Coronavirus & Christ
- 15 February 2021
This unseen blight sent down from higher realm
To test the constitution of mankind
Has countless feeble-minded overwhelmed
Ensnaring them like sheep both lost and blind.
For God has demonstrated in His word
That He is sovereign in this universe;
Those sheep their Master’s voice have rarely heard
And so remain fast bound beneath God’s curse.
Yet other sheep have heard their Master’s voice;
While stumbling, they make haste to turn aside,
Disdaining panic-calls and angry noise
Requiring them to stay at home inside.
The message they have heard they’ve swallowed deep
(Compelling expertise from learned men)
Convincing them that, after all, they’re sheep
Who must not question ‘Why? or Who? or When?’
Alas for weeks they think they’re being wise
To keep a “social distance” and “the rules”.
But they unwittingly are swayed by lies
Too easily they’re led along by fools.
What madness has reduced us all to this?
To hold back little infants in our arms,
Supposing that a Grandad’s hug and kiss
Might risk the spread of deadly bugs and germs!
Awaken! Pause awhile dear friend and think:
Have you to folly been by guile reduced?
Reverse at once your tendency to wink
At cruel lies that sanction child-abuse.
The danger that you fear within your heart
Is symptomatic of a lack of trust;
The Devil whom you dread is very smart
And whispers, “Don’t you dare!” and “Yes, you must!”
For Jesus Christ alone is Lord of all
And has, within the contours of his Word,
Supplied for us a strong defensive wall
That cautions us to question what we’ve heard.
Contagions He from time to time us sends,
While legislating clearly how to cope;
The precepts that His counsel recommends
Are practical and wise, supplying hope.
There is no warrant for the civil state
To fetter us together in one home;
It has no right our conscience to berate,
While telling frail and aged, ‘Live alone!’
Barbarity and tyranny abound!
Vast multitudes have plainly been bewitched!
Yet isolated pockets can be found
Whose residents reach down to scratch their itch.
“Why can’t I hold his hand and blow his nose?
Why can’t he sit awhile up on my knee?”
The priesthood softly speaks, “That’s how it goes!”
“We are the ones in charge, we oversee!”
But nowhere in the Scriptures are we called
To bow the knee to Caesar on this front;
True saints by such pronouncements are appalled
And at such ‘regulations’ take affront.
The federal head of all the world is Christ;
By each in turn his governance is shared.
The family’s the sphere of heaven’s choice
Wherein we’re nurtured, entertained and cheered.
Both church and state have limits by decree;
Their jurisdictions are by God forbade
To make encroachments where they shouldn’t be –
In social realms a higher Hand has made!
When will the Lord of glory send his grace
And, as a Shepherd, summon back his sheep?
When shall we feel our children’s warm embrace
And soothe our broken hearts and cease to weep?
Dear God of love have mercy on us all,
Supply Your holy wisdom from on high,
Forgive us for the countless ways we fall
And give to us a more discerning eye!
Arise you citizens of every land!
Disdain the overreach of men on high!
This isn’t what the Lord of glory planned,
This isn’t how to live nor how to die.
Stand tall, let courage fill your sunken chest,
Despise, like David did, his wretched foes;
Eschew the propaganda on you pressed
To do so isn’t wrong as you suppose.
Gods Law must every thought in us constrain,
His only is the guidance for our feet;
If we submit to Him we shall remain
Invincible; we’ll never face defeat!
A multitude of saints have gone before
Who’ve sometimes had to shed their very blood;
The Lord himself is standing at the door
Commending us for striving to be good.
Let holy Law be written on your hand,
Let it inform the choices that you make,
For Jesus and his Kingdom take your stand
And show that, in your heart, you’re wide awake.
On judgement day before his throne we’ll fall!
Were we his loyal subjects through and through?
Will we be able there to stand at all
For having loved his truth and being true?
Coronavirus thunders from on high –
A trumpet blast, a vial heaven sent –
Have you my reader stopped to wonder why
You’ve been enticed by lies which men invent?
The choice is yours: who will you now obey?
An idol of your fickle, fallen mind?
Ne’er mind the idle things that others say,
Determine to be practically kind.
Beyond this present ‘Lockdown’ you will see
The Bride of Christ with eyes more open wide
And everywhere in all the world there’ll be
The healing of His wings if we abide.
No more will sin and suffering prevail,
No more will sorrow suffocate our way;
The sunshine of His love will in the vale
Illuminate the words we think and say.
Until that Day we’ll patiently forbear
And contemplate the wisdom He’s supplied
With other souls we’ll talk of it and share;
Recalling how for sins & lies Christ died.
1 2Sam 5:8
