The God Of The Plague

3.15.20 Habakkuk 3:5-6

Where is God in the midst of the plague? Habakkuk 3 says,

5? Contagious disease goes ahead of him, and plague follows after him.

6? He stands up and shakes? the earth. He looks, and the nations jump in fright.

The ancient mountains are shattered. The age-old hills are flattened.

But he goes on forever.

According to Habakkuk, God is the God of the Plague. It goes ahead of him and follows after Him. He’s right in the middle of it. This is not easy for me to say. I wrote this sermon on a Thursday afternoon. I’m usually done with my sermon by then and preaching at two nursing homes. But I spent the night in agony with a stomach ache and then vomited. Not the coronavirus, but most likely a short type of flu.

Why did I get it? Probably because one of my children and my wife had different types of sickness, and as much as I tried to wipe the house down and keep clean of the bacteria and germs, somehow I got a short version of it anyway. Either that or it was from eating some stale broccoli. But might I also say that it was God’s will for me to get it? That God wanted me to suffer? Why would I say that? Maybe because I’m a sinner, and God never preempted me from suffering in this world. I live in a sinful body and a sinful world. I too live under the curse of death. I don’t have a perfect immune system. What did I expect to happen?

But Psalm 91 says,

1 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.

2 I will say of the LORD, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”

3 Surely he will save you from the fowler’s snare and from the deadly pestilence.

Can I have faith that I won’t get the coronavirus if I’m a baptized believer? Should I be sure that I’ll be safe as long as I pray? Then we would have to conclude that Christians couldn’t get sick from a disease or a plague. That doesn’t seem right.

Look at the plagues from Exodus. The first three plagues struck Egyptians and Israelites equally, the blood, the frogs and the gnats. It wasn’t until AFTER the gnats that God kept the plagues from hitting Goshen. Maybe God wanted the Israelites to realize through suffering that they NEEDED Moses as their advocate and their protector from the plagues after they had to endure a few. How about this: as long as I pray and try to take proper precautions, I know that the Lord’s will be done with me and those I pray for. If we get the virus after prayer and precaution, it was God’s will.

But why would God want me or anyone to suffer or possibly even die? I think of what C.S. Lewis once said about pain, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” Sometimes I need God to shout at me too. Sometimes I need to be brought to my knees to remember what a helpless sinner I am and how much I need God’s grace and protection. Suffering makes me appreciate when I have no pain. Suffering motivates me to pray more, take my sins more seriously, and also want to get out of this world and get to heaven. Suffering shows me how weak and helpless I really am.

In 2 Chronicles 6:28-31 the Bible says, “When famine or plague comes to the land, or blight or mildew, locusts or grasshoppers, or when enemies besiege them in any of their cities, whatever disaster or disease may come, and when a prayer or plea is made by anyone among your people Israel—being aware of their afflictions and pains, and spreading out their hands toward this temple— then hear from heaven, your dwelling place. Forgive, and deal with everyone according to all they do, since you know their hearts (for you alone know the human heart), so that they will fear you and walk in obedience to you all the time they live in the land you gave our ancestors.

When suffering happens to us as a country and even as an entire planet, then we really have to think about death more and take it seriously. As I write this much of our entertainment is being taken away, including the restaurants, plays, playoff games and professional basketball games. The stock markets have fallen. It’s all gloom and doom. But look at it from a spiritual perspective. Maybe people will start taking a more serious look at their own mortality and realize that they too need to be prepared to die. Maybe people need to stop relying so much on their bank accounts for their security. Maybe some will come back to God and realize how much they need Him. This is what God wants.