A message in the mess (Joel & the Coronavirus)

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.

Yet there they were – engulfed in an unfolding social and economic crisis. The cause 2,500 years ago was a plague of locusts – an uncontrollable and devastating force [2]. Tiny creatures, able to lay 60,000 eggs in 40 square-inches of soil, whose young could crawl in their millions up to 600 feet a day – leaving absolutely NOTHING in their wake.

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]

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[1] Joel 1:2

[2] 1:4, 6-7; 2:6-9

[3] 1:5, 16-17

[4] 1:13

[5] 2:11

[6] 2:13

[7] 2:13-14