The masks have come off, and the restrictions have been lifted. The ventilators have been unplugged. The makeshift hospitals and testing centers have been dismantled, their tents folded and stored away. The cases and morbidities, once tracked obsessively across maps and dashboards, have vanished, and the daily counts now seem like relics from another age. The worst variants have come and gone. The crisis, the fear, the empty streets, and the packed ICUs have all receded into our collective (if degraded) memory, leaving painful losses.

Leaders have declared the emergency over, offering promises of rebuilding and a return to “normal,” despite cultural divides being even wider now and public trust in institutions nearing zero. Some technocrats and scientists are already discussing policies for the next pandemic, reassuring some and reinforcing suspicion in others.

After all the lockdowns, medical mandates, and numerous theories, each person has his own view of how the pandemic unfolded and who is to blame, though the urgency with which these things weigh on us is fading. Yet, amid the official and alternative narratives, some questions were rarely asked: Where was God in the pandemic? Could He have had anything to do with it?

Holding God at Arm’s Length

Indeed, the Israelitish nations of the West—those with the most access to God’s Word and the cultural effects thereof—are fulfilling what the psalmist observes in Psalm 10:4: “The wicked in his proud countenance does not seek God; God is in none of his thoughts” (emphasis ours throughout). Even where the Bible is still generally accepted, it is fast becoming just another viewpoint among the cacophony of voices, even less likely these days to be upheld as the standard against which all other ideas must be judged.

While the Word of God remains powerful (see Hebrews 4:12-13), nominal Christianity’s approach to it has undercut and weakened its potency in many minds, in part through painting a distorted image of God. For some, God exists but is largely uninvolved in what happens with nations and individuals, echoing God’s prophetic indictment in Zephaniah 1:12:

And it shall come to pass at that time that I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and punish the men who are settled in complacency, who say in their heart, ‘The LORD will not do good, nor will He do evil.’

For these, God is distant and uninvolved. For many others, God is viewed as an indulgent benefactor, essentially only involved in compassion and blessing, never in judgment. A Texas preacher exemplifies this approach, stating in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina that “acts of God” are what happen after a natural disaster. That has a nice ring to it, but it implies that God could not be the author of calamity. Yet, blameless and upright Job had it correct when he responded to his own devastating calamity with the piercing question, “Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?” (Job 2:10).

The weakened form of Christianity in the West—adept at turning wine into water and preferring warm milk over solid food—limits God. Even when faced with clear evidence from God’s Word, nominal Christianity appoints itself as judge over what the Almighty is and is not allowed to do, instead crediting nature, random chance, conspiracies, or Satan for acts He promises or claims.

Pandemic Symptoms

Notice a specific judgment of God if His people turn from Him:

The LORD will make the plague cling to you until He has consumed you from the land which you are going to possess. The LORD will strike you with consumption, with fever, with inflammation, with severe burning fever . . .. (Deuteronomy 28:21-22)

Most COVID-19 veterans can relate to severe fevers and inflammation in the joints and organs. Fever is the foremost symptom of a viral infection. A loss of appetite and subsequent weakness, which “consumption” describes, are very common with COVID. “Consumption” means “emaciation.” It could also be translated as “weakness” or “wasting.” When one goes for a week or two without eating normally, one experiences weakness and wasting. While COVID-19 is typically milder than what Deuteronomy 28 describes, notice that it is still a form of what God says He will do.

These same pandemic symptoms are also found in Leviticus 26:16: “I also will do this to you: I will even appoint terror over you, wasting disease and fever which shall consume the eyes and cause sorrow of heart.” Again, God promises wasting disease and fever. Interestingly, the phrase “which will consume the eyes” need not indicate blindness but could mean that the things our eyes look upon are consumed, like our loved ones. This meaning fits with the next phrase, “sorrow of heart.” This verse can indicate not only experiencing the wasting disease and fever personally but also watching others being consumed by it then sorrowing for them. Most of us have also experienced this, some in person and others from afar.

Leviticus 26:25 contains a related curse for disobedience: “[W]hen you are gathered together within your cities I will send pestilence among you . . ..” By definition, pestilence is a devastating contagious disease. In mentioning “gathering,” this verse shows that proximity to one another is a critical factor. What happened between 2020 and 2023 is at least a type of these verses.

Mercifully, we did not experience the full strength of these curses because, in their full form, the people are completely consumed. Yet, the critical point is that God Himself claims the pestilence, the plague, the fever, the inflammation, and the weakness and wasting. Significantly, He does not specify how it will unfold or what human agents may be involved. He only says He will send plagues, consumption, fevers, and inflammation when the nation rejects Him.

