What Has the Coronavirus Done To You?

       Hulk Hogan does not come to mind when people are asked to think of a great Bible scholar or preacher or theologian. Nevertheless, after the Coronavirus shut down a scheduled Wrestle Mania in Tampa, Florida, back in early April 2020, the muscled up Hulk held forth on what he thought God was doing through the Covid-19 pandemic and all the so-called "draconian" measures world leaders enacted to battle the pesky, persistent, vile virus. In an Insta Gram post Hogan said: "In three short months, just like He did with the plagues of Egypt, God has taken away everything we worship. God said, ‘You want to worship athletes, I will shut down the stadiums. You want to worship musicians, I will shut down Civic Centers. You want to worship money, I will shut down the economy and collapse the stock market. You don’t want to go to church and worship Me, I will make it where yon can’t go to church’ " ("Hulk Hogan on coronavirus: ‘Maybe we don’t need a vaccine’ " by Jay Cridlin at tampabay.com/news). Hogan also suggested God wanted people to "humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways" in order that He might "forgive their sin and heal their land." I don’t know if God specifically said or even thought the things Hogan said God said about shutting down America’s idols – but God is on record as saying that part about humility and prayer and forgiveness and sin and healing (see 2 Chronicles 7:14). Hogan stirred the controversy pot even more when he wrote, "Maybe we don’t need a vaccine. Maybe we need to take this time of isolation from the distractions of the world and have a personal revival where we focus on the ONLY thing in the world that really matters. Jesus."

I know not everybody who reads this article will agree with Hogan. Or with God. What I do know is this. The God who crippled the mighty pharaoh of Egypt long ago didn’t have to have nuclear bombs and army tanks and laser-guided missiles. To bring that arrogant, idolatrous, proud ruler and his powerful nation to their knees, God used some pretty small and seemingly weak things. Don’t believe me? Read Exodus chapter 5 through chapter 12. If you do you will see how God brought the mightiest nation and its supposedly divine ruler to their knees – not with a nuclear device or laser-guide missiles or Abrams M1A2 tanks. No. God’s weapons of choice included things like frogs (8:2ff), lice (8:17ff), flies (8:21ff), hail (9:18ff), locusts (10:4ff), darkness (10:21ff), and finally, death of the firstborn (12:29ff). The mighty Pharaoh who at first arrogantly defied God saying – "Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, nor will I let Israel go" (5:2) – ends up pitifully pleading, "Rise, go out from among my people ... as you have said, and be gone; and bless me also" (12:31-32).

I don’t want to get hung up in a debate about whether God specifically caused the coronavirus. I know Psalm 115:3 declares, "But our God is in heaven; He does whatever He pleases." The question I want to leave with you is not who caused the coronavirus or whether or not it is from God or even what has the coronavirus done to America. The question I want to leave with you is what has the coronavirus done to you? Has it only made you angry, frustrated, and fearful? Why not, as Hulk Hogan suggested, allow it to make you more humble and focus more deeply on your need for God? Just asking. Won’t you think about it? 

        by: Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN