Disaster and the Lord (Part 3)

Today we conclude our short series on disaster and the Lord. In part 1, we looked at the general principle of blessing following obedience and curses following disobedience which is seen throughout redemptive history. Yesterday, in part 2, we saw that it does seem to be a pattern in scripture that national disaster tends to follow disobedience, but on a personal level, suffering is not always the result of personal sin, since sin has social effects. Reading these posts is a helpful setup for this one.

And Finally…COVID-19

The last two posts have provided a short theological backdrop and setup which allows us to finally deal with COVID-19. One way of thinking about the pandemic would be to consider what the God of the Bible might be telling us. What we have suffered over the last year and a half is not random. It is all part of His plan. I claim no supernatural inspiration. But I do read the Scriptures, and the Scriptures teach that disaster is often used against nations because of their sin and idolatry. Furthermore, let us acknowledge, that God has every reason to punish the Western world for their covenant-breaking and idolatry. We, who once placed God at the very centre of our social lives have for decades been steadily changing our values and allegiance. God says “Thou shalt not commit adultery” and we have allowed no-fault divorce and have refused to sanction those who break the sacred covenant of marriage. God says “Thou shalt not kill” and our hands are red with the blood of tens of thousands of unborn children. God says, “Thou shalt not steal”, and with envious hearts, we attempt to legitimise and call ‘good’ the theft of our neighbour’s goods through the redistributive state. God says, “Thou shalt not covet”, and we have made an art of it, envying successful groups and demonising them in the name of social justice.

Yet these are only sides accompanying our main. They are simply indicators of our great sin. God says, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me” and we have bowed down to many other idols. One of our national idols is the idol of state. Do you doubt me? Whose name has been hallowed such that criticism is almost sacrilegious in this crisis? Whose will is done on this patch of earth as God’s will is in heaven? Who do we look to to give us this day our daily bread when we lose our jobs? Who do we expect to deliver us from this evil? Who have we given radical power and dominion to with nary a second thought? Who do we expect to care for us in our old age if we don’t have enough money to cover things? Whose benefits are we expected not to forget if not the state who heals all our diseases, who redeems our life from the pit and crowns us with loving#bekindness and compassion and who satisfies us with good things? Who do we look to when things go wrong? Who do we expect to train our children? Who do we look to provide answers to every crisis from poverty, to housing to health and education?

Can we doubt at the very least the possibility that COVID-19 is a divine curse on our rejection of God and the breaking of the covenant of creation with him and turning to the state as our redeemer? And if it is, who could deny that it is richly deserved? God has often highlighted the impotence of idols in redemptive history. The very thing that people trust is shown to be empty, worthless and vain. Who could say that Western governments have managed this pandemic well? Have any of them come out of this looking like an omnipotent deity, or just petty tyrant clowns clutching at straws? It’s clearly beyond them. They are shown to be impotent by a microscopic virus. He that dwelleth in heaven is surely laughing!

At this point, there are two options. A nation and its leaders can take note of God’s hand of judgment and turn to Him in repentance. That would be wise. Wise, but uncommon. Idolatry tends to lead to blindness and folly. Rather than turn and be saved, people blindly think that what they need is more of their idol, not less. Frequently in redemptive history, people needed to suffer under the heavy hand of their idols for a long time before they turned in repentance to God.

In New Zealand, and in much of the Western world, there are not too many encouraging signs at this point. Instead of looking at our idol of state and seeing its impotence to save, we have doubled down like rebellious fools. Our idol promises that with ever more power and excessive regulation they will save us, but instead they enslave us. Unlike the God who creates from nothing, they cannot manufacture wealth and are plundering our children and grandchildren in their fruitless attempts at deity. In all this, the reality is that we are just increasing the wrath stored up against us and prolonging the pain that we as a people will suffer.

