I pray and declare God’s peace and provision over you and your families during this outbreak of global concern. When we look back across history, every time an epidemic broke out, eventually the Lord enabled humans to discover vaccines and antibiotics to defeat them. Times of trial provide an opportunity for believers to demonstrate Christ’s love, peace and wisdom.
Humans are the crowning glory of God’s creation and we were placed upon the earth, first of all, to be in relationship with God. Secondly, through that relationship, we were to “rule” and “have dominion over” the earth including all the animal and plant life, the “creeping things that creep upon the earth.” (Gen 1:26-28). Humans are crowned by God, ordained as His kings and queens, to steward the planet in alignment with His will.
This dominion with which God crowned human beings was to be expressed in two ways:
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We were to “tend” the earth (Gen 2:15). Tending anything involves using the creative minds with which the Creator has endowed those “made in His image.” Tending includes discovering, cultivating, building things with the stuff God made, developing shovels, wheels, and eventually all the great science and technology that we enjoy today. Exercising this “dominion” over the “creeping things,” includes discovering vaccines and antibiotics, and all sorts of medicine. This is part of the authority God gave us.
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We were to “keep” the earth (Gen 2:15). The Hebrew actually means to “guard.” The devil, to whom Adam and Eve yielded only a chapter later, was already prowling about. But it was to Adam and Eve, not to the devil, that God gave the authority and power to overcome! It was human beings who were chosen to wear God’s kingly crown of authority over the earth, not the devil and not the animals or the bugs. So Adam was tasked with “guarding” the Garden – the earth – from the forces of evil.
“Corona” is Latin/Spanish for crown. The virus is so named because on its surface are small spikes reminiscent of a king’s crown. The devil is a false ruler, a defeated foe. He has no real power. In the same way, this “bug” – a “creeping thing upon the earth” does not possess the crown. We need not fear, because the authority to subdue the creeping things, both physical and spiritual, belongs to us. We WILL come through this.
Moreover, the greatest Crown is worn by the King who is above all kings, who will “never leave us nor forsake us.” The One who dominated incurable diseases and calmed storms in the Bible “takes hold of your right hand and says, ‘Do not fear; I will help you, declares the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.’” (Isaiah 41:13-14).
How should we, the bearers of God’s “crown,” God’s authorized keepers of Planet Earth, steward this moment in history?
- Are you walking in relationship with the King of kings, the Lord Jesus Christ? Is He YOUR King? If you’re a believer, is your crown submitted to His?
- Let us use this season to demonstrate Christ to those around us. In the ancient days, when pestilence came, the believers reached out with love and generosity to others.
- Pray and lay our beloved nation and the world before the Throne of Grace. May our nation return to her God and to righteousness, that He may “heal our land”(2 Chron. 7:14).
- Do not fear and do not over-react, as many are doing, which makes the situation worse than it needs to be. “Be strong and courageous” for He has given us the crown of His authority to rule over our own hearts, the creatures and the powers of darkness.