God and COVID-19 (Part 2) - By Tyler Conrad

Why has Yahweh chosen to tell the story of creation as he has, including in it tears and sorrow, sickness and suffering, viruses and death?

In this expansive and endlessly beautiful universe, there is not one rogue pathogen that infects our bodies or wanders through our houses, offices, or down our streets apart from God’s sovereign decree. This was the conclusion in part one of this blog series as we briefly examined how God is intimately involved in his creation, both immanent in his presence and sovereign in power, acting in ways that are harmonious with the entirety of his character. If we are to be responsible and caring with this wondrous knowledge of God’s character, I believe it is necessary for us to next address the questions that reasonably follow from knowing that God is an ever-present actor in the world and our lives.

“Why would Jesus allow a pandemic to overtake the world, knowing the outcomes would be things like economic collapse, international turmoil and personal suffering?”

“Why would Jesus permit something that results in my personal hardship?”

“Why do tragedies inordinately effect the poor and weak, while the rich and powerful are far more insulated from disaster?”

Being able to address questions like these is tremendously important, because the answers given to them are intricately connected to faith in Jesus. Jesus may be sovereign and always with us, but if he allows and ordains catastrophes – both those we experience personally and collectively – can we trust him? Does he actually act in our best interest? If Jesus genuinely cared for us, wouldn’t that mean he should be a preventative force of COVID-19 rather than the causal agent behind it?

What Is Secret & What is Revealed

“The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law” (Deuteronomy 29.29). Probing the mind and purposes of God is a task that is at once impossible and a joyful necessity. It is impossible in the sense that there is some knowledge he has chosen to keep to himself, and a joyful necessity in that he has also told us much about himself and his truth. So, as we ponder God’s designs for COVID-19, we must accept that we will never have an exhaustive knowledge of Jesus’s innumerable and intricate purposes. These remain in God’s hidden possession and are unnecessary for our flourishing, otherwise, he would make them known. What we can do is look at God’s grand purposes and have confidence that, though suffering is pervasive, Jesus is at work and his work is not in vain.

The Mystery of God’s Story

The following words from Isaiah are helpful in reminding us that though God’s ways at times seem fallacious, they appear so only because his wisdom and knowledge far transcends our own, both in the magnitude of its righteousness and the totality of its understanding.

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (55.8-9)

All of us have an ingrained set of convictions about what is good and what is not, but when it comes to following Jesus, often these convictions must be reformulated or left altogether. This is one of the greatest challenges of faith – the realization that Jesus’s aims, and the means he chooses to achieve them, may drastically differ from our notions of what is admirable and admissible. Living a life free of pain in all its forms unquestionably seems preferable. But Jesus, not being afraid to challenge our conceptions of a good life, describes the life of faith as one of self-denial and cross-bearing (Luke 9.23), which at first glance appears to be an obviously absurd path to willingly venture down. Only once we understand that his thoughts and ways far transcend our own, does the way of the cross begin to appear more lovely than whatever path of self-fulfillment we have chosen for ourselves.  

Consider humanity’s most enduring and compelling stories – Odysseus’s grueling journey home from Troy, the travails of Robinson Crusoe, or Frodo’s burden to destroy the ring of power. Our stories are many and varied, but the common thread that runs through so many of our favorites is the perseverance, growth and redemption of their characters in the midst of great suffering and sin. The love we bear towards these stories is not simply due to the fact that we find them enthralling and exciting or identify with the characters. There is something inherently good and worth celebrating in the adventure that leads us into a confrontation with life’s fiery trials – from what is known to what is unknown, from the ease of self-pursuit to the struggle of self-sacrifice, from what is temporally pleasing to what is eternally satisfying, from the mundane stare inward to the glorious gaze outward. The difference between these stories and the Gospel is that they are shadows of the Gospel – they speak to truth, but in themselves are not truth.

The good news delivered by Jesus is that God in his infinite wisdom is telling a grand story of redemption and glory, and you and I are called into it. Upon entering this tale of divine grace and holy refinement, your trials may be beyond measure and greater than you can bear. But take heart, Jesus has overcome the world and its many machinations (John 16.33). Much will remain a mystery and the story may not unfold as we wish, but what the Father has revealed is for our faithful perseverance. Perhaps as COVID-19 spreads, it’s God’s surprising invitation for you to enter into a kingdom that, for the time being, promises not safety or wealth but fellowship with the warrior king named Jesus, as together you battle evil that lies both within and without. Or maybe this pandemic is an appeal to you to continue faithfully in the most important story ever told, giving no ground to sinful inclinations that seek your destruction.

