Quarantine?

In Genesis 50:19-21, Joseph reassures his brothers that he had no intention of punishing his brothers for the wrong they did to him. He said, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. So then, don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your children.” (Remember they were in Egypt because of a famine outbreak.)

While that may not be much comfort during the Coronavirus outbreak, we can find comfort in knowing God can use this serious problem as a way for his kingdom to really put her best foot forward. Or as Paul said in Romans 12:21, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

Throughout history, God’s kingdom has been most evident during difficult times. All throughout the persecutions of the second and third centuries, Christians still served the weak and helpless. Often times. their service cost them their lives in the process.

In other major outbreaks of pandemic proportions like the plague of Justinian (sixth century), or the Black Death plague (14th century), or the Cholera outbreak (1852), or the Spanish flu (1918) – all of these had high numbers of fatalities and no real cure. In fact, it wasn’t until 1938 that a vaccine for the flu was first developed.

How do WE turn something awful into an opportunity to promote God’s kingdom? It starts with the words Jesus said concerning the most important thing we can do to do the will of God… “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37-39; John 13:34-35; Romans 12:10; 1 John 3:11, 23; 4:7-12…)

And Paul reminded us in Philippians 2:3-4, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.”

Therefore, recognizing that the best practice in these situations is quarantine and good hygiene, we should “love our neighbor” enough that we do what is most sensible and considerate of those most susceptible to the flu, and simply respect the requests to keep in isolation for a while.

Probably a more expressive way that we can turn a bad situation into a good one, is by demonstrating the value of investing in our families right now. Similar to God requiring a Sabbath Day rest to be spent with family and NOT working so that we could appreciate one another better, perhaps a quarantine could be looked at and observed as a kind of Sabbath rest for our extremely busy lives.

Too many well-intended parents and grandparents have promoted the “busy life” to such a degree that families haven’t spent much time together at dinner or any other time in quite a while. So, perhaps we can see how observing the precautions help us keep families safer, as well as getting to spend more time with one of our most valuable possessions on the planet – our family.