| It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes. |
| —Psalm 118:8-9 |
You’ve heard them—the talking heads on television telling about the scientific breakthroughs and solid progress that they see streaming forth and conquering COVID-19. We hear how the “greatest nation in the world” with the “greatest scientific minds” will have a cure in no time at all. I don’t disagree that we live in the greatest nation and have the best minds, but, the boasting and reliance on these assessments causes me concern.
After discussing with some people the fact that, in early 1918, a great uncle of mine died during Army basic training in World War I, they queried if he had the H1N1 virus pandemic known as the “Spanish Flu.” The family has always asserted, and even his death certificate stated, that he died of pneumonia. I wonder though?
In a podcast from “Defense One Radio,”1 I heard this information:
Social distancing, Quarantines, Improvised masks. These are not just the facts of American life today. They were also common for American soldiers in 1918. 675,000 Americans died, including 45,000 Army soldiers. More American soldiers died from the flu in 1918 than died in combat in World War I and more Americans died from that 1918 flu pandemic than died from all the wars in the last century. The Navy Surgeon General at the outset of the war boasted, “Infectious diseases that formerly carried off their thousands, such as yellow fever, typhus, cholera and typhoid have all yielded to our modern knowledge of their causes and our consequent logical measures taken for their prevention.”
In fact, these 1918 “modern” researchers were looking through their microscopes for germs—that is, for bacteria. Viruses were not even discovered and seen under a microscope until 1933. The idea that modern science could conquer anything, could keep the country safe, could stop a “war” of this kind, proved that this so-called Spanish Flu would not “yield” to a human’s expertise.
I certainly pray that our 21st century researchers and doctors will find a vaccine in record time for this present COVID-19 pandemic. However, as a Christian, I know that human wisdom has a limit. What haven’t we discovered yet? Humans only know as much as our Sovereign God reveals to them. Again and again in Scripture, we read that God is a jealous God. He will have no other god before Him—including the “god” of human knowledge.
Every time I hear that our leaders have stopped for prayer, or asked for the nation to pray, my heart thrills. Bowing in prayer symbolizes our neediness before a powerful God. I continue to pray that these same leaders will actually rely on the living God and not on the keenness of humans’ minds to bring an answer to this deadly disease.
We need to heed the advice of the writer of Proverbs 3:5-6, when he wrote about God and urged us to:
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.
Then, when this COVID-19 pandemic no longer poses the threat it now does, we can quote the Non Nobis, Domine from Psalm 115:1:
Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness.
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| 1 Podcast—“Defense One Radio”: The 1918 Flu and the U.S. Military. Episode 66, April 11, 2020. |