Why has Yahweh chosen to tell the story of creation as he has, including in it tears and sorrow, sickness and suffering, viruses and death? I cannot give an answer except to say that he is a storyteller like no other, and in his transcendent wisdom he determined that this story would surpass all others in its glory, beauty and splendor, thereby demonstrating to the fullest extent the many excellencies of his character and satisfying the human heart to its utmost depths. Life with Jesus is a story far grander and more mysterious than we ever dared imagine and forever we will be treading its marvelous heights in awe-filled wonder.

Because He Is Love

Our story, the life God has granted to us, is full of good things that come from God. It’s his desire that we enjoy these gifts (Ecclesiastes 2.24-26), but as acknowledged above and by the very existence of these posts on COVID-19, life in this world is also tied to all kinds of suffering. We’ve established that the presence of evil doesn’t negate good, but that from the darkness, God gains glory and is actually telling a good story. But what does the existence of evil and suffering in this story say about God’s disposition towards man? Does suffering signal that God hates the world and tolerates it for the sake of its role in his divine narrative?

One of the most remarkable things about God is that he is a God of love. The New Testament even goes so far as to state this as the most defining aspect of his nature (1 John 4.16). But because of the proliferating nature of the coronavirus, might we also describe him as a God of anger, wrath or hatred? It’s true that he exhibits these at times, and he is not ashamed to say so. But when they flare forth from him, they are not detached from his love. Rather, they are potent manifestations of his infinite and undying love. Let’s look at the interplay between the following two passages, as they should be useful in helping us understand God’s love and its connection to his providential actions, which undeniably will sometimes reveal aspects of his character that are difficult for us to understand.

“[T]hough he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; for he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men.” (Lamentations 3.32-33)

“Come, let us return to the LORD; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him.” (Hosea 6.1-2)

There are four affirmations these passages make regarding the Lord’s wrath, those being that in his wrath he causes grief, he afflicts, he tears, and he strikes down. Notice that these divine judgments are not an end in themselves, nor do they occur as though there is a boiling cauldron of eternal rage and anger in Yahweh that flows forth indiscriminately. Lamentations makes the all-important assertion that grief and affliction come from God but not from his heart. To say that wrath does not come from his heart is to say that his wrathful responses to sin are not a perennial part of his character, by which I mean, from eternity past, he has not been harboring anger or wrath but has been eternally expressing his love and happiness in the triune fellowship of Father, Son and Spirit. His wrath is only present when sin is present, and wherever you find sin, so shall you find his wrathful presence.[1] Contrary to the wrath we typically see at work in the human heart, the Father’s wrath is fueled by his love – not blind rage or pure hatred– because God being absolute in love and goodness cannot tolerate that which is opposed to his love and goodness. Therefore, because God deeply treasures what is eternally valuable and lovely, namely himself, he must at times unleash divine judgments upon sinful man as a means of demonstrating his holiness and punishing evil. A wrathless god would be an apathetic god – a god who isn’t committed to himself, truth, goodness, or you, and who certainly couldn’t be described as having a character of perfect love. But Yahweh is not that type of god; his love is genuine and far-reaching, and he intensely cares about his glory and your good. If this were not true, Jesus never would have submitted himself as a sacrifice for the sake of our salvation. As Hosea states above, the Lord’s wrathful actions carry in them an inherent call to life and to healing, Jesus’s death being the apex example of this. So, when we see the horrible headlines being driven by COVID-19’s march through the world, remember that the foundation of our Father’s wrath is not hatred but his steadfast love.

