The Lord can stop Covid-19 anytime he wants.  This is not the first time a plague has been used to get people’s attention and call them to repentance.

When the king of Egypt refused to free the Israelites from the bondage of slavery in 1446 BC, the Lord unleashed ten different plagues on the Egyptian people (see Exodus 7:14-12:30). 

And it should be noted: None of the Israelites, nor their animals were affected by the plague while they were in Egypt, because God protected them all. 

After much suffering and death, the Egyptian king (pharaoh) released God’s people and they departed Egypt, bound for Canaan, the land that God had promised to their fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  And God lifted the plague.

All of us need to understand, God has control over all things, including Covid-19, the China virus.

There are numerous examples throughout the Holy Bible where God used plagues and other “natural” disasters to get his people to repent from their wicked ways and return to God.  Even with King David, whom God called “a man after my own heart” (Acts 13:22). 

One example is recorded in 2 Samuel 24 when King David ordered a census be taken to determine the size of his army (1 Chronicles 21:1 says Satan provoked David to take that action).  Joab, David’s chief military commander, advised David against the census, reminding him “it is the Lord who enables Israel to be victorious in our battles, not the size of our army.”  But David did not listen, and ordered him to proceed with the census. 

Shortly thereafter, King David realized that Joab was correct, and that he had sinned greatly against the Lord, and he immediately begged the Lord for forgiveness (24:10). 

But when you sin, there is always a price to pay, and God sent a plague on Israel for three days, and 70,000 people died (24:15).  David pleaded with the Lord to “punish him and spare the people.” 

King David purchased a piece of land on top of Mount Moriah and built an altar to worship the Lord, and the Lord answered David’s prayers and stopped the plague (24:25).  That piece of land would later be the site for the Lord’s Temple in Jerusalem.  But the consequences of sin would cause much grief in David’s life; even though God forgave him, there is still a price to pay for sin . . . and that applies to me and you, as well as David. 

God can stop this China virus today, if we will turn from our wicked ways. 

During the dedication of the Lord’s Temple in Jerusalem, God reminded King Solomon of God’s awesome power over all things in 2 Chronicles 7:13-14, 19-22 NIV:

13 “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people,

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

19 “But if you turn away and forsake the decrees and commands I have given you and go off to serve other gods and worship them,

20 then I will uproot Israel from my land, which I have given them, and will reject this temple I have consecrated for my Name. I will make it a byword and an object of ridicule among all peoples.

21 This temple will become a heap of rubble. All who pass by will be appalled and say, ‘Why has the LORD done such a thing to this land and to this temple?’

22 People will answer, ‘Because they have forsaken the LORD, the God of their ancestors, who brought them out of Egypt, and have embraced other gods, worshiping and serving them—that is why he brought all this disaster on them.’”

God is waiting for the American people to turn from our wicked ways and return to Him.  Seek Him today.