What does the Bible say about COVID-19. Nothing.
But the Bible does say a lot about thinking, deciding, and acting. There’s a few things to glean from Proverbs that may help you.
ONE: Is fear working as you ally or your adversary?
Proverbs encourages both courage and caution. The trick is knowing which emotion is helpful in a given circumstance and in regard to a specific decision.
- “One who is wise is cautious and turns away from evil, but a fool is reckless and careless” (Proverbs 14:16 ESV).
- “The sluggard says, “There is a lion outside! I shall be killed in the streets!” (Proverbs 22:13 ESV).
- “The prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffer for it” (Proverbs 22:3 ESV).
- “The wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are bold as a lion” (Proverbs 28:1 ESV).
People who think that Proverbs is supposed to contain simple moral truths don’t deal well with this kind of content. (Proverbs does contain such truths, but they are usually from earlier in Scripture.) It is best to think of Proverbs as a book of riddles. ” Solomon himself states in his introduction to his words: “Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance, to understand a proverb and a saying, the words of the wise and their riddles” (Proverbs 1:5–6 ESV). And so does Hezekiah: “These also are proverbs of Solomon which the men of Hezekiah king of Judah copied. It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out” (Proverbs 25:1–2 ESV).
The riddle in this case is: Which Proverb applies to this situation? I don’t know the answer for you. But I can tell you that, if you are conscientiously doing your best to figure it out, God doesn’t want you shamed into submission to another person’s fears or by another person calling you a coward.
TWO: Are you trying to shepherd the wind?
I spend a chapter in my new book (Amazon) showing that Proverbs is not a different message than Ecclesiastes. Working from Jeff Meyer’s excellent commentary (Amazon), I point out that the statement in Ecclesiastes that “All is vapor” (not vanity, or meaninglessness) and it’s comparison to trying to gain leverage over life being like “shepherding the wind,” has much in common with Proverbs. This includes three passages that compare human efforts to “vapor,” which I write about in the book.
Ultimately, even a global economy must deal with the real world:
Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to those with knowledge, but time and chance happen to them all. For man does not know his time. Like fish that are taken in an evil net, and like birds that are caught in a snare, so the children of man are snared at an evil time, when it suddenly falls upon them.
Ecclesiastes 9:11–12
I suffered an ischemic stroke a few years ago. I remember being in an ambulance, full of anxiety, thinking my life as I knew it was over. A few weeks later, I was getting better, and adapting to a much better life than expected, but using a walking cane and unable to drive. I remember one good friend who sometimes drove me to out-patient rehab.
Now, no one can tell I had a stroke and I was able to drive myself to the funeral home and walk into my friend’s visitation without a cane.
We simply don’t know what the future holds.
Do your duty. Do the best you can. Make the best decisions you can with your abilities and knowledge. Then stop worrying. Life isn’t in your control. “A man’s steps are from the LORD; how then can man understand his way?” (Proverbs 20:24 ESV) “And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest?” (Luke 12:25–26 ESV).
THREE: Is being a social animal a blessing or a curse?
It’s both.
One thing that becomes very clear as we live through these days, is that fear spreads and anxiety is contagious. It is easy to read, “You shall not fall in with the many to do evil…” (Exodus 23:2) or “You shall not be intimidated by anyone, for the judgment is God’s” (Deuteronomy 1:17) and make hasty pledges to oneself that you will always engage in critical thinking and keep a cool head no matter what others our doing. It’s another to find your busy neighborhood grocery store is a ghost town with half-empty shelves standing in for abandoned buildings. You can put a brave face on it but you feel like throwing up.
Social contagion is real and it takes a great deal of effort to think for oneself in the midst of a season of panic. Depending on how deadly the virus is and how easily spread, that fact might be saving lives. It isn’t always a bad thing for a society to be unified.
But it can serve bad ends as well. And every decision you make is a decision not only to bow or not bow to social pressure, but to who to join in exerting pressure.
- “Whoever heeds instruction is on the path to life, but he who rejects reproof leads others astray” (Proverbs 10:17 ESV).
- “The lips of the wise spread knowledge; not so the hearts of fools” (Proverbs 15:7 ESV).
- “Good sense is a fountain of life to him who has it, but the instruction of fools is folly” (Proverbs 16:22 ESV).
In a way, this demonstrates to us the power of Proverbs itself and part of the growth strategy of the Great Commission. When we exert the effort it takes to defy folly, we open up the possibility of starting a new social contagion. Of course, folly can be found at times both in the wider society and in silly counter cultures. You have to observe what is going on and think hard about how how you should live.
But in doing so, there is real hope for the future.