‘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, 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.
2 Chronicles 7:13-14 NIVUK
https://bible.com/bible/113/2ch.7.13-14.NIVUK
Three are listed in these verses: drought, locusts and plague. Coincidentally, all three are being experienced in our world right now. But then, they have been experienced in Africa for many years. We, in our Western-centric mindset, often forget that African nations often suffer from drought, locusts and plague. We see the plague of Covid-19 and think we have it bad. But if we had been in the countries worst affected during the Ebola outbreak then I think we might change our minds.
I don't believe for a second that these are the End Times. I believe they may be the birth pains, but these birth pains have been around for a very long time. However, I do believe that in 2 Chronicles 7, God was simply using these as a part of the wider sufferings in 2 Chronicles 6, and also Deuteronomy 28. In other words, these aren't the only sufferings that should drive us to follow the path outlined in these verses.
In order to find out how these verses should be applied correctly, we need to understand how the Bible views suffering.
Firstly, suffering is inevitable. Suffering didn't start in Genesis 1, when God created the world. No, it started in Genesis 3, when mankind chose to disobey God. In a fallen world that, no matter what we do, will never be perfect, we cannot expect to avoid suffering. It will catch up with us sooner or later.
Suffering can also be consequential. That is, we suffer because of a bad decision we made. Let me give you a few examples. If you smoke and get lung cancer, your cancer is a consequence of your decision to smoke. If you drink alcohol to excess and get cirrhosis of the liver, your cirrhosis is a consequence of your decision to drink alcohol to excess. If you take illegal drugs and suffer from psychosis, or are promiscuous and get an STD, or like to pick fights and get wounded, then your suffering is a consequence of your choices.
That's not to say we should be lacking in compassion for those who are suffering as a consequence of their choices. I once sat next to a man with cirrhosis because he had drunk alcohol to excess. I felt so sorry for him. He was devastated. Every shred of dignity appeared to have gone. He was desperate. "If only I'd never taken that first drink! If only!" he kept saying over and over again. It was heartbreaking to see any human being in that position.
To a degree, the suffering the Jews would have been enduring here is consequential. They knew the terms of their contractual relationship with God and had breached them. So they would have no-one else to blame.
The Bible also talks of suffering that is not consequential, but on the surface seems thoroughly unjust, such as David being hounded by Saul, or Jesus dying on the cross, or the persecution of the Early Church, or Job losing his family and his health. I'm sure many of us would see our suffering in this category.
Some people find it hard to separate consequential and non-consequential suffering. In 2001 I had to return from Romania, where I was a missionary, because my father had contracted Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. He was forty-eight years old. It was highly aggressive and took his life within two weeks. While he was quickly going downhill, some of my mother's well-meaning friends asked her how she was. She told them the truth: he was deteriorating. Do you know what they said? 'Well, it's obvious you're not praying hard enough. Have you committed some secret sin, either of you? You must have done something to deserve this!"
Nonsense! That was the approach Job's comforters took with him and they were wrong. King Solomon wrote these words:
In this meaningless life of mine I have seen both of these: the righteous perishing in their righteousness, and the wicked living long in their wickedness.
Ecclesiastes 7:15 NIVUK
https://bible.com/bible/113/ecc.7.15.NIVUK
And Jesus said this about a man he healed:
As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ ‘Neither this man nor his parents sinned,’ said Jesus, ‘but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. 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 spat 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’ (this word means ‘Sent’). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.
John 9:1-7 NIVUK
https://bible.com/bible/113/jhn.9.1-7.NIVUK
Unless it is blindingly obvious, unless the suffering can clearly be linked to a bad decision, we have no right at all to point the finger. Moreover, even if it can, we are in no place to judge anyone because none of us are perfect. If we faced the full consequences of our bad decisions then we would all be in a bad way.
However, the Bible has one sound principle which is of vital importance when it comes to suffering. That is, suffering doesn't need to be wasted. You know how it is: someone is in hospital with a serious condition and people say "What a shame! Such a waste!"
Really?
There is a way suffering can be a waste, and there is a way to ensure it is never wasted. It's a waste if we allow suffering to break us. It's a waste if we let it destroy us. It's a waste if we become angry and twisted and bitter. It's never, ever a waste if we use it to grow and become a stepping stone to future success.
As Paul wrote to the church in Rome, which was undergoing fierce and merciless persecution:
Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
Romans 5:3-5 NIVUK
https://bible.com/bible/113/rom.5.3-5.NIVUK
I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.
Romans 8:18 NIVUK
https://bible.com/bible/113/rom.8.18.NIVUK
And to the Corinthians:
For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.
2 Corinthians 4:17 NIVUK
https://bible.com/bible/113/2co.4.17.NIVUK
The Bible sees suffering as a crucible, as a furnace for destroying dross and ore, allowing precious metal to emerge, having been purified. When some people are sent into the crucible of suffering, only dross emerges. I've seen people bent out of shape and bitter beyond belief when they emerge from suffering, or, as is likely following Coronavirus, traumatised and terrified beyond measure. I've seen others emerge as Job sought to emerge: as gold (Job 23:10).
The difference between dross and gold is not governed by temperament or by the level of hurt endured but by character. Suffering is how we find out who we truly are. The Christian thinker CS Lewis described pain as "God's megaphone to rouse a deaf world". And he should know. He married late in life and lost his wife to cancer. The question is: how do we react to the megaphone?
These verses do not contain a way for us to seek the healing of our land from Coronavirus. To believe so is a misinterpretation that can only work if we take them entirely out of context. What we see here instead is a way for us to journey from suffering to healing at a personal level. That journey begins with a decision: a decision to move on; a desire to find a way to heal rather that wallow in our own bitterness and despair. The question is: is this a journey we are willing to take?
So we have seen the problem, which is that God's people in these verses were praying to Him because they were suffering. We've seen that we can come to Him with the same problem, but on the basis of the New Covenant, not the Old one. Now we'll move on to look at THE CAUSE: what is it that caused their pain?
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