Plagues in the Bible
The Corona Virus Pandemic is bigger than politics and bigger than any one nation. It is what God is doing in our world. What God is doing is bigger than anything you will hear on the news. He is working an eternal work, to bring us to Him, to bring us to repentance.
So, from a Biblical perspective, what is going on right now? (1)
We must recognize that God is King over all the world.
Psalm 10:16: The LORD is King for ever and ever: the heathen are perished out of his land.
Psalm 47:2 … he is a great King over all the earth.
Our Savior Jesus Christ is the King of kings, and the King of glory. He is in control. Nothing happens on earth that He does not allow. He is allowing this pandemic and He has a purpose in it. He could have stopped it if He wanted to, but He didn’t.
Why does God send pestilences in the Bible? Here is some Biblical data regarding pestilences:
1. The Lord plagued Pharaoh during the days of Abraham because of Sarai,
Genesis 12:17; And the LORD plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai Abram’s wife.
2. The Lord sent plagues upon Egypt because of their idolatry and hard-heartedness, but with the opportunity to repent and to know that He is God.
Exodus 9:14-15; For I will at this time send all my plagues upon thine heart, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people; that thou mayest know that there is none like me in all the earth. For now I will stretch out my hand, that I may smite thee and thy people with pestilence; and thou shalt be cut off from the earth.
3. God sent plague and pestilence upon His people in their wilderness wanderings:
Numbers 14:12: I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of thee a greater nation and mightier than they.
Moses wrote his only Psalm, the 90th, about the plagues he endured during those wanderings. Moses knew the pestilences they experienced in the Wilderness were because of God’s anger and wrath. Notice the repetition of these two words five times:
Psalm 90:7-9; 11: For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled. Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance. For all our days are passed away in thy wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told. Who knoweth the power of thine anger? Even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath. So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.
4. God continually warned His people that plagues would result from their rebellion or disobedience.
Leviticus 26:21; And if ye walk contrary unto me, and will not hearken unto me; I will bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins.
Deut. 28:21; The LORD shall make the pestilence cleave unto thee, until he have consumed thee from off the land, whither thou goest to possess it.
Plague and pestilence in the Old Testament were punishments as the result of sin, of rebellion or idolatry.
5. God sent a pestilence upon Israel because of David’s sin; 70,000 people perished:
1 Chronicles 21:14; So the LORD sent pestilence upon Israel: and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men.
6. The great prayer of repentance and revival in 2 Chronicles 7:14 is a promise from God if he should send famine or pestilence. (Verse 13 says, “If I send a pestilence upon my people.”) Verse 14 is God’s call to Israel to humble themselves, pray and turn from their wicked ways. Clearly, pestilence should lead people to see their sins and repent.
7. God brought a great judgment upon the city Jerusalem, the City of the Great King. His anger and great fury came upon Jerusalem and it fell by the sword, by famine, and pestilence. It became a desolate and plague-filled city. Plague and pestilence made the thriving city of Jerusalem empty. This is His judgment.
Jeremiah 19:8; And I will make this city desolate, and an hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished and hiss because of all the plagues thereof. (A hissing speaks of mockery.)
Jeremiah 21:6: And I will smite the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast: they shall die of a great pestilence. (and read all the way down to verse 10).
The Book of Ezekiel contains many references to pestilence (Ezekiel 14:19,21).
8. In the coming time of Tribulation revealed in the Book of Revelation, God’s plagues will pour out upon the earth.
The sixth trumpet sounds, one-third of the earth will die. Rev.9:20 says, “the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils… neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts” (Rev.9:20,21).
In Revelation 11:6; Two mighty witnesses will smite the earth with plagues.
In Revelation 16, the vial judgments are called the “seven last plagues…for in them is filled up the wrath of God,” Rev.15:1; Rev.21:9.
Conclusion
1. God is in absolute control of pestilence. This is indisputable and unquestionable. Verses like Amos 4:10 show His sovereign power:
Amos 4:10; I have sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt … yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD.
2. Plagues evidence the wrath and anger of God for people’s rebellion. I do believe He is angry with the world. Why wouldn’t He be? He is a holy God and all His ways are judgment, Deut. 32:4. The evil, wickedness, and unbelief of the world is before Him. As He did in the Old Testament and as He will do in the coming Tribulation, so now His works should get man’s attention, to bring him to repentance.
3. In many of the plagues God sent, men did not repent but continued in their sin to their own destruction. Many today still are, continuing their drinking and drunkenness, their fornication and immorality. They need to repent!
4. Getting the corona virus is not a direct evidence that you are a sinner more than someone who does not. Even God’s people may contract this virus. A person gets a positive test result of the virus, is not a greater sinner than one who does not. No, this virus will strike the righteous and unrighteous. But the fact that the virus is a worldwide pandemic shows God is striking the whole world with His retribution.
5. Plague and pestilence must wake men up to repent and turn to Him. If you don’t know God, push your way to Jesus as the women with the issue of blood. This woman exhausted her energy, time, and money to find a cure, only to grew worse. Then she pushed her way through a crowd to make it to Jesus. (Mark 5.25-34)
That is what we as a nation must do. We must push through our fears of what men will say, push through all the political talk, all the partisan blaming, and get to Jesus. Here is what happened when she reached out to touch Jesus:
Mark 5:29; And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague.
And Jesus said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague (Mark 5:34).
One of the words for plague in Scripture means to be touched with a wound. He will heal us from the destroying pestilence that has touched the world as we reach out to touch Him.
6. Repent and believe, turning to Jesus. Our Savior entered this world full of pestilence and plague. Isaiah 53:8 says, “for the transgression of my people was he stricken.” Literally, he was stuck with a plague, stricken, so we can be healed and forgiven through Him. Yes, He has healed many of their sins and plagues.
Mark 3:10 says, “For he had healed many; insomuch that they pressed upon him for to touch him, as many as had plagues.”
Will we be hardhearted like Pharaoh who repented not even though God sent plague after plague upon Egypt?
Will we be like those in the tribulation, who will not repent, although there were great judgments and plagues?
Or will we be like the women with the issue of blood? Let’s push through this pandemic and let’s come to Jesus!
Matt Recker is the pastor of Heritage Baptist Church in New York City.