Pretty much every conversation these days is about the devastation caused by the coronavirus or the devastation caused by our efforts to slow the coronavirus. We’re trying everything to solve both devastations. Quarantines, medical research, stimulus packages, and more. Grace@Work, which serves the Atlanta technology community, has been asking itself how we can do our part. I’ll propose an answer here.
First, some background. Shortly after 9/11, a U.S. senator quoted a passage from Isaiah 9 in proclaiming how the United States would bounce back from disaster: “The bricks have fallen, but we will build with dressed stones; the sycamores have been cut down, but we will put cedars in their place” (Isaiah 9:10). You’ve probably heard many leaders of all stripes making similar promises that America will come through the coronavirus and come through it stronger. As many have pointed out, however, the problem with using the quotation from Isaiah 9 as a response to disaster is that it was actually highlighting Israel’s refusal to repent after experiencing God’s judgment. As the passage goes on to say, “The people did not turn to him who struck them, nor inquire of the LORD of hosts” (Isaiah 9:13). The leaders taught lies and those who followed them were and would continue to be swallowed up by God’s judgment: “Therefore the Lord does not rejoice over their young men, and has no compassion on their fatherless and widows; for everyone is godless and an evildoer, and every mouth speaks folly. For all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still” (Isaiah 9:17).
I hope we’d all agree that we don’t want to end up in a place where God has no compassion on our fatherless or widows. So how do we avoid that? I’m not writing against any of the efforts for combating the coronavirus described above. I am proposing one additional effort that, if we do it, will make all those other efforts much more likely to succeed:
Stop doing evil things.
Let’s read a passage from Jeremiah 18, which describes a time when Israel had descended into idolatrous practices and all the other immoral practices that come hand-in-hand with it. What did God have to say to Israel?
The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: 2 “Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.” 3 So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. 4 And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do (Jeremiah 18:1-4).
God didn’t leave Jeremiah in the dark about the point of this exercise: “Then the word of the LORD came to me: 6 ‘O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the LORD. Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel’” (Jeremiah 18:5-6). In other words, while God had a special relationship with Israel, that didn’t mean that Israel could abuse that relationship without suffering the consequences. Israel’s fate was in the Lord’s sovereign hands.
God makes clear that his warning is not just to Israel but to all nations. His sovereign power reigns over all nations:
If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, 8 and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it. 9 And if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, 10 and if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will relent of the good that I had intended to do to it11 (Jeremiah 18:7-11).
God makes a couple promises here. First, if he’s decreed blessing on a nation, he will withhold that blessing if it turns to evil. Second, if he’s decreed destruction against a nation, he will relent if the nation turns from its evil. That’s a big promise regarding the grace of God. He doesn’t owe it to anyone to withhold destruction when they turn from evil. We all deserve destruction for the evil we’ve done. It’s only his mercy that withholds it.
Doesn’t that assume that God decreed the coronavirus devastation? Yes, it does. God is “the blessed and only Sovereign” (1 Timothy 6:15). What does it mean to be sovereign: “Whatever the Lord pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps” (Psalm 135:6).
How does God’s sovereignty relate to the coronavirus? As Amos asks, “Does disaster come to a city, unless the Lord has done it?” (Amos 3:6). We can have long conversations about why God allows evil, and the difference between merely allowing evil and actively causing it. But the point here is about God’s judgment rather than evil. God’s judgment isn’t evil, it comes in response to evil. God’s judgment is the consequence of man bringing sin into the world and continuing to wallow in it.
Are you saying that those who die of the coronavirus—or who suffer economically from our efforts to contain the coronavirus—are more evil than those less affected? No. I’ll quote Jesus here when he asked his audience whether they thought some people killed by a falling tower were worse offenders than the rest: “No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish” (Luke 13:5).
We need to get used to the idea that if we live in a sinful nation, we’re going to experience the consequences of sin—even if we’re no worse and perhaps even better than average. Jerusalem didn’t listen to God’s warning in Jeremiah 18, and God eventually brought the Babylonians to destroy the city and even his temple. Jeremiah had been pounding the table trying to get his nation to turn from its evil. He was thrown in prison and almost starved for his trouble. Then, after the city was destroyed, the remnant continued to disobey God by seeking refuge in Egypt instead of following God’s command to live under Babylonian rule. And they drug Jeremiah off to Egypt with them against his will. So even though he was a prophet of God, he suffered along with his city.
What do I do if I don’t want to suffer God’s judgment? Let’s look at what God said back in Jeremiah 18: “if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it.” It sounds like turning from evil—as a nation—would be a great plan for avoiding God’s judgment.
What do we need to turn from? According to Jesus, repentance starts by looking in the mirror. You’ve heard his saying about removing the plank from your own eye before trying to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. We each have our own evil inclinations to turn from, and I’m no different. So we start with ourselves. But I do think we find an instructive list in Revelation 9, where the apostle John sees God’s end-times judgment on the world. After the earth experienced a few plagues of God’s judgment, John describes several things people did not repent of:
The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands nor give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk, 21 nor did they repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts (Revelation 9:20-21).
Based on John’s list, it seems that idolatry, theft, sorcery, murder, and sexual immorality should be high on our list. What is idolatry? It certainly includes bowing down to statutes. But it also includes covetousness—craving what is not rightfully yours (Colossians 3:5). Theft, whether it be smash-and-grab robberies or more genteel white-collar robberies, goes right along with it. Theft is basically acting out on one’s idolatrous covetousness.
How about sorcery? We might think this is a remnant of times past, but if you’ve seen the stories about modern witches gathering to curse the president, you know sorcery is alive and well. Perhaps sorcery also thrives in forms we don’t recognize so readily. For example, essential oils are popular today, including (or maybe especially) among Christians. Before anyone comes at me with spears, I’m not saying essential oils can’t be beneficially used for physical problems like burns and bug bites. But when we start using them to address spiritual problems, we’ve crossed a dangerous line. For example, there’s one called “Forgiveness” that supposedly “may enhance the ability to release hurtful memories and move beyond emotional barriers.” Or perhaps even more fitting in our present distress is the “BraveTM Courage Blend,” which allegedly provides “an atmosphere of courage and confidence” if you’ll just “roll Brave onto the back of neck, tummy, or bottoms of feet” in the face of “new or different situations.” If we’re rubbing oils, balms, or other potions on our tummy to stave off fear or turn from sin in the face of the coronavirus rather than calling on the name of the Lord, we might want to look closer at the Bible’s prohibition on sorcery.
Now, sexual immorality. This one’s pretty easy. If you’re engaging in sex outside of marriage between a man and a woman, you need to repent. How are we doing on that front? Reports are that porn websites are seeing increased traffic as more people work from home due to the coronavirus measures. That’s not a great sign for national repentance.
Finally, let’s talk about murder. As the Baltimore mayor recently told his city, “Stop shooting each other!” That would be a great place to start. But let’s not forget abortion. America’s abortion rate is dropping, but we still kill hundreds of thousands of humans in the womb every year. That’s a lot of murder. Maybe you haven’t personally been involved, but how many of us really do anything to stop it? The state of Massachusetts recently barred elective surgeries to save medical resources for dealing with the coronavirus. But they made an exception for abortion. Kind of sounds like the people in Revelation who won’t repent of their murder even when experiencing God’s judgment, doesn’t it?
Maybe you’re clear of all these charges and any other sin issues. If so, praise God that he has granted you such righteousness! You’re ready to help the rest of us clear out our eyes. There are great examples of prayers of repentance on behalf of one’s nation in the Bible. Daniel 9 and Nehemiah 9 are two great ones that are too long to quote here. But I’ll give another example from Jeremiah that seems apt:
Why have
you struck us down
so that there is no healing for us?
We looked for peace, but no good came;
for a time of healing, but behold, terror.
20 We acknowledge our wickedness, O LORD,
and the iniquity of our fathers,
for we have sinned against you.
21 Do not spurn us, for your name’s sake;
do not dishonor your glorious throne;
remember and do not break your covenant with us.
22 Are there any among the false gods of the nations that can bring
rain?
Or can the heavens give showers?
Are you not he, O LORD our God?
We set our hope on you,
for you do all these things (Jeremiah 14:19-22).
Takeaway: I used to pray—and repent—for America a lot more than I do now. Maybe it’s time for me to kick it up a notch. How about you?
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