Finding peace in this pandemic

 

1 Samuel 26; Psalms 42–43; Ezekiel 5; 1 Corinthians 7

A child walks with Daddy. She asks him, “How do trees grow?” He knows she is too young for a full explanation so gives a simple answer. Because she trusts him, that is enough. I’m thinking this part of what Jesus meant when He told His followers to be like children.

This current pandemic has many in a state of concern with many questions, yet there are too many answers to sort out and none of them bring peace and encouragement, at least not for long.

The author of today’s two psalms must have felt like that. Several times he says, “Why are you cast down, O my soul and why are you in turmoil within me?” He feels forgotten by God and God is not answering his pleas. Yet he knows the solution. After each cry from his heart, he says, “Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.”

I’m praying for people who feel hopeless. For some, it is concern for their health and that of those they love. For some it is fear regarding lack of income. Others struggle with sending their children to school, or what to do or even think about the protests and violence over many issues. Some are “cast down” over all of this and more because Covid-19 isn’t the only threat to their lives and well-being.

When I ask the Lord, “Why this? Why now? What are You doing in our world?” God just holds my hand and whispers, “Hope in Me. Trust me. I am Your Savior and your God.” And this is enough!

Ezekiel says more about disasters in his day and this time God answers; He is destroying life as they know it because of their rebellion against Him.

“Thus says the Lord God: This is Jerusalem. I have set her in the center of the nations, with countries all around her. And she has rebelled against my rules by doing wickedness more than the nations, and against my statutes more than the countries all around her; for they have rejected my rules and have not walked in my statutes. Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you are more turbulent than the nations that are all around you, and have not walked in my statutes or obeyed my rules, and have not even acted according to the rules of the nations that are all around you, therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I, even I, am against you. And I will execute judgments in your midst in the sight of the nations. And because of all your abominations I will do with you what I have never yet done, and the like of which I will never do again.” (Ezekiel 5:5–9)

Such a contrast to the simplicity of God’s answer to the psalmist. To His children, the Father tells the psalmist to trust Him and put their hand in His; He will take care of things. However the situation is far different in Ezekiel’s writing. God is fed up with the disobedience of those that are not acting as if they are His people. Instead of childlike trust, they first went through the motions until their pretense became “abominations” that took the place of godliness. His words to them were not like the discipline of a child or even a pat on their backside; He is going to treat them with the anger of a God who hates sin:

“Therefore, as I live, declares the Lord God, surely, because you have defiled my sanctuary with all your detestable things and with all your abominations, therefore I will withdraw. My eye will not spare, and I will have no pity. A third part of you shall die of pestilence and be consumed with famine in your midst; a third part shall fall by the sword all around you; and a third part I will scatter to all the winds and will unsheathe the sword after them. Thus shall my anger spend itself, and I will vent my fury upon them and satisfy myself. And they shall know that I am the Lord—that I have spoken in my jealousy—when I spend my fury upon them. Moreover, I will make you a desolation and an object of reproach among the nations all around you and in the sight of all who pass by. You shall be a reproach and a taunt, a warning and a horror, to the nations all around you, when I execute judgments on you in anger and fury, and with furious rebukes—I am the Lord; I have spoken— when I send against you the deadly arrows of famine, arrows for destruction, which I will send to destroy you, and when I bring more and more famine upon you and break your supply of bread. I will send famine and wild beasts against you, and they will rob you of your children. Pestilence and blood shall pass through you, and I will bring the sword upon you. I am the Lord; I have spoken.” (Ezekiel 5:11–17)

APPLY: When I ask God to help His people with their despair, what will He say to them? To me? Are we childlike in our trust? Or are we taunting Him with our sin? How can I be a hope-dispenser in the chaos all around me if the God of hope is speaking wrath?