In the midst of the pestilence.

Definitively, the evil actions of man will bring him eternal consequences, but, very often, also temporary punishment or discipline.

The Lord, who knows it all and is just, will not keep quiet forever. He may “delay”, as some people think, but at the proper moment, He will bring punishment.

God had brought famine over the entire nation for three years. David went to God and asked Him, “why is this happening to us?”

The Lord’s answer to David’s question was: this happening because king Saul, driven by jealousy, murdered some Gibeonites that had supported David. (2 Sam 21:1-2)

Now that we’re facing this COVID19 pandemia, many ask a similar question, “Why Lord? Why is this happening?”

Others ask, is this the Great Tribulation? I do not think so! It is a tribulation, but not the Great one, otherwise the believers would not be here. We believe that the Lord will snatch the Church before the Great Tribulation.

Is this the end of the world? No it is not! But it may be “merely the beginning of birth pangs.”

To answer the question, why is this happening?, we may find a parallel in the pestilence that happened in David’s time.

Read 2 Sam 24

The anger of the Lord burned against the people.

You will probably ask why? Because God cannot overlook sin.

God cannot overlook sin.

God’s holiness and justice demands that sin be punished.

The problem was not with David, but with the people of Israel.

Just like in the times of Noah, “the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”

The people had rejected God’s governance and had requested to have a king “as the other nations have”, they were worshipping idols, they had married pagan women, and had killed innocent people.

David’s own son, Solomon, acknowledged the iniquity of the people of that time:

Ecclesiastes 9:3 NASB95

This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that there is one fate for all men. Furthermore, the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil and insanity is in their hearts throughout their lives. Afterwards they go to the dead.

I believe that the evil of our time surpasses that: God’s presence has been rejected, and men have free rein to their sin: abortion (the murder of innocent babies is legal), homosexuality (degrading passions between people of the same gender, even among so-called Christian churches. if God does not bring punishment, Sodomites and Gomorrahites could claim injustice) , drug-addiction, immorality, greed and covetousness (love of money), violence, and disrespect of parents have reached extreme levels.

“The fear of the Lord is to hate evil.” (Pro 8:13), but this world loves evil.

Such evil demands God’s justice.

God moves the pieces as He wills.

The Lord “incited David against them”. 1

As in a cosmic chess game, God moves the pieces as he pleases. Every move is “coldly calculated” and is part of His plan to defeat the rival, the enemy.

To bring a check mate upon the people, he moved David’s heart to count the troops; a measure of his strength as king. David forgot that the victories were given to him by the Lord, not by his soldiers.

“not by might, but by the Spirit.” says the Lord.

His general, Joab, tried to persuade the king to not do it, but David did not listen. He did not know that God was behind his decision to use it to bring the punishment the people deserved.

Joab and his men went all over the land and counted the people as instructed.

As soon as they came back with the count, Davids’ heart of was troubled . “I have sin greatly in what I have done… I have acted foolishly.” v. 10

The answer came the next morning. God sent a prophet to give David three choices: seven years of famine, fleeing for three months from his enemies, or three days of pestilence. David chose the last one. He thought “it is better to fall into the hand of the merciful Lord than in the hands of man.”

God brought the pestilence upon the entire nation.

“So the Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning until the appointed time, and seventy thousand men of the people from Dan to Beersheba died.” 15

The Dict. of Biblical Languages defines the word translated as pestilence

Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains: Hebrew (Old Testament) 4487 מַגֵּפָה

מַגֵּפָה (mǎg·gē·p̄ā(h))

as “plague” i.e., a destructive pandemic disease. The Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament defines as “a blow, usually divinely meted, which is fatal or disastrous.”

Only a few died due to the pestilence.

The number of warriors counted was 800,000 from Israel and 500,000 from Judah, a total of 1,300,000, a formidable army at that time.

70,000 died (that is 5.38% of the 1,300,000 counted). In only three days!

The pestilence we are facing is nothing in comparison to that one!

In the USA, only 0.21% of the population (690,714) has been infected (as of April 18). And not even one tenth of that (35,433) have died in our country (only 0.01%) and almost everything has been paralyzed.

Yes! It is a serious situation, but the media has been spreading panic.

The pestilence should bring us to our knees.

You might think, “But so many innocent people are dying!”

I ask you, Who is innocent? The Bible says, “there is no righteous, not even one” (Rom 3:10), and “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23).

God, the Creator, has the authority and the power to take them whenever He wants:

Ezekiel 18:4 NASB95

“Behold, all souls are Mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is Mine. The soul who sins will die.

Ezekiel 18:20 NASB95

“The person who sins will die. The son will not bear the punishment for the father’s iniquity, nor will the father bear the punishment for the son’s iniquity; the righteousness of the righteous will be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked will be upon himself.

Some might argue that children are innocent, but they are not! However, do you know that only a very few children have died of the COVID19 pestilence?

As the angel was striking the people, David was brought to his knees in confession:

“Behold, it is I who have sinned, and it is I who have done wrong; but these sheep, what have they done?” 17

The anger of the Lord was against the people, but David did not blame them! He acknowledged his own sin, he confessed it to God.

This is time to be in our knees praying to God!

We must respond with worship.

The prophet told David: “Go up, erect an altar to the Lord...” 18

David went to the place the prophet had told him and told the owner of the piece of land, I want “to buy the threshing floor from you, in order to build an altar to the Lord, that the plague may be held back from the people.” 21

Araunah, the owner, offer the lot, the oxen, and the fire wood for free to David, but he rejected the free offer. Why? We should learn from his answer:

2 Samuel 24:24 NASB95

However, the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price, for I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God which cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.

As soon as David worshipped the Lord, the Lord heard his prayer and stopped the pestilence.

The Lord stopped the pestilence. 16

“The Lord was moved by prayer for the land, and the plague was held back from Israel.” 25

“When the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord relented from the calamity and said to the angel who destroyed the people, “It is enough!” 16

God promised Israel to heal the land upon certain conditions:

2 Chronicles 7:14 NASB95

and My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

Humble themselves...

Pray and seek my face...

Turn from their wicked ways...

If mankind do those three things, He will do these three: He will hear, He’ll forgive their sin, and He’ll heal their land.