Quarantine - Practice Faith Over Fear

The COVID-19 virus has spread from Asia to Europe and North America rapidly over the week, bringing with it a level of panic and anxiety—over 200 countries and territories around the world, from the supermarket to the stock market to the palace to the prison—not seen such a terror and fear in the recent history. The global tally is now more than 537,017 infected and more than 24,117 dead as on March 27, 2020, 08:35 GMT. There are around 7. 8 billion people in the world and only an omniscient God know exactly how many people will be touched by this virus and to what extent.

The Bible is not a medical manual. But it does lay the foundation of knowledge, and reveals many health laws which mankind has needed thousands of years to rediscover. God lovingly gave the Israelite's the principles of quarantining the sick in Leviticus 13 and Numbers 5 where He used examples of leprosy to represent any contagious sickness or disease. Isaiah 26:20 say “Go home, my people, and lock your doors! Hide yourselves for a little while until the LORD’s anger has passed.” So How do we respond time like this?

As God’s people, we should be a model community in terms of cleanliness, hygiene and exercising these quarantine laws. We can practice giving, in the right way, by not giving our illnesses to others, instead providing a healthy environment to everyone around us. Quarantining ourselves is an act of love that qualifies as a “work” in the context of a works part of faith. Any man, woman or child who is sick should not go out or fellowship with other members so they do not infect anyone else. This is an important way to give, sacrifice and show love to others. We all want one another to be at services whenever possible, but we also realize we should follow God's quarantine laws. In a world where everything seems to be getting more complicated, if we make best use of these days of silence and solitude can help us to downshift and refocus on the things that matter most.

We are humans, not machines. We were made for rhythms of silence and noise, community and also for solitude. God made us for cycles and seasons, for routines and cadences. Seasons were God's invention. On the fourth day of creation he said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years" (Genesis 1:14). God loves diversity, and wanted us to experience our world from the far north to the far south. C S Lewis said: “I am glad its fall, but I'm also glad it's not always fall. The beauty of each season demonstrates the beauty of the One who created all seasons. We need God’s assistance because we don’t know the future. We can’t see even one hour ahead. The Bible says, “Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.”

God created us to live in fellowship with Him, but sin broke that fellowship. As human beings, we are born with a capacity to know God; but we are also born without the knowledge of God and without a relationship with Him. God loved His fallen race so much that He sent His Son, the Lord Jesus, to die for our sins so that we might be restored to fellowship with God through faith in Christ. Even those of us who have trusted Him and have been given new life experience times when we feel alienated from our heavenly Father. Fortunately, we're always the ones who have moved away—sin breaks our fellowship with God. That's why He has provided a way for us to be continually cleansed and forgiven when we confess our sins to Him. He doesn't want us to be lonely for Him.

We may be lonely for people, for friends, for a mate, but if we have trusted the Lord Jesus Christ, we never have to be lonely for God again. We have His constant assurance that He is always love us, with us, for us and in us.

St Augustine rightly said, "Our hearts are restless, O God, until they find their rest in Thee." In order to grow closer to Him, we need to cultivate our fellowship with God. We should respond to the new virus with "both faith and wisdom." Be wise to take the necessary precautions, be practical to practice the presence of God, be prayerful for the people concern, and proclaim Christ's peace in an atmosphere of fear. Without God’s wisdom, how can we live well or pray with power, particularly when we realize how little we actually know? When we, with great faith, make a request of God for wisdom, he will provide us with all that is necessary to make our voices heard in heaven.