The Prophet Joel & Coronavirus
Strange Days! Unprecedented!
‘Has anything like this
ever happened in your days…? [1]’
The mess
A huge shock to the system,
coming out of the blue and leaving a whole nation reeling and bewildered. All
the more disconcerting for God’s people, already a faint shadow of their former
glory. The last thing this already depleted people needed was another assault
on their viability and religious life.
The effect was to shake
the very foundations of society. Even the normally most oblivious and cushioned
were compelled to take notice of it [3].
From top to bottom no-one could escape its far reaching consequences.
Most perplexingly of all for the people who called themselves ‘God’s
people’ was the impact on their worship. The economic ramifications struck at their
ability to make Temple offerings and maintain the structures of regular (indeed
God commanded) ministry [4].
The message
In 2020 the books explaining the story of Covid-19 and its effects are
doubtless already being written. They’ll be full of medical detail, analysis of
governmental responses, reflections on globalization and predictions about its future
social impact. There will be many practical lessons to be learnt – but what
about the spiritual ones?
For ancient Judah, the prophet Joel was adamant that there was a message
in the mess – a message from God Himself.
Now we are not ancient Israel, so we must be wary of ‘going all Old
Testament’ in times of crisis. The health and well-being of the ‘land’ is not a
direct barometer of the Church’s spiritual condition and we must be very
careful not to simplistically conflate the two.
Nonetheless, just as God was the commander of the locusts [5],
every virus is his foot soldier and he determines their paths. His ways are never
arbitrary but always purposeful. He is the God who speaks in every circumstance
if we have ears to hear him.
So what might the message be….
1.
Life is fragile and you are not in control
The practical blessings of our C21 ‘Western’ world are many and obvious.
Technology, medicine and prosperity have given our generation a freedom from
fear and suffering unrivalled in history. The danger, however, is that this
lulls us into a sense of invincibility or hubris, all the more if we enjoy decent
health and stable employment.
Covid-19 is a stark reminder that the tipping point between calm and
chaos is very finely balanced. Just as the locusts came seemingly from nowhere
– so our lives and even society can be quickly overturned. It’s a reminder to
be humble, to remember our creatureliness, and to remember who is really in
control.
2.
You need a bigger hope
We can be thankful for government and those God-ordained structures able
to mobilise resources and help mitigate the effects of a threat like Covid-19.
Yet for all the effort and billions of pounds spent many individuals are still
going to lose their jobs, lose loved ones and even their own life.
If our hope is anything less than God, it will let us down. There is
nothing in this world, we can anchor ourselves in, that circumstances can’t sweep
away. If your ‘security blanket’ is your money, the financial system can beggar
you overnight. If your comfort is your abilities or status - then sin, crime or
circumstances can take them all. If your ‘life back-stop’ lies in any other
person then death will ultimately crush it.
Only God is big enough to guard your soul in this broken and afflicted
world.
3.
Stop, and start seriously engaging with God
Joel’s people were no doubt confounded by the idea that God might be
behind anything that would stop their religious activities. After all, surely
that’s the one thing God would want to continue.
But what if those activities had become a surrogate for real heart
relationships with God? Maybe not for everyone, maybe not even the majority –
but for such significant numbers that God was moved to press the ‘pause button’
on his own people.
Joel’s message was a call to return to the Lord, not outwardly but
inwardly– ‘rend your heart and not
your garments [6]’. The coming weeks will be a test of this – will we take
the opportunity to seek Jesus afresh in our lives? Will we have a sense of
urgency to engage with God personally, pushing beyond a reliance on inhaling
the prayers of others and living off third party devotions?
Will we see the coming
weeks as a holiday from church or will we mourn its loss? Perhaps this is a God
given moment for us to repent of all the ways we have taken our fellowship for
granted.
May our response be to plead
with God to restore us again, and to be renewed in our love for Christ and our
dependence on Him.
Return to the Lord your God,
for he is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and abounding in love,
and he relents from sending calamity.
Who knows? He may turn and relent
and leave behind a blessing [7]
for he is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and abounding in love,
and he relents from sending calamity.
Who knows? He may turn and relent
and leave behind a blessing [7]
