God’s Providence, Part 2

Join us again this morning as Mrs. Claudia Barba continues to teach us of God’s providence. These “unprecedented” days have not taken God by surprise, friends. He is working all things together for our good and His glory.

Divine providence rules the world. All of it. Even sickness and disease. Even this wretched virus.

We’re sad and angry when we think of all CoVid-19 has stolen from us, the hollow places and twisting sorrows it’s left behind. We want somebody to blame, so we glare at masked or unmasked strangers, grumble about leaders who restrict liberties, and snipe at whoever in the world we think let the virus loose in the first place. (This crisis certainly hasn’t brought out the best in us.)

The truth is that this pandemic is nobody’s fault. Except Adam’s, of course. Since the Fall, being sick has been part of being human. Cancer, heart disease, arthritis, strokes, pneumonia, colds, headaches, the flu . . . when sin entered the world, sickness came with it. God allowed it to arrive and has allowed it to stay.

We know how to avoid and treat many illnesses; we have learned to control their spread and lessen their symptoms, but there are limits to our power. God has no such limits. He could stop this pandemic in a moment. If I could do that, I would, so why doesn’t God? He doesn’t because sickness is His tool.

Sickness shows us what fragile creatures humans are. We look sturdy but fracture easily. We can be toppled over and laid flat by an infinitesimal microorganism (words much bigger than any virus). Sickness in and around us reminds us that we will die. It shifts our focus to eternity, and that’s good.

Lord, make me to know my end, and what is the measure of my days, that I may know how frail I am. Indeed, You have made my days as handbreadths, and my age is as nothing before You; certainly every man at his best state is but vapor. (Psa. 39:4-5)

Sickness also gives us a platform for glorifying God. When Job refused to blaspheme God even after agonizing personal losses, the devil sneered that not even Job could withstand physical pain. “Touch his bone and his flesh, and he will surely curse You to Your face!” (Job 2:5). But Job’s faith held. Believers who speak faith while they sit on the ash heap of pain scraping the oozing sores of suffering, truly exalt their God.

And illness gives us time to search our hearts. It’s easy to look up from a sickbed, and in the silence of the sickroom, we hear God speak. Not every illness is the result of specific behavior, of course, but we should always ask God if our affliction is due to our abuse or neglect of our body-temple or chastisement for our sin. After his immorality, King David sang this heartbreaking song.

There is no soundness in my flesh because of Your anger, nor any health in my bones because of my sin. . . . My wounds are foul and festering because of my foolishness. . . . My loins are full of inflammation, and there is no soundness in my flesh. I am feeble and severely broken; I groan because of the turmoil of my heart. (Psa. 38:3,5, 7-8)

Sometimes God sends sickness as judgment on a nation. This one sounds a lot like the flu.

If you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes . . . . The Lord will strike you with . . . fever, with inflammation, with severe burning fever. (Deut. 28:15, 22)

The pandemics of Old Testament times started at His decree and ended at His command. They plagued the wicked and spared the righteous and were a foretaste of the judgments of the last days. Through them God demonstrates His control over physical maladies and afflictions; through them He broadcasts this message to the world: “There is none like Me in all the earth” (Exod. 9:14).

God doesn’t send sickness of any sort, personal or worldwide, just to make us miserable. He has a higher goal.

When I . . . send pestilence among My people, if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. (2 Chron. 7:13-14)

Jesus once walked on earth displaying His power "over every disease and every sickness among the people" (Matt. 9:35). I wish He’d come right now to banish the bug that’s sickening people we love. Someday He will! He’ll set up His kingdom on earth, where sorrow and sighing will be no more. No more viruses, no more chemo, no more coffins. We’ll live in gloriously perfect bodies, transformed into His likeness. I can’t wait.

Until then, let’s wash our hands, take our vitamins, and get enough sleep. But let’s not fume, or fear, or forget Who is in control. Every invisible virus, including this one, is governed by the invisible hand of our sovereign God, and it is for our good.

For from Him and through Him and to Him is everything” (Rom 11:36).