Coronavirus and the Sovereignty of God

In times like this, the most healthy, sanity-inducing thing we can do is revisit the basic doctrines of our faith. One such doctrine is the sovereignty of God.

We love Isaiah 40:29-31:

²⁹  He gives power to the faint,

and to him who has no might he increases strength.

³⁰  Even youths shall faint and be weary,

and young men shall fall exhausted;

³¹  but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;

they shall mount up with wings like eagles;

they shall run and not be weary;

they shall walk and not faint.

Beautiful. Yet these reassuring words are grounded in the reality of God’s utter sovereignty – His supreme power and control, over all things. Over the stars of the sky (40:26), over the most secret, hidden thoughts or acts (40:27), and even microscopic viruses.

He wields His sovereignty for good – because He Himself is utter good. Therefore, out of love, His sole goal and purpose is to give the world Himself – to glorify Himself – because outside Himself, the world is lost.

So then, He stops at nothing, and uses anything, anyone to do His good bidding:

⁵  I am the Lord, and there is no other,

besides me there is no God;

I equip you, though you do not know me,

⁶  that people may know, from the rising of the sun

and from the west, that there is none besides me;

I am the Lord, and there is no other.

⁷  I form light and create darkness;

I make well-being and create calamity;

I am the Lord, who does all these things.

God is in control, of all things. He creates well-being, and He creates calamity, all for one simple purpose: that all people would come to see Him and hallow all that He is.

Far from being egotistical of God, this is the most generous thing He could do. Because it’s the farthest thing from what we deserve. Our generation, awash in the blood of millions of infants; reveling in sexual perversion of kinds never seen before on this soil; never more confident that we can create a life for ourselves apart from Him; and never with more destructive wreckage to show for it. We deserve far more than what we are presently experiencing.

Yet God is slow to anger (Exodus 34:6). He is patient even in calamity; He graciously provides tremors before the earthquake. So we should take comfort; God is still in control, of literally everything. For our good. And we should repent, towards Him, for He is literally our everything.