'Why COVID19 Now?'
Will God use similar disasters to chastise sinful and rebellious Christians for their abominable practices?
It is God's will that every human be saved and be transformed back into His image by perfecting their love for God and for one another, so that they can be seated with Him in heavenly places.
God gave the Israelites all types of earthly blessings as incentives for keeping the law of Moses (Deu 28:1-14)
To discourage them from damnation for their wickedness, God chastised them with curses (Deu 28:15-68) so that in great pains and sufferings they would repent.
Punishments for Rebellion
Lev 26:14-16 'But if you do not obey Me, and do not observe all these commandments, and if you despise My statutes, or if your soul abhors My judgments, so that you do not perform all My commandments, but break My covenant, I also will do this to you: I will even appoint terror over you, wasting disease and fever which shall consume the eyes and cause sorrow of heart. And you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.
Punishment with diseases of eyes (1. Pestilence), robbed by enemies (2. Warfare).
Lev 26:18-20 'And after all this, if you do not obey Me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins. I will break the pride of your power; I will make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze. And your strength shall be spent in vain; for your land shall not yield its produce, nor shall the trees of the land yield their fruit.
If they still would not repent, then crops failure caused by natural calamities (3. Famine).
Lev 26:21-22 'Then, if you walk contrary to Me, and are not willing to obey Me, I will bring on you seven times more plagues, according to your sins. I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children, destroy your livestock, and make you few in number; and your highways shall be desolate.
When they continued to rebel, they would be killed by wild animals (4. Wild Animals).
Lev 26:23-25 'And if by these things you are not reformed by Me, but walk contrary to Me, then I also will walk contrary to you, and I will punish you yet seven times for your sins. And I will bring a sword against you that will execute the vengeance of the covenant; when you are gathered together within your cities I will send pestilence among you; and you shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy.
When they still rebelled, then many would be killed by pestilences and conquered by enemies.
Lev 26:27-28 'And after all this, if you do not obey Me, but walk contrary to Me, then I also will walk contrary to you in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins.
Our loving and merciful Father was long-suffering towards them by giving them many opportunities to repent as He guided them through sufferings in their chastisement.
Even after all these sufferings they still rebelled, then God would become their enemy. Israel and Jerusalem would be annihilated.
The enemies would scattered them to other nations so that in their sufferings they would repent.
Lev 26:29-30 You shall eat the flesh of your sons, and you shall eat the flesh of your daughters. I will destroy your high places, cut down your incense altars, and cast your carcasses on the lifeless forms of your idols; and My soul shall abhor you.
At Repentance of Israel
Lev 26:40a, 45 " 'But if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers... But for their sake I will remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God: I am the Lord.' "
When they repented, God remembered the covenant.
To chastise and punish the sinful and abominable Israelites, God used
1. Pestilences, (diseases),
2. Wars,
3. Famine
4. Wild Animal and Calamities.
