Discerning God's Will in a Pandemic

God has permitted us to have the experience of this pandemic.

Let’s establish a few basic theological principles right at the outset of tonight’s discussion. This will give us a framework to hopefully understand this current worldwide crisis with a Christian perspective that is hopefully bigger than the sound bytes you’re getting on the evening news.

Principle #1: God is interested in what happens to us

There are faith’s that believe in a disinterested creator. They acknowledge that there is a creative being behind it all but they argue that once he set his creation in motion, he disengaged from it and is letting whatever happens, happen

Although there may be times when this feels to be the case, it is a heretical way of thinking.

Scripture clearly teaches that God is clearly interested in his creation and that nothing in that creation is beyond his interest or notice.

Let’s search the scripture to confirm this.

Jeremiah 23:23–24 ESV

“Am I a God at hand, declares the Lord, and not a God far away? Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the Lord.

God himself is declaring his presence and his interest, not just in all of humanity, but in each individual.

Luke 12:6–7 ESV

Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.

God reminds us that every single detail, no matter how small, in his creation gets his specific attention.

Hebrews 1:1–3 ESV

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

So God has always engaged in a dialogue with his creation. Moreover, through his Son, Jesus, he has saved and is sustaining that creation daily.

In fact, all of scripture is a divinely-inspired love letter from God to humanity and it exists for no other reason than that our Creator is supremely interested in us and our relationship with him.

2 Timothy 3:16 ESV

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,

So, based upon what we have read, let’s accept that God’s interested in what we are going through right now.

Principle #2: Nothing happens in creation unless it is God’s will.

Now this principle needs a little further clarification. God does not necessarily cause everything to happen.

However he either causes it, prevents it, or permits it.

Lets look at each of these 3 scenarios to help us understand how God’s will operates in our life.

Decretive Will of God - No ability for anything in creation to resist

This will we see in the creation story where God spoke the world into existence. He did not require anything to cooperate or agree. It simply happened.

Genesis 7:11–12 ESV

In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened. And rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights.

Exodus 14:21 ESV

Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.

John 11:43–44 ESV

When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”

In all of these instances, God commanded something to happen and it did. There was no persuasion. There was no convincing. There was no option for anything to happen except precisely what God willed.

We often err in thinking that this is the only way that God operates. We sometimes act as though everything that happens in this world, happens because God has decreed that it should. When we do this, we misunderstand the character of God and we misunderstand his desire for our relationship with him.

Let’s dig a little deeper.

decretive, preceptive, dispositional