God and Calamity
“For the Lord of Armies says this: “Once more, in a little while, I am going to shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land.” (Hag 2:6, CSB)
Anytime tragedy strikes, people ask questions. After 9/11, organizations like Desiring God reported their phones being flooded with people calling and asking questions like, “Where was God during this?” It’s a question that haunts people. “Why did God let this person die/ this tragedy occur?” “Why did God take this person from me?” “Why do bad things happen to good people?”
Different people have different answers. Some will insist that there’s no ultimate meaning except what me ourselves make (these would commonly be called nihilists and the one or two actual nihilists probably object to that classification). Others assert that God is indeed there and he’s just as upset about things as you are, but for one reason or another (usually the preservation of some particular version of free will that trumps all else) he didn’t stop it. Others still will posit that God does indeed ordain the various goings on in the world and he does indeed have a reason for them, albeit one that it largely beyond our comprehension. Most people end up vacillating between variations and mixtures of these three position, usually based on what seems most satisfactory in the moment and quite often, people resent their own answer being challenged in the moment. In fact, some of the earliest “pastoral” advice I was ever given amounted to, “Don’t correct bad theology when a person is consumed in grief. You can do that later.” In and of itself, this is remarkably good advice, for many of the same reasons that “Calm down,”’is probably the last thing you should say to a person who isn’t calm, but I digress. I’ve seen various takes and miniature essays on how God is using the current pandemic, on how it’s arrogant to make that assertion and that God wouldn’t do such a thing, and on how we shouldn’t assume one way or another. As such, I think it’s appropriate to walk through Scripture briefly and make some observations. Before that, however, there are some important disclaimers to make that will both head off obvious objections and help me spot who actually reads the disclaimers:
I’m not claiming to know anything specific relating to the causes of COVID-19 or the intentions of God in the pandemic occurring.
l’m not claiming that God sent COVID-19 to punish anyone or because of anything specific. Claims like that require prophetic credentials to make, and I’m distinctly lacking in that department.
It’s generally unwise to make definitive claims in the absence of definitive proof.
Alright, with those disclaimers made, I want to warn that these observations will be decisively dark until the end. There is, however, light at the end of this tunnel, and because I’m the proverbial builder of this particular instance of an overused cliche, I can personally assure you that it’s not a train.
God Can Use Natural Disasters and the Like
Perhaps among the most famous Biblical stories is that of the Flood. In Genesis 6, God brings about a cataclysm to destroy all life outside of specific parameters, namely, those on Noah’s ark (and presumably, animals that could survive in such conditions). It is, in and of itself, no surprise that the same being who can speak a universe into existence can will world destroying floods into existence, and it’s not even unheard of outside the Biblical texts. Gilgamesh, for instance, finds his life and world threatened by a flood because the gods find their creations unruly. Beyond this, God also opens the earth to swallow Korah (Num 16: 31–35). This power also extends to God’s use of animals to punish malcontents (Num 21: 4–9). As such, it’s hardly far-fetched to say that God can use microbes for his purposes. Again, that is less an assertion of God’s definitely conjuring up COVID-19 and smiting us with it and more a recognition of the reality of it being a tool in his toolbox.
God Can Use Nations, Even Wicked Ones
This is far less controversial, I hope, than my last observation. Assyria and Babylon especially hold prominent places in the prophets as instruments of God’s wrath on his disobedient people. Isaiah 10 especially stands out as an example of God wielding a foreign nation as a double edged sword, one side of the blade cutting down the faithless Israelite and the other cutting against the Assyrians themselves, their brutality and depravity being used by God both as punishment for the Israelites and as evidence against them in their own trial in God’s court. It’s also true that, “A king’s heart is like channeled water in the Lord’s hand: He directs it wherever he chooses.” (Proverbs 21: 1) However precisely one argues that God channels the hearts of kings and other rulers, one cannot deny the plain statement therein. God directs and uses even the great movements of international history in his plans. Jeremiah also uses the language of potter and clay in describing his shaping of nations (Jeremiah 18: 1–12). As such, it shouldn’t surprise if God uses nations, even unlikely ones, for his own purposes.
God Can Use Twisted Means and Wicked People
”Why does God let bad things happen to good people,” is a question that gets me in trouble and has done so ever since I was on a panel for teenagers at a church camp. Granted, most of the students there who were mad at me were probably less upset about the substance of my response and more about how blunt I was. “He doesn’t,” I said, when the question was passed to me, “because only one truly good person has ever had something bad happen to him, and he didn’t just let it happen.” I was, of course, referring to the crucifixion. Some will chafe at this answer, but, without derailing, I think it’s true because, outside of Christ, no one is truly good by a Biblical standard. Even infants, with no specific sin charged to them, lack any active good to consider. Now that I’ve got some of you riled up, consider the crucifixion for a moment. The crucifixion is directly stated to result from “God’s determined plan and foreknowledge.” (Acts 2:23). Bear in mind that crucifixion is a method of execution so brutal that it wasn’t used on Roman citizens. It was regularly used as a tool of intimidation. In fact, Cicero declares, “It is a crime to bind a Roman citizen; to scourge him is a wickedness; to put him to death is almost parricide. What shall I say of crucifying him? So guilty an action cannot by any possibility be adequately expressed by any name bad enough for it.” (Against Verres, 5.66.170)
Even Romans hated the peak of Roman cruelty and yet, God ordained that Jesus suffer something thought unspeakable by many of his contemporaries. Even more, Peter also declared that is was “lawless people,” who went through with the act. (Acts 2: 23) Here we see both an interesting interplay of divine ordaining and human acting and the reality of the wicked doing exactly as God intends for them to do. Even in the commission of the greatest breach of justice in human history, God is at the helm, using both flawed people and unthinkable means to bring about his designs.
A Concluding Hope
With all of that, there are a few things worth recognizing:
Even while we concede that we cannot know apart from a prophetic declaration, we cannot discount the possibility of God’s ordaining and using COVID-19 for his own purposes, including punishment of persons or nations.
Should that be the case, it would be both consistent with how God has acted in the past and within his rights as our creator.
Any disaster or calamity, regardless of whether it’s specifically intended as a punishment from God or not, is an opportunity to cry out to and seek God afresh. Tears have a remarkable way of clearing our eyes to see what matters most. After all, pain is, as C.S. Lewis says, God’s megaphone you rouse a deaf world.
Finally, to assuage fears that one may understandably have, I want to point to one final reality. Whether God directly caused this or not, we may never know. What we can know is that God is good, even in suffering.
“Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;his faithful love endures forever.” (Psalm 107: 1)“You reveal the path of life to me; in your presence is abundant joy; at your right hand are eternal pleasures.” (Psalm 16:11)
“For the Lord God is a sun and shield. The Lord grants favor and honor; he does not withhold the good from those who live with integrity.” (Psalm 84:11)
Verse after verse and chapter after chapter affirm and lean on God’s goodness, even in difficult times, and that is, I think, the most fundamental response Christians should have to this, and any, crisis. Speculation on causes and purposes is a human urge; to trust in the Lord, who is infinitely good, is a necessity that will sustain when speculation simply cannot.