The caskets are piling up in the potter’s field on Hart Island, New York. Typically, about 25 people a week are interred there. These are people with no known connections, or next of kin. But during this pandemic, the number of people buried there is nearly 5 times that high.[i] This is in New York City, which has become an epicenter for the pandemic. By their count, more than ten thousand (10,000) human beings have died there recently because of the coronavirus. Epicenter indeed! New York deaths account for more than one third of the twenty-six thousand (26,000) deaths in the United States.
So in the face of this pandemic, the words of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo were proud and pompous. Announcing that the number of new infections was down, the governor stated, “The number is down because we brought the number down . . . God did not do that. Faith did not do that. Destiny did not do that. . . A lot of pain and suffering did that . . . That’s how it works. It’s math. And if you don’t continue to do that, you’re going to see that number go back up. And that will be a tragedy if that number goes back up.”[ii]
In short, he was saying: It can’t be our Maker. It must be math.
Wisdom Cries in the Streets
In Proverbs 1:20-23 we learn about wisdom.
“Wisdom calls aloud outside; she raises her voice in the streets. She cries out in the chief concourses, at the openings of the gates in the city. She speaks her words:
‘How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? And scoffers delight in their scorning, And fools hate knowledge. Turn at my rebuke; surely I will pour out my spirit on you; I will make my words known to you.’” (Proverbs 1:20-23)
We grieve for those who have lost friends and family members to this virulent infection. Each and every human is a being made in the image of God – whether or not we know their next of kin.
But surely as this tragedy unfolds, each of us needs to listen to the wisdom that is crying in the streets. And what is she saying? Wisdom is saying that there are three foolish responses to this calamity: being naive, being a scoffer, and being a fool. By now, you have read many news articles illustrating all three responses in this current crisis. One commentator described wisdom this way: “Her problem with these three groups of people is that they each relish their present state of ignorance.”[iii] Another author wrote, “Wisdom is not abstract, secular, or academic but personal and theological. To reject wisdom is to reject God.[iv]
Governor Cuomo’s pronouncement is shocking. He didn’t merely avoid referring to God. The governor denied that God had anything to do with easing this crisis. Is this naïve? Or skeptical? Or foolish? Only God and the governor know for sure, but God knows how to humble the proud. The ability to do math comes from our Maker. Our scientists are using the gift of their Creator when they perceive the truth as they study viruses and mutations. Doctors are blessed with the intelligence to think clearly about their patients’ symptoms – using the aptitudes given by God above. Only the Infinite God could give us good immune systems to overcome this virus. Governors govern using gifts from God. It’s essential to encourage people to keep making sacrifices for safety. But it’s dangerous to deny the God who keeps us safe.
The takeaway for the rest of us is clear. Wisdom is crying in the streets. She is calling out on Wall Street and on Main Street in your town. Wisdom is crying out to those who are on the broad way to destruction to enter into the narrow gate of life (Matthew 7:13). Instead of being naïve about this pandemic, we need to learn what the Scriptures teach us about the Lord and about life. Rather than being scoffers and skeptics, we need to discover how to embrace the true and living God. Rather than hating knowledge – the true knowledge of God and the tested knowledge of the sciences – we need to be humble, zealous students. Doing so will teach us to call out for God’s mercies rather than merely trusting in math.
The Turning Point
But wisdom does more than tell us what to renounce. She also guides us to the rewards that come from true repentance.
Wisdom says, “Turn at my rebuke; surely I will pour out my spirit on you; I will make my words known to you.” This is a good medicine for all of us. Instead of insisting that we must be right, this is the humility to learn where we are wrong.
Wisdom promises that if you and I will turn, we will be rewarded; we will be blessed with the presence of the Spirit of God. And these are not mere whimsies: no indeed, we will perceive the wisdom of God’s words. Our pompous political leaders need a good dose of this medicine before it is too late.[v]
Undoubtedly, this is why Jesus Christ began His public ministry with these words: “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17). The Lord Jