Understand that I am bringing a flood-floodwaters on the earth to destroy every creature under heaven with the breath of life in it. But I will establish My covenant with you, and you will enter the ark with your sons, your wife and your sons’ wives. Genesis 6:17-18 HCSB
You know that since this whole Coronavirus or COVID-19 outbreak, I have been talking about trusting in God. Today’s blog is no different, but today I want to talk about practicing good, common sense. If we trust in the Lord, then He gives us wisdom and discernment. I can only imagine the ridicule that Noah must have faced when he built the ark. Here he is building this huge ark to God’s exact specifications. His friends and neighbors must have thought that he was a few fries shy of a happy meal no doubt, but Noah just built away. Here they are living in a land that never saw more than a mist for rain. They had never seen the torrential downpours that we see and he is building an ark because God told him it was going to flood. Sounds crazy, doesn’t it? But if you think about it, it was the first documented quarantine.
Just last week, Brother Tim Norris, from Sandy Creek Baptist in Zachary Louisiana, preached on Joshua and his men marching around the walls of Jericho. God told Joshua and his men to march around the city of Jericho circling this strongly fortified city one time each day for six days (Joshua 6:1-3). But on the 7th day, he told them to march around the city seven times then to blow the trumpets in front of the ark and for everyone to give a mighty shout and the wall will collapse. Seriously? Can you imagine what some of these men must have thought? Can you imagine how the inhabitants of Jericho must have laughed at Joshua and his men. This sounds absurd, but guess what? In verse 21 they had done this, it worked, and it tells us that they completely destroyed everything in the city with the sword. Wow! Only their spy, Rahab, and her family were spared.
And what about Abraham? God told him in Genesis 22:2, “Take your son,” He said, “Your only son, Isaac, whom you love, go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.” Abraham had a long history of listening to God and obeying His commands, but offer his son that he had waited 100 years for? But he obeyed God. Just as Abraham was about to offer His son, God provided a ram and spared Isaac.
It takes great faith to do the things that sound crazy when we feel that this is what God is telling us to do, but we must trust in God.
Do I believe that God sent this pandemic on the world for a reason? Absolutely, I do. Do I believe that there is a reason that God wants us to stay home as much as possible? Absolutely, I do. I have had a lot of time at home this week. I have gotten a lot of work done and I have had the opportunity to spend more time with family members. Maybe God just wants us to be still for a bit. Psalm 46:10 tells us to “Be still and know that I am God”. In the HCSB version, it says, “Stop your fighting-and know that I am God, exalted among the nations, exalted on the earth.”
This is not the time for us to be flooding stores like Walmart and hoarding or fighting over toilet paper. This is a time that obviously God wants us to be still. We will never stop this virus by running around in the general public and continuing to do all that we have done before. We must make some changes.
My friend sent me the verse Proverbs 1:7 this morning which says, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and discipline.” She also sent a Q and A that asked if we trust God why would we quarantine? The answer was, for the same reason that we use oven mitts and wear seat belts. It’s time to change our ways for a little while. It’s time to get still. It will give you more time to sit quietly with the Lord. Just this past week, I saw neighbors using their porches. They have beautiful porches that never get used, but people were actually enjoying their porches.
Those that wait upon the LORD will renew their strength and soar on wings like eagles. (Isaiah 40:31). This is a time that will make us or break us, you have to choose for yourself.
Remember that for those of us that love the Lord and are called according to His purpose, He is working all of this out for our good (Romans 8:28). Staying at home may sound crazy, but we know that God does all things for a reason. And on behalf of my husband and my stepson who must be out in the public as police officers and my future daughter-in-law who works in the medical profession, please stay home and lower the chance of risk for those that have to be out. Let’s work together with God to put an end to this!
Have a great day!