If you’re a parent, you know what I’m talking about when I mention kids going through the “Why?” phase. Their curiosity is so great that they ask questions, lots of questions, especially the “why” question. It goes something like this:
“Daddy, why do I have to brush my teeth?”
“Because Daddy said to.”
“But why?”
“So that your teeth are clean. And so your breath doesn’t smell like the ranch dressing you just ate with those chips.”
“But why?”
“Because if your teeth aren’t clean, you’ll get cavities. And if I have to keep smelling your breath, I’m going to hurl.”
“But why will I get a cavity?”
“I don’t know why we get cavities, I just know that you’ll get them if you don’t brush your teeth.”
“But why?”
“Brush your teeth!!”
As a parent, it can be frustrating, but that’s how children learn. Asking the “why” question is also how adults learn, and I believe we should never outgrow that phase, especially when it comes to understand the ways of God.
One of the most frequently asked questions I hear these days from Christians is, “Why would God allow this pandemic?” I don’t think that God minds us asking that question; it’s only natural for us to do so. The problem is that, when we’re faced with a senseless tragedy, if we continue to ask why, over time we’re simply going to become angry and frustrated, because we rarely get an answer. At some point, we just have to stop asking why and brush our teeth.
Unless God chooses to reveal his reasons to us, we probably won’t ever know why this pandemic is happening. We know that God is in complete control of the virus, and we know that he could have stopped the virus from even coming into existence, but as far as why this is happening, we can only guess.
Could COVID-19 be God’s judgment? It certainly could be. There are those both inside and outside of the church who would scoff at that idea, but the Bible certainly records God pronouncing judgment. God judged the entire world with the flood, he judged cities such as Sodom and Gomorrah, he judged the nations surrounding Israel, and he even brought judgment upon his own people, the Jews. He brought about judgment on people because of such things as their wickedness (Ezekiel 16:58; Isaiah 26:1; Jeremiah 21:14), because of their worship of false gods (Jeremiah 5:19; Hosea 2:11-13), because of their mistreatment of the poor and vulnerable (Isaiah 1:17; Isaiah 10:1-3; 1 John 3:17; Ezekiel 16:49; Jeremiah 22:3; Amos 2:6-8), and because of their pride (Jeremiah 9:23; 17:5-6; Amos 6:8; Isaiah 2:12; 13:11; 23:9; Proverbs 8:13; 16:5,18).
When we think of God’s judgment in the Old Testament, we generally think about his judgment on wickedness and idolatry. Could he be judging us for that? There is obviously rampant sin and evil in our society, and we seem to be moving farther and farther away from God every year. Our morals are completely upside down. Increasingly in our culture, what’s right is wrong and what’s wrong is right. You probably don’t need an example, but I’ll give one anyway: in this country alone, over 600,000 unborn babies are lost to abortion each year. That’s plenty of reason for judgment.
What we tend to downplay, though, is God’s judgment on his people because of the way they treated the poor and helpless. Do you do your part to help the poor and all who are at a disadvantage in our culture? Does the church as a whole stand up for the poor, the imprisoned, orphans, widows, and immigrants? Does our attitude about these groups of people match God’s? If you want to know his attitude, read some of the passages I listed above.
Sure, our government helps the poor with the taxes we pay, but is that enough? Could Christians in America be shirking our duty by simply paying our taxes and leaving it up to the government to take care of the poor? I’ve said for years that if the average American church-goer would give 10% of his income to the church, we could feed, clothe, house, and provide medical care for every child in the world. I’m afraid the church in this country falls far short of that.
What about God’s judgment due to mankind’s pride? Could that be an issue today? I think that speaks for itself. Our tendency is to exalt the brilliance of mankind, in light of our growing technology and scientific discoveries, at the expense of our exaltation of the One who created it all. The fact is that as 2020 approached, we thought we were invincible. We had read about those poor people who faced the 1918 flu epidemic, the Black Plague, and so forth, but we had become so advanced. We were proud, arrogant, and secure.
I even watched a government leader last week, while bragging that his state was starting to improve, say, “God didn’t do that. We did that.” Pride. What’s worse, if our scientists do come up with a vaccine or an effective treatment, this will be just another source of pride in our abilities. We certainly are guilty of the sin of pride.
Having said all that, could this pandemic be God’s judgment? Yes, I think it could be, but I honestly don’t know whether it is.
What I do know is that the coronavirus didn’t take God by surprise. There is no scenario in which God was sitting on this throne when one of his angels approached him and said, “God, there’s something going on in China that you should know about!”
At the very least, we know that God has allowed this, so it must be a part of his plan. And while we can’t always understand God’s plan, what we know about God can help us get through this season with confidence in that plan. We know that God will make something good out of this evil. Accepting that should impact the way we pray through this. More on that next time, but for now, let’s just accept that we may never understand the “why” of this. And that’s okay. We don’t really want a God who can be easily explained and understood, do we? Because that God wouldn’t be powerful enough to turn to in times like this. We want a God who is all-powerful, all-knowing, and whose ways and knowledge and abilities are so far beyond ours that we can’t even begin to explain him.
We don’t know the “why,” but we know that God’s power and wisdom and knowledge and foresight and abilities are so far above us mere humans that all we can do in response is to praise him, the way Paul does in Romans 11:33-36:
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
“For who has known the mind of the Lord,
or who has been his counselor?”
“Or who has given a gift to him
that he might be repaid?”
For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.