God’s claiming of these pandemic symptoms teaches that it makes little difference whether pestilence originates from a wet-market bat, with a lab mishap, or purposeful release in a murderous scheme. What matters more is that it aligns with what God says He will do when His people reject Him and His commands. Moreover, disbelieving what He says He will do is part of the condition that brings on the curses.

Divine Response

Jeremiah, writing to warn the southern kingdom of Judah, also foretold of pestilence as part of God’s response to national immorality:

» And I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence among them, till they are consumed from the land that I gave to them and their fathers. (Jeremiah 24:10)

» [T]hus says the LORD of hosts: Behold, I will send on them the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, and will make them like rotten figs that cannot be eaten, they are so bad. And I will pursue them with the sword, with famine, and with pestilence; and I will deliver them to trouble among all the kingdoms of the earth—to be a curse, an astonishment, a hissing, and a reproach among all the nations where I have driven them, because they have not heeded My words, says the LORD, which I sent to them by My servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them; neither would you heed, says the LORD. (Jeremiah 29:17-19; see also Numbers 14:12; Deuteronomy 32:24; Jeremiah 14:12; 21:6-9; 27:8; 32:36; 34:17; 38:2; 42:22; 44:13; Ezekiel 5:12; 6:11-12; 7:15; 12:16; 14:19-21; 28:23; 33:27)

In these accounts, the cause-and-effect principle is obvious.

Now consider this allegory, which could easily describe an event from the histories of Israel or Judah:

The people did evil in the sight of the LORD. And it came to pass, for three years the nation was afflicted by pestilence with consumption and severe burning fever, and some died. The king spoke, saying, “Let the people remain in their places.” And the king consulted with shrewd physicians and wealthy merchants for medicines to administer to the people. And the people murmured over the pestilence and chaffed against the king, but the king and the nation did not repent.

Reading such a pseudo-history, we would not have any difficulty connecting the dots between the nation’s moral state and the pestilence. Such a scenario fits with biblical patterns of mankind and God’s response. It is how God dealt with His wayward people in “Bible times.”

But are we not still in “Bible times”? Why is it so unthinkable for God to act like this today? In part because nominal Christians, let alone secularists, do not believe that “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness” (II Timothy 3:16). Thus, they do not believe the scriptural patterns are as relevant now as they were in the days they were written. Likewise, many who still hold the Bible as authoritative do not see God as active in His creation.

Human Tendencies

Additionally, people can become so accustomed to sin—so hardened by transgression, their consciences seared—that they hardly give it a second thought:

“Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No! They were not at all ashamed; nor did they know how to blush. Therefore they shall fall among those who fall; at the time I punish them, they shall be cast down,” says the LORD. (Jeremiah 6:15)

Similarly, when Abraham’s nephew, Lot, tried to warn his sons-in-law about the imminent destruction of their perverse city, they thought he was joking (Genesis 19:14). Both Lot and his sons-in-law had acclimated to the environment of sin around them to the point that it seemed normal. Thus, it seemed farfetched to the sons-in-law that God would judge. It was also out of character for Lot to want to flee the city he had entrenched himself within.

The Bible shows that God uses people’s tendencies—good and bad—in the outworking of His will. He even uses thoroughly evil leaders and nations to chasten. For example, God told Elijah to anoint Hazael as king of Syria (I Kings 19:15), and later, God used Hazael to conquer sections of Israel: “In those days the LORD began to cut off parts of Israel; and Hazael conquered them in all the territory of Israel” (II Kings 10:32). God knew full well what this man would do when he held power, giving Elisha a glimpse of Israel’s future when He let His horrid human instrument loose:

Then [Elisha] set his countenance in a stare until he was ashamed; and the man of God wept. And Hazael said, “Why is my lord weeping?” He answered, “Because I know the evil that you will do to the children of Israel: Their strongholds you will set on fire, and their young men you will kill with the sword; and you will dash their children, and rip open their women with child.” So Hazael said, “But what is your servant—a dog, that he should do this gross thing?” And Elisha answered, “The LORD has shown me that you will become king over Syria.” (II Kings 8:11-13)

Thus, we may be limiting God in our minds if we fixate on the origin of COVID-19. Since God promises pestilence when His people reject Him, and we live in nations of His people who are rejecting Him, then how He sends curses—such as pestilence, consumption, and severe burning fever—are ultimately less important than the fact that He says He will send them.

The Punisher of His People

The book of Habakkuk speaks to this difficulty we sometimes have with how God works. The prophet had a difficult time accepting that God would use the insufferable Chaldeans to punish His people (Habakkuk 1:12-17). God Himself identifies the Chaldeans as being fierce, impetuous, dreadful, and terrible (Habakkuk 1:6-11), yet God chose that wicked nation as His means to punish His people. God’s means seemed out of bounds to Habakkuk, not fitting into the mental box that the prophet had constructed.