Our Common Affliction

It’s not easy to speak about God’s wrath at a time when suffering is so widespread, but I hope my brief comments prove to be of value, because I think the only true anchor we have when the waves swell with tumult is knowing who God is. Personally, I cringe when I hear certain personalities quick to say that this disaster or that tragedy is God’s judgment on such and such a group or nation. Statements like these tend to be woefully devoid of theological wisdom and a solid understanding of God’s character and our human nature. As affirmed earlier, we cannot discern all the depths of God’s purposes. But regarding God’s anger towards sin, we know that there is no distinction between man, woman, political party, sexual orientation, societal class, educational training, national identity or religious affiliation, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3.23). In Luke 13.1-5, Jesus is questioned about Galileans whom Pilate killed and says,

“Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower of Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

Jesus takes this opportunity to address a tragedy and says it’s a reminder that such things are common to all humanity because all humans are sinners. Part of being human in a sinful world is that wrath is revealed in temporal forms to remind us of our need to repent and escape wrath’s eternal forms. “For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord GOD; so turn, and live” (Ezekiel 18.32). He is a God of love and life, and his appeal through COVID-19 and other such troubles is to turn to Jesus, so we may have covenantal fellowship with him, having every one of our desires for happiness and contentment met by the glory of his friendship. For as contagious and dangerous as the coronavirus may be, another contagion – far more insidious in its nature – has infected every person. No mask can prevent it, nor any amount of social distancing stall it. But sin, like a crouching predator (Genesis 4.7), has already sunk its baneful teeth into our hearts, and only Jesus has the strength to release us from its monstrous grasp. COVID-19 is awful but let us not forget that something more awful is already here. It’s seeking not just our physical harm, but our spiritual, emotional, mental, relational, financial, vocational, and eternal destruction. We should take every precaution against COVID-19 and fight it with all our might, but let us also recognize that the presence of this virus is meant to remind us that sickness and disease is merely the perverse shadow of something far more ominous.

Closing Thoughts

There is so much more that could and should be said regarding the role suffering plays in God’s story. Thankfully, should you want to further explore this subject, there are plenty of pastors and theologians who have spoken to this before.

I am fully aware that for some, Jesus’s association with a pandemic like COVID-19 might seem a heinous claim. Coming to understand God’s character is no easy task, and it can devastate our paradigm of who God is. One of the challenges we face when seeking to understand God’s character, be it his love, sovereignty, wisdom, wrath, etc., is that as humans we tend to think about and evaluate his divine nature as though he were simply another person. Indeed, if he were just another person then we may have reason to disparage his character and actions. But he is not just another person. He is the perfect one, the eternal wellspring from which love, happiness, righteousness, peace, power, glory, and so much more flows. In him, all excellencies reside in their fullest and richly fathomless forms, bound together in perfect holiness so that his character is never compromised or worthy of slander. He is the summation of all good things, and nothing that is truly good can be dissociated from him, because its existence depends wholly on him.

If anything stated in these posts on COVID-19 has been challenging, my recommendation is that you read the Bible, praying that the Holy Spirit would help you set aside any preconceived theological or philosophical beliefs that each of us carry in some form. Simply ask him to lead you on the extraordinary journey of faith to true knowledge of the Gospel, and I firmly believe he will richly grant that request. Everything we know about God comes from his self-revelation. We did not claw our way to the precipice of wisdom in order to attain knowledge of his character or his ways; through the ages, he has come to us, revealing himself to a hurting world because he “desires all people to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2.4). Ask him and he will come, sweeping you into a grand narrative that surpasses anything you’ve dreamed (Psalm 16.11).

Next time, we will look at what the Christian’s response should be to COVID-19. Namely, what does knowledge of God’s character and his redemptive and mysterious purposes for suffering mean for those who are seeking to follow Jesus?

May the grace and peace of the Lord Jesus carry you in these difficult times.

Tyler Conrad

Assistant Pastor, Youth and Families

[1] Because we are talking about God’s wrath towards sin, I think a short but useful description of sin is appropriate. Sin is misdirected love. It is the failure to love God more than all else – with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. Sin propels our hearts away from what is indelibly good – God – to what is deviously appetizing – our preferred idols.

God and COVID-19 (Part 1) - By Tyler Conrad

Is God in the midst of this pandemic?

I love the news. Since I was young, I loved sitting down and watching news coverage with my parents. However, at this stage in my life, my news consumption is primarily from online sources, which for a while now have been covering mostly one subject. COVID-19, or more commonly called the coronavirus, has turned the modern world upside down. This deadly virus has gripped many with fear and instilled a general feeling of instability in many nations as economies falter, schools and churches shutter their doors, borders close, gatherings and travel are banned, jobs and income are lost, entertainment outlets are put on hiatus, hospitals and medical workers are over-burdened, and loved ones, neighbors, as well as strangers, are quarantined, hospitalized and even killed by COVID-19. Because of the present distress, I wanted to devote time to answering a few questions that are worthy of our time:

 “Where is God in this upheaval?”

“Why would God allow this?”

“What response and role are Christians to have in this turmoil and suffering?”

“How should we pray?”

Since the outbreak of this virus, the world seems to have been catapulted into a narrative that seems more akin to thrilling fiction than our sobering reality. We’ve never seen anything quite like what we are witnessing – the cessation of normal life in almost all nations across the globe. Governments, either by appeal or force, enact quarantines in a bid to stem the tide of a virus, that unless slowed or stopped, has the likely potential to kill and hospitalize millions of people. Unlike the typical westerner who subscribes to a materialist worldview, or in some cases may retain some sense of an impersonal spiritual realm, the Christian is under obligation to think deeply about the COVID-19 outbreak. Many of whom hold this perspective believe the unfolding of history and events to be, at their root, purposeless and unguided. But we, as Christians, worship Yahweh, the triune God who has revealed himself to us through Scripture. The claims he makes about himself do not allow us to neglect the grand questions of purpose, meaning and suffering. Failure to contemplate God’s presence in the present difficulties and sorrows, as well as our response to it, would be a dereliction of our duty, because our calling as followers of Jesus demands a commitment to mindfulness and love. When anxiety and fear weigh heavily on our soul, it’s easy to neglect truth by slipping into a state of alarm and self-preservation. But in these perplexing times, we must hold fast to Jesus and pray for his wisdom to infiltrate the most troubled places in our hearts and minds. What follows is intended to be the first of four posts, each one briefly addressing one of the questions above, since their answers can play a significant role in how we as followers of Jesus view God and relate to the world we find ourselves living in.

I don’t take writing on this issue lightly. It is no little thing to claim to have something to say about transcendent truth and its connection to a virus that is the cause of so much suffering, poverty, tears, and death, especially when the scope of its baleful influence is only increasing with each day. What I hope to accomplish with these words is to direct our hearts to love and our minds to truth, making a small and momentary contribution to the lifelong calling we have to follow Jesus in faithfulness.

A Glimpse of God

When chaos abounds and uncertainty is prevalent, we may be tempted to ask, “Where is God while the world is suffering from this pandemic?” It’s an understandable question, especially as we attempt to understand how the suffering and death wrought by a pandemic and a good God could possibly have any relation or co-existence. A simple glance over the two might naturally lead one to say they are at odds – there is no way to harmonize the suffering caused by COVID-19 and Yahweh who claims to have made the world and love it. However, that conclusion would be ill-informed and a whitewashing of God’s character. Let us take a glimpse of the great God and see where he is as COVID-19 continues its devastating march through the nations of the world.

God’s Immanence

When someone asks, “Where is God?” or “Where was God?”, the question inherently carries with it the assumption, and sometimes the accusation, that he is absent, detached and distant, either unwilling or unable to devote his attention to what is taking place in our lives. There could hardly be a statement about God that is further from the truth. The whole testimony of the Bible, God’s self-disclosure, reports just how present he is in the world, especially in the lives of those he has set his love upon. God’s immanent presence is nowhere more evident than in Jesus’s incarnation – the Father’s great rebuke of the notion that he might somehow be absent, detached or distant. Jesus set aside his eternal and immeasurable glory to tabernacle in human flesh for the purpose of redeeming what he deeply loved – an enslaved people and a creation that groans for freedom from corruption. To enact his salvific plan, the eternal one elected to be born as a servant into a lowly family and an oppressed people with the intention of having his earthly life sacrificed by the spiteful wrath of man in order to bear the holy wrath of the Father. In doing this, he forever proclaimed the nearness of his love and guaranteed his eternal immanence to those he loves. The last sentence in the gospel of Matthew quotes Jesus as saying, “And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age.” (28.20) That Matthew ends with this statement is no accident. It’s intended to emphasize to the Christian reader that though you’ve finished reading this text, there will never be an end or even a temporary suspension in your communion with Jesus. By the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, he is always with the Christian, near and continuously active in them, with them and through them, whether they are thriving and healthy or struggling and hospitalized.