The call to all who have eyes to see is to repent. Let us repent of our idolatry of state. It cannot save, and is being shown for impotent idol it is. Repentance ought to start with the household of God, which has not been completely innocent in this idolatry. We have unfortunately been complicit. We have wanted our children educated at someone else’s expense. We’ve enjoyed not needing to use our tithes to help the poor among us since we’ve outsourced that. We’ve failed to speak and apply God’s Word to the politics of envy-driven redistributive government. We’ve not held the marriage bed to be honourable and suffered immorality to be named among us. We must repent and commit to living out God’s laws in our lives and calling our brothers and sisters to do the same. Then we must commit to the Great Commission, calling our fellow citizens to turn from their evil ways, embrace the king and his laws and live.

Disaster and the Lord (Part 1)

Posts like this and its sequel are risky. Some will deliberately misinterpret what I say. I will be cast as a ‘Brian Tamaki’ who was ridiculed for tying the natural disasters with homosexuality around the time of the Christchurch earthquake. But I believe what I am saying is clear from Scripture. So it is good and profitable for us to meditate and think about it. The secular materialist rules out supernatural causes of disasters because they are materialists. They don’t believe in anything beyond the material world. However Christians are not materialists, so we should see what God’s Word has to say about Disasters and our God.

Let us begin our meditation by looking at a passage from the prophet Amos. Amos warned the Northern kingdom of Israel of God’s impending doom because of their covenant-breaking idolatry in the 8th century B.C. In amongst a series of rhetorical questions, Amos asks,

Is a trumpet blown in a city,
and the people are not afraid?
Does disaster come to a city,
unless the Lord has done it?

Disasters are not a surprise to God. Does a disaster come to a city taking God by surprise? No. Disaster comes because he causes it. Now here, this rhetorical device serves as a warning to a prosperous but idolatrous Israel. Do you think you are safe because you are rich and powerful? You are not, because you have broken covenant with God.

This is a general principle. God is sovereign. Nothing catches him by surprise. He does as he pleases (Psalm 115:3). He is the God who brings prosperity and brings disaster (Isaiah 45:7). He is the God who sets up and removes kings (Daniel 2:21).

And on what basis does God do all of this? On the basis of covenant faithfulness. It is righteousness that exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to it (Proverbs 14:34). Read Deuteronomy 28 to see how this principle applied to Israel itself. If Israel faithfully obeyed the voice of the Lord their God, then He would set them ‘high above all the nations of the earth‘ (Deuteronomy 28:1). Then the blessings that will overtake them for covenant faithfulness were enumerated. On the other hand, should they forsook the covenant, covenant curses would overtake them. There would be ‘frustration’ in all they undertook to do, and eventual removal from the land.

Does this apply to other nations? Are they under a similar covenant? Yes. While God covenanted in a special way with Israel, we see that God does deal with nations according to their sin. For example, the reason God allowed Israel to wipe out the people of Canaan under Joshua, was because of their sin, which at that point had reached full measure (Genesis 15:16). In Isaiah 24 we read of a judgment on the whole earth (not just Israel) because of their disregard of God’s laws. This is viewed as breaking the ‘everlasting covenant’ (Isaiah 24:5). As David says in 2 Samuel 23:3-4, The God of Israel has spoken; the rock of Israel has said to me: When one rules justly over men, ruling in the fear of God, he dawns on them like the morning light, like the sun shining forth on a cloudless morning, like rain that makes grass to sprout from the earth. God does indeed bless nations when they live according to His laws and He punishes them for their evil.

Does this apply today? Why would it not? God is the same, yesterday, today, and forever. He continues to deal with mankind by covenant. And now, Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father and rules from on high. He is the king of Psalm 2. the nations might rage, but God orders all of their leaders to kiss the Son. Jesus commanded his disciples to go into all the world and make disciples, teaching the nations to observe all of His commandments. What happens when nations refuse to kiss the Son? They are the Son’s inheritance. If they do not come to him they will be dashed to pieces. They will perish in their way. He will have the nations. I do not believe we have any reason to somehow imagine God no longer deals with groups of people according to their obedience to his laws now that Christ has come. In fact, I think there is more reason to think that he will do this if Acts 17:31 is anything to go by.