Thursday, December 3, 2020

Is Covid-19 A Plague Sent By God?


Was Covid-19 a plague sent by God? That’s a question worth pondering. Yes I know it started in China, but was God orchestrating it all? Could it be a possibility? Could God do that? Would God do that? And if He did, why? It’s certainly worth looking into.


One thing is for sure — we are in a worldwide pandemic. I call it a plague. What’s the Bible say about plagues? As I was looking through the Bible, I found that there were dozens of plagues from the first book to the last. And guess what? In most cases, if not all, God originated them! And He did so for specific reasons — usually for disobedience — for people not conforming to His will — for people turning away from Him and worshiping other things or other gods. 


The most famous series of God-induced plagues are the 10 plagues that God worked through Moses in an attempt to convince Pharaoh to release the nation of Israel out of Egyptian slavery. They were terrible plagues, but it took 10, with the last plague being the worst. Let’s take a quick look at these 10. These are found in the book of Exodus, starting in chapter 7.


PLAGUE #1: BLOOD 

This was a plague of blood! The Can you imagine this? The great Nile river was turned to blood. The fish died, the Egyptians couldn’t drink the water — even the ponds and canals were changed to blood. Even all the water vessels.


PLAGUE #2: FROGS

When the blood didn’t convince Pharoah, the plague of frogs came. I think frogs are kind of creepy and to have this many overrun your house would be frightening. The Bible says the Nile swarmed with frogs.They came into the houses, the bedrooms, own the bed, into the ovens and bowls. After they all died, they piled them in rotting heaps.


PLAGUE #3 GNATS

The Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron, ‘Stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the ground,’ and throughout the land of Egypt the dust will become gnats.” 17 They did this, and when Aaron stretched out his hand with the staff and struck the dust of the ground, gnats came on people and animals. All the dust throughout the land of Egypt became gnats. The gnats were on people and animals everywhere. 

   I know one thing - I can go on the beach and although it might be a perfect, beautiful day, if there are gnats it will drive you off the beach in no time.


PLAGUE #4: FLIES 

God sent swarms of flies on all the Egyptian people and into their houses. Even the ground was covered with them. And you know the results of flies on any food — maggots.


PLAGUE #5: LIVESTOCK DEATH 

God sent a plague that killed all the Egyptian livestock — all the horses, the donkeys, the camels, the herds, and the flocks. It still didn’t convince Pharoah.


PLAGUE #6: BOILS

Here’s a nasty one. God caused all the Egyptian people to break out with sores — not just the people, but all the animals as well.


PLAGUE #7: HAIL

The hail struck all that was in the field through all the land of Egypt, both man and animal; the hail also struck every plant of the field and get this — shattered every tree of the field. Still Pharaoh didn’t give in.


PLAGUE #8: LOCUSTS

There had never been so many locusts. They covered the surface of the whole land, so that the land was darkened; and they ate every plant of the land and all the fruit of the trees that the hail had left. Thus nothing green was left on trees or plants.


PLAGUE #9: DARKNESS

God caused it to be dark for 3 days.


PLAGUE #10: DEATH OF THE FIRSTBORN

This one convinced Pharaoh to let them go because it was the worst and it struck home. At about midnight, God struck down every firstborn — from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on the throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner, who was in the dungeon, to the firstborn of all the livestock as well. 

  However, it didn’t affect the firstborn of the Israelites, because they were told to kill an unblemished lamb, spread its blood around the doorframes of their houses, and the curse of death would passover them. Get it? — Passover? From then on, the Israelites celebrated the Passover feast in acknowledgment of how God saved them. 

  What is amazing is that hundreds of years later, on the very feast of Passover, the Lamb of God, Jesus, who was unblemished (sinless) died on the cross. It’s His blood that saves us. Wow.


But back to plagues. I searched for the word “plague” in the NIV Bible and found it listed 109 times! Most of the plagues occur with God striking groups of people with deadly fatal illness. Here are a couple of examples……


After Moses came down the mountain with the 10 Commandments and found them making a golden calf as an idol….

Exodus 32:35 

And the Lord struck the people with a plague because of what they did with the calf Aaron had made.


After the Israelites demanded meat in the desert instead of relying on God’s manna…….

Numbers 11:33 

But while the meat was still between their teeth and before it could be consumed, the anger of the Lord burned against the people, and he struck them with a severe plague.


God punished David because of his sin for pridefully taking a census all his army in a boastful way instead of acknowledging God as in control……

1 Chronicles 21:14 

So the Lord sent a plague on Israel, and 70,000 men of Israel fell dead.


The question remains, was Covid-19 a God induced plague? Did He purposely make it happen — to spread? If so, what would be the reasons? 


Could it be that we, as a country, as a world, are being disciplined by God? — for man’s sinful ways — for neglecting Him — for not worshiping Him. Could mankind be punished for turning from God? Or could it be that God is trying to get our attention? — that we should not be ignoring Him but be turning to Him. 


Here’s the bottom line………Regarding the question, “was Covid-19 a plague sent by God? — My answer — I don’t know!!!!!  It’s possible though. It could be sent by God or it could just be a virus. What I do know is this…..regardless if God caused it or not — maybe it’s a wake up call. Maybe we are forced to realize that we need God. We need help. We need prayer. We need Him in our lives. 


So maybe because of Covid-19, more people will turn to Him. Who knows? — maybe there will be another spiritual great awakening in our country. And that would be something good.