But what of those who do not know Jesus? Can he be said to be with or near the multitude who do not love him as they endure sufferings and evils of all kinds? Though God’s covenantal and familial presence is exclusively for those who have been joined to him through faith in Jesus, there is reason to say God is immanently near all people – though in a very distinctive way from his covenant people. Chapter one of Genesis relates in verse two that even before God had created image-bearers to know and enjoy his wonderous glory, “the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters” of the earth, an allusion to God’s presence within the created order – a presence which God robustly emphasizes in Job chapters 38 through 41. If God is steadfastly immanent in this world, even after the entrance of sin, in what way does the nearness of his presence engage and connect with the lives of those who are outside of the church? First and foremost, he is near and very much aware of their needs and sorrows. The greatest of these needs to which he turns his attention is the spiritual poverty and ignorance that so many are burdened with because of the blinding effects of sin and spiritual powers of darkness. To the prophet Jonah, God expresses how his love for sinners has drawn his heart near to Nineveh saying, “And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle” (4.11)? Nineveh, a city great in its splendor and might lacks one fundamental thing – a knowledge of the living God, which is expressed as being so out of step with reality, that it is compared with being unable to discern something so simple as the difference between one hand and the other. Similarly, Paul in Acts 17 says to the Athenians that every nation was formed so that they would seek after God, and then Paul affirms that their seeking is not in vain because “he is actually not far from each one of us, for ‘In him we live and move and have our being’” (17.27-28).

Because God sustains our lives by his will and has sown aspects of his character into human nature, he will always be near to humanity, proclaiming the glory of his name that they might turn from sin to God – their greatest good – by embracing Jesus. As evidence of his immanence and commitment to people’s good, he is unrelenting in dispensing his common grace to mankind by giving good gifts like modern medicine, competent healthcare systems, restorative rest, supportive friendships, and much more to both the good and the evil (James 1.17; Matthew 5.44-45). Suffering and death may be present in the life of mankind – they must be since they mirror the spiritual decay and death inborn to each of us – but to overlook the many evidences of his close and personal care of each human, no matter the desperate state of their life, is as imprudent as being invited to a feast and complaining that your favored delicacies were not provided.

God’s Sovereignty 

As lovely as the Lord’s immanence is, he would be bereft of deed if in his nearness he could not sovereignly act to exalt his name, build his church, demonstrate his love, provide for the needy, heal the wounded or judge evil. Sadly, what is meant to be one of the most comforting aspects of God’s character often tends to be the most troubling for Christians and non-Christians alike, that being that God is sovereignly powerful over all things. As one who possesses sovereign strength, he alone reigns as king over all that exists – the physical and the spiritual – by exercising complete rule to control and determine all that occurs. This tends to be one of the most maligned and diluted aspects of his character by man, while also being one of the most, if not the most, affirmed by God himself, as he frequently speaks of his intimate involvement as being the prime instrument in the unfolding of people’s lives and history. In Isaiah 45.7, Yahweh makes a sweeping statement regarding his sovereign involvement in creation, saying “I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the LORD, who does all these things.” No one objects to God’s involvement in goodness and well-being, but where protest arises is when he claims sovereign rule over evil and calamity – going so far as to say they are his creation. If his assertion makes us uncomfortable, have we considered that his sovereignty is also unified to his immeasurable love and infinite wisdom? When God acts, his whole character remains intact. He never sets aside his love or wisdom or kindness or grace or holiness. Every sovereign act is united to the fullness of his perfect and holy personhood. Were God to be disconnected from evil and calamity, it would leave us with a dualistic universe where evil is a randomized and equal competitor with good, free to inflict havoc apart from Jesus’s loving involvement. Praise God that this type of dualistic universe is antithetical to the one we have.

Is God in our midst in this pandemic? Yes, and even in the evil unfolding we can be confident that he is sovereignly doing good, both eternal good for those whom he has and is drawing to himself, and temporal good to the just and unjust. But if God is sovereign and all things unfold according to his willful purposing, why would a pandemic overtake the world? Why do seemingly innocent people suffer and die? Why do the wealthy get the healthcare they need while many poor do not? Why would God permit, or perhaps even cause, something like this? We will look to explore and further answer these questions in the next post.

Tyler Conrad

Assistant Pastor, Youth and Families