When Disaster Looms, Our Eyes Are on You

When Disaster Looms, Our Eyes Are on You

Saturday, March 28, 2020
Devotional for Day 11

“[W]e are powerless against this great horde that is coming against us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.” - 2 Chronicles 20:12 (ESV)

Jehoshaphat spoke these words as the armies of Ammon and Moab came against Judah. It was too much. Against an unstoppable foe, the King of Judah was afraid. God’s people assembled together and sought the Lord. And this was their King’s prayer. This is repentance: turning to the Lord. 

Earlier in Jehoshaphat’s prayer, he says “If disaster comes upon us, the sword, judgment, or pestilence, or famine, we will stand before this house and before you…” (v. 9). “Pestilence” is defined as a fatal epidemic disease. In facing COVID-19 we are in a season that could be described as unnerving. Unsettling. Weird. Many people are afraid. Most people are confused. What is this coronavirus and what is the cure? Why is this happening?

So we assemble together, in this fast, to seek the Lord. We humble ourselves, looking to the God of all creation for relief, for hope, for answers. This is a season for us to repent. When Jesus was asked about certain calamities that brought suffering, he responded: “Unless you repent, you will likewise perish” (Luke 13:5). John Piper writes that “[t]he point of every deadly calamity is this: Repent. Let our hearts be broken that God means so little to us. Grieve that he is a whipping boy to be blamed for pain, but not praised for pleasure. Lament that he makes headlines only when man mocks his power, but no headlines for ten thousand days of wrath withheld. Let us rend our hearts that we love life more than we love Jesus Christ. Let us cast ourselves on the mercy of our Maker. He offers it through the death and resurrection of his Son.” 

We don’t really know what to do, but our eyes are on You, Lord. And in You we will put our trust, as loved ones get sick and die, as businesses close, as livelihoods are lost, as the earth seems to stand still. We declare with the Psalmist: “Whom have I in heaven but you, and there is nothing on earth I desire beside you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but you are the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”

Tucker Else
Ministry Director, Christian Union Martus