. Who is behind this chaos and lack of peace? The Lord took the blame.
In the Old Testament, when God's people departed from Him, judgment followed soon behind. With the sacrifice of Jesus, God recast His relationship to the world. Second Corinthians 5:19 says that the world was reconciled to God through the death of Jesus Christ.
No longer does the Lord God rain down fire and brimstone or send floods, like in Noah's day, but we can experience the passive wrath of God that is described in Romans 1:24, Romans 1:26, Romans 1:28. The Scripture says that God turned them over to impurity. Then, again, later in the chapter, God turned them over to disgraceful passions. A third time, God turned them over to a corrupt mind.
Because the people of God no longer took Him seriously, choosing to dishonor Him and drift away, He let them experience the consequences of their behavior and see what life looked like without His provision.
Romans 1:21-24 describes what happens when an individual, family, church, or nation depart from God:
For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals, and reptiles. Therefore, God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts. — NIV
Yes, we know God exists everywhere, but I am talking about the relational absenteeism of God. It is as if God has said, If you don't want Me, you're going to have to see what life is like without Me. So I believe God is interrupting the normal, natural, and preferred order of things on every single level. God is sending a worldwide message.
Returning to the Old Testament story, 2 Chronicles 15:3 speaks to the causes of the chaos and crisis at that time:
For many years Israel has been without the true God, without a teaching priest, and without instruction.
He didn't say there was no belief in God; he said their belief was not in "the true God." The Israelites had replaced "the true God" with idols.
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