Incidentally, God did not rely solely on the Chaldeans to chasten His rebellious children. Habakkuk also contains this startling description of God:

God came from Teman, the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah. His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of His praise. . . . Before Him went pestilence, and fever followed at His feet. (Habakkuk 3:3, 5)

Daniel’s prophecy teaches that God elevates the basest of men, giving them the power to bring His will to pass (Daniel 2:21; 4:17). In Daniel’s day, God raised Nebuchadnezzar to power. In our day, it could be political or business leaders, doctors or other scientists, or one’s favorite evil billionaire. But who allowed or even caused these men to rise to their powerful positions? When God’s will is to chasten, He may use men who reflect the evil in His people, as He did with Hazael and Nebuchadnezzar.

The Israelites blamed their problems on the nations God sent to punish them, while the real issue was the rebellion and disobedience that precipitated the divine scourge. Focusing on the scourge is easier than admitting the root cause: sin. How much of the national discourse over COVID-19 involved the moral state of the nation? Practically none. Even the religious more commonly viewed the pandemic as a tool of Satan—which conveniently meant they could see the pandemic as an undeserved attack rather than a divine consequence of unrepented sin.

Yet Job’s opening and closing chapters show that the Almighty holds Leviathan’s leash. In addition, Amos 3:6 asserts, “If there is calamity in a city, will not the LORD have done it?” In Isaiah 45:7, God Himself says, “I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create calamity; I, the LORD, do all these things.”

This nation, however, rejects the thought of God creating calamity. After the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the few prominent figures who dared suggest that national immorality might have caused national calamity were shouted down so intensely that they regretted opening their mouths. That perspective could not be tolerated by those advocating tolerance.

Calls to Repentance

The pattern of God sending lesser calamities—including a plague—to get the nation’s attention is on full display in Amos 4:6-12:

“Also I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and lack of bread in all your places; yet you have not returned to Me,” says the LORD. “I also withheld rain from you, when there were still three months to the harvest. I made it rain on one city, I withheld rain from another city. One part was rained upon, and where it did not rain the part withered. So two or three cities wandered to another city to drink water, but they were not satisfied; yet you have not returned to Me,” says the LORD. “I blasted you with blight and mildew. When your gardens increased, your vineyards, your fig trees, and your olive trees, the locust devoured them; yet you have not returned to Me,” says the LORD. “I sent among you a plague after the manner of Egypt; your young men I killed with a sword, along with your captive horses; I made the stench of your camps come up into your nostrils; yet you have not returned to Me,” says the LORD. “I overthrew some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were like a firebrand plucked from the burning; yet you have not returned to Me,” says the LORD. “Therefore thus will I do to you, O Israel; because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel!”

God claims all these adversities and calamities to make His people reflect on their course of life and, ultimately, to repent. No single act of God was catastrophic to the nation because His desire was not to obliterate it but to increase the pressure so the nation would return to Him.

Today, we see similar adverse events playing out in parts of the nation. But upon each significant disruption, there is handwringing and headshaking for a time, and blame is placed according to political or cultural whim (the government, climate change, cycles of nature, the Devil). However, the nation recovers and continues on, barely—if ever—considering that the Creator, who poured out His blessings on this nation, may be causing the interruptions because His people have turned from Him.

Instead, we hear rallying cries of “Build back stronger!” and politicians tragically quoting Isaiah 9:10: “The bricks have fallen down, but we will rebuild with hewn stones; the sycamores are cut down, but we will replace them with cedars.” Similarly, the residents of ancient Babel tried to inoculate themselves against another act of God (by building a tower to reach the heavens; Genesis 11:1-9) rather than making peace with God and allowing Him to set the circumstances of their lives. They tried to protect against His acts with their minuscule might instead of trying to be united in mind with Him so He would not need to exercise His judgment upon them.

As individuals, we can do little to alter the state or direction of the nation. However, there are actions we can take:

» We can meditate on our own lives and consider where we are out of alignment with God—if there might be areas in our lives where His statutes are despised, His judgments abhorred, or His commandments broken (Leviticus 26:15).

» We can acknowledge that God does indeed create calamities, including pestilence, using human agents we could not imagine.

» We can sigh and cry over the abominations being committed rather than becoming calloused to them, let alone approving of them (see Ezekiel 9:4-6; Romans 1:28-32).

» And we can follow God’s prescriptive promise through Solomon to humble ourselves, seek His face, and turn:

When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or 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. (II Chronicles 7:13-14)