Coronavirus (C-19): The American Damascus Road Experience

In the Book of Isaiah we see a nation so fallen and depraved they cannot tell right from wrong. In so doing, those in Isaiah’s time are victims to the very evils that they allow to gestate in the bowels and of their nation. They are in wholesale rebellion against God and even try to justify it. Frankly, it is the same as the world around us today--especially here in a Coronavirus C-19 infected America.

Isaiah 59:10 ~ Like the blind we grope along the wall, feeling our way like men without eyes. At midday we stumble as if it were twilight; among the strong, we are like the dead.

Isaiah then goes on to tell the reader the exact reason for the blindness of the people.

Isaiah 59:12-15 ~ For our offenses are many in your sight, and our sins testify against us. Our offenses are ever with us, and we acknowledge our iniquities: rebellion and treachery against the Lord, turning our backs on our God, inciting revolt and oppression, uttering lies our hearts have conceived. So justice is driven back, and righteousness stands at a distance; truth has stumbled in the streets, honesty cannot enter. Truth is nowhere to be found, and whoever shuns evil becomes a prey.

In Genesis 19 we see more of the same. Humanity that has totally turned their back on God. They are merely hours away from complete destruction along with their cesspools called cities. Just like today in San Francisco, Seattle or New York City. They, like us are lost in spiritual blindness as cities and nations. In Isaiah 59 we see more and more lost in their sins groping blindly continuing to pursue said sins.

Genesis 19:11 ~ Then they (angels) struck the men who were at the door of the house, young and old, with blindness so that they could not find the door.

We are on the eve of the destruction in Sodom and Gomorrah in this scene. The men of Sodom begin to threaten Lot by pressing “hard against Lot” to get past him so they can rape those inside. It is at this point angels intervene by dragging Lot back into the house and slamming the door. These townspeople are then supernaturally stuck with blindness. What is exceptionally disturbing in the scene is that these men wearied themselves trying to find the doorway AFTER being struck blind. The blindness had no effect. It is here we see the insanity, irrational and entrenched nature of sin. If not for the supernatural intervention of the messengers of God, these same people would've exhaust themselves pursing their rapes.  They are lost or given over to their sin (Romans 1) to the point that they blindly grope for the doorway that they can't even see (Isaiah 59:10).

In the end these men will not only be struck with blindness but all of Sodom and Gomorrah will be wiped from the face of the plains (the earth) in God’s consummate judgment. People will die en masse.

We need to realize these passages very much speak to us today in a virus infected nation/world. The force of evil will stop at nothing to subvert the will and purpose of God. It will infiltrate our places of worship and social gatherings in an attempt to shut us down, silence us...kill us.

Overt rebellion against a perfect God should be beyond comprehension of a rational person but people totally given over to their sin and stupidity do some really dumb things. They always end up paying dearly for it. They pay with their lives. Either now or later. I see this now  in America in March 2020. Spring breakers, 50 people congregating at Rita's Water Ice in Boyertown, people wantonly disregarding warnings at cost to life or limb, etc. The same twisted rationality that we  saw in Sodom and Gomorrah.

It is the same as we will see in Paul getting struck blind on the road to Damascus. This of course is probably the most visible and well-known example of God punishing someone through being struck with affliction besides (the) Destroyer in Egypt. Paul is mercilessly pursuing, persecuting and killing Christians in a psychotic orgy of violence. It is in the process of wanton persecution that God directly and dramatically cuts Paul off. His life instantly changes. It is at the sight of the Christ Himself that Paul is brought to his knees and ceases his murderous pursuits. In the blinding light of God’s holiness even the hardened man can be snapped back out of the darkness. God’s light can reach even the darkest deepest crevasse of evil.

The blinding of Apostle Paul is ironic. His disobedience of the Word blinds him but obedience to God appears to mitigate the blinding. Once Paul does God's will...he sees. He is healed. It is as if, like all the other blinding incidences in the Bible, the truth or word of God like blinding light incapacitates those that refuse to see it's truth. Yet, the same exact word that blinds them can heal the blindness when the heart changes and turns to God. So too C-19 I believe. The thing used to destroy can be used to heal. A weapon turned into a tool. A sword turned into a plowshare.

God does not wish us to die. He is patient so that none may perish (2 Peter 3:9). It might take knocking the living daylights out of us though. I believe COVID-19 is doing this for some in America. But...based on firsthand observation...not many. More so I see the groping, the blindness that I saw in Sodom and Gomorrah. There are few things more unsettling than losing one's way in life or making a mistake and not learning from it. 

John 9: 4-9 ~ As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. “Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (which means “Sent”). So, the man went and washed, and came home seeing. His neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, “Isn’t this the same man who used to sit and beg?” Some claimed that he was.

So… the question arises in this quarantined C-19 life in America. Has God struck us senseless or blind via C-19 to get our attention?

I believe He has. We need to look at the map of our lives in quadrant C-19 and determine where C-19 is trying to lead us. I honestly believe (figuratively) that C-19 is a road marker or map coordinate for where we should've been at this point instead of where we are. C-19 is showing us how far we wandered off the path. God has done it to put us back on the correct route in the right direction. 

It is a national Damascus Road experience.

God is trying to get our attention and literally giving us directions. Do you think its such a good thing that God had to work so hard to get our attention? God does not want us wandering blindly to some inexplicable place. He has a instructions for us and a map. The Bible. 

He wants us as sons and daughters. Do we need to wait for another catastrophe in our lives or will we change direction onto the correct path without all the drama? I personally prefer a life of less drama. I like maps. I like directions. I don't like being lost. I don't like when others are lost either. We live in a fallen world and life is already dramatic enough. I’d rather not add to that drama. I have kids for that.

Besides, we all know what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah don't we?