In the Old Testament, Joel the prophet begins his oracle with a warning: A plague of locusts is coming to devour everything alive. This scourge of locusts was the eighth plague on Egypt. In this instance, however, it was a divine judgment on the enemies of God’s elect. Yet Moses warned in Deuteronomy 28:38, 42 that if God’s people broke covenant with him their covenant blessing would turn to judgment. They would be invaded by locusts. Verse 24 described famine, pestilence, and plague. Judgment can take the form of blight, an epidemic, or a plague. Whether this judgment is inflicted through germs or insects—the result is general destruction.
Today the scourge is not locusts. It is called Covid-19. The recent mutations may be as hard to track today as it is to distinguish between the four species of locusts referenced in Joel 2:25.
What should be our response to Covid? We are trying to avoid deism which does not believe God is involved in human affairs, and we are trying to avoid the opposite extreme of fatalism which holds that whatever happens is the will of God. We believe that God is involved in human affairs and that he cares deeply for our suffering world. But what then should be our response to Covid?
Without declaring absolutely that Covid is the judgment from God in response to a particular sin, God’s people should lead society in seeking his face. Certainly, many innocent people—at least innocent from a particular cultural sin—have suffered and died from this epidemic. Covid was not God’s direct judgment upon them individually. God is a loving God, but if he allows mankind to freely choose, he must also allow the consequences of our rebellious choices. That means that the innocent may suffer the consequences of wrong choices made by society at large. God’s providence functions on multiple levels. The theological word concurrence describes God’s permissive will, his restrictive will, his preventive will, and his overruling will.
We are a fallen and sinful race. We must all concede that we have fallen short of God’s will at many points. Yet our goal is not to unmask the culprit or denounce the cause of this epidemic. Our focus is to seek the face of God to heal our land. Certainly, we must be willing to repent of whatever the Spirit of God convicts in our lives, as well as our society. Isaiah confessed personal sin and corporate sin: “I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips” (6:5).
The church itself has not escaped the ravages of Covid. We have struggled to minister in the face of disease, disinformation, and division. We are not attempting to indict the church for failure. Many congregations have found extremely resourceful ways to minister in the face of mandates and lockdowns. However, we do recommend that churches be intentional about ministering to our hurting world through the following three priorities.
The church should not be controlled by fear.
Psalm 91 promises divine protection. “You will not fear the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday” (Ps 91:6). The two Hebrew words are synonyms meaning plague, pestilence, and death. In verse 10 a third word is utilized and it is usually translated as plague. Amid plagues and disasters, God has taught us to pray, “Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me, for in you my soul takes refuge. I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed” (Ps 57:1).
During the bubonic plague in the 1500s, Martin Luther stayed in Wittenberg in order to minister to those stricken, although he had been ordered to leave. He wrote to Johann Hess in November 1527:
I shall ask God mercifully to protect us. Then I will fumigate, purify the air, administer medicine, and take medicine. I shall avoid places and persons where my presence is not needed in order to not become contaminated, and thus perchance infect and pollute others, and so cause their death as a result of my negligence. If God should wish to take me, he will surely find me. But, I have done what has been expected of me, and so I am not responsible for either my own death or the death of others. If my neighbor needs me, however, I shall not avoid place or person, but will go freely. This is a God-fearing faith because it is neither brash nor foolhardy and does not tempt God.
Note that Luther’s first act was to pray. Then, he acted in faith.
The church should minister mercy.
Across history, there have been many plagues. The church has always taken personal risk in order to minister to those who were suffering. Rodney Stark in The Triumph of Christianity said one of the primary reasons the church grew under the pagan Roman empire is that it administered mercy during the two plagues which covered the world during that time.
In AD 165 smallpox killed one-third of the world’s population over a fifteen-year period. The famous classical physician Galen fled Rome for his country estate where he stayed until the danger subsided. Stark concluded, “Thus, for Galen to have remained in Rome to treat the afflicted during the first great plague would have required far greater bravery than was needed by Christian deacons and presbyters to do so.”
In AD 251 a second plague hit. No one knew how to treat those who were debilitated, but Christians found ways to care for the sick instead of deserting them. When Julian attempted to reinstate paganism in the fourth century, he instructed the pagan priests to compete with Christian charities. According to Stark, “But there was little or no response to Julian’s proposals because there were no doctrines and no traditional practices for the pagan priest to build upon.”
The church is uniquely suited to acts of mercy through the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
The church must call our society to return to God.
Joel tells God’s people to repent. They were to declare a holy fast and put on sackcloth.
Chapter two of Joel continues to describe the horde of locusts. Then Joel calls for God’s people to rend their hearts, not their garments. The trumpet is to be sounded in order to call a sacred assembly. The priests are to lead the congregation. They are to intercede, asking God to spare his people. As the priests weep between the temple porch and the altar, they are bringing the congregation from the entry point to the place of surrender and sacrifice.
Joel promised that if God’s people repented, he would take pity. He would restore what the locusts devoured. He would send refreshing rain on the barren land. But Joel looked ahead and prophesied that afterward, God would pour out his Spirit. Peter explicitly declared that this wonderful promise through Joel was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost. While Pentecost marked the inauguration of the new covenant and the last days, in Acts 3:19 Peter preached that if we will repent and return to God—times of refreshing will come.
A Call to Prayer
Our world needs this divine healing. The church, as a community of priests, must lead in intercession. This is no time to close down or cut back. According to Joel, we are to sound a trumpet which provides leadership. We need to fast and pray. According to 2 Chronicles 7:14, God’s covenant people are to humble themselves, repent, and seek his face. God has promised to hear and to heal.
We acknowledge divine sovereignty and human responsibility. However, we are not simply to pray for a return to business as usual. We are not merely to ask God to stay his hand of judgment. We are to pray for a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit. May God give us the faith to trust God for healing from the pandemic and a corresponding reset of refreshment. The coming revival can be as pervasive as the recent pandemic!
References:
Wright, N. T. God and the Pandemic (Zondervan, 2020).
Stark, Rodney. The Triumph of Christianity (HarperOne, 2011).