God, Are You Punishing Me?

2020 has been a roller coaster ride, hasn’t it? Almost everyone thinks our world is in chaos in 2020. It’s as if our world is a snow-globe shaking up and down. During this pandemic, we have seen empty streets, empty shelves in supermarkets, empty stadiums, and empty churches. These are unsettling times for us.

A young wife and mother, Kelly was driving along with her husband and 3 children in their mini-van earlier this year when everything was shut down. Her 7-year-old son was looking out the window when he said, “Mommy, I think God gave us the Coronavirus so that we could spend more time together as a family.” It’s a cute response and warms the heart but should a 7-year-old boy see God as the One who gives viruses?

A recent poll tells us that this 7-year-old boy is not alone. Some 63% of religious Americans polled feel the virus is a message from God. Essentially, many people think, “if we don’t change, the misery will continue.” I liked how Lance put it, a 52-year-old man in Dallastown, PA. He said, “It could be a sign, like ‘hey, get your act together — I don’t know.”

Does God have a message for us?

Isaiah 41

Keep your Bibles open to Isaiah 41 or page 714 in your pew Bible. Let me set the scene for what you just heard for Isaiah 41 is a challenging piece of the Bible. The first 7 verses picture a courtroom or a trial going on. God calls the gods and their representative nations to account. God is judge and jury, bailiff and prosecutor. He summons the court, makes the case, and declares the verdict.

In verse 1, God calls the far away nations “coastlands” to judgment. In verses 2-4, God makes His case against the nations like a prosecuting attorney. In verses 5-7, you see the nations frightened response because of the failure of their gods.

Let’s keep this young boy’s question at the forefront of our minds for the next few moments. Did God have anything to do with the coronavirus? Do the events of this year mean that God is punishing us?

1. Does God Work Like Karma?

Does the Bible teach us that God brings disasters in our lives like some kind of cosmic karma?

1.1 Karma

Karma is an informal word that speaks of cause and effect. When bad things happen to us we think, “God is punishing me.” Nearly every generation and everyone questions this when the anvil falls. So does God work by karma?

Karma is really cruel and it’s the thought that all suffering is a result of past sins. Jesus taught us that God doesn’t work like karma when he dealt with a blind man. The disciples said, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind” (John 9:2b)? Jesus said neither of these was true.

God is not the god of karma. Suffering is not God bringing the hammer down on you every time something bad happens to you. But God does use evil and suffering as a tool in His hand even though He is perfectly good in every way. God also judges evil because He is righteous.

1.2 Cyrus

2,700 years ago, the problem in Isaiah’s time wasn’t a virus but an upcoming world ruler named Cyrus.

“Who stirred up one from the east whom victory meets at every step” (Isaiah 41:2a)? A few chapters later, the prophet Isaiah will tell us that he’s referring to a Persian ruler by the name of Cyrus (Isaiah 44:28; 45:1). Cyrus is the “one from the east” in verse 2. What is now present-day Iran, Persia was soon to be a world-dominating empire on the rise. This Persian dictator Cyrus invaded all the nations as Hitler would do Europe a century ago. He was soon to be the superpower of his day and he struck fear in all the nations, Israel included.

Now, the threats change but the questions remain, “Does God Work Like Karma?” Yes, God does punish sin, but His immediate purposes aren’t always fully transparent. God’s path to accomplishing His purposes isn’t the direct path we would think to take. He is wiser than us. Where take the seemingly direct route, God knows more than we know.

Let me show you.

1.2 Who or What Rules the World?

Almost everyone thinks our world is in chaos in 2020. It’s as if our world is a snow-globe shaking up and down. In a crazy world like this, Do you think Someone or Something runs our globe?

Think back to this virus for a moment. The virus moved from this bat cave and entered in humans, perhaps by moving through chickens or some other kind of livestock. Eventually, the pathogen moved to kill people in the United States and beyond. “How did this happen,” we wonder? One group points to genetic engineering by one group or another. Conspiracy theorists say the virus was introduced in order that some could profit politically or economically. Still another group says, “No, the virus simply evolved naturally without anyone moving the virus along.” The virus leaped from bats and wild animals to humans by blind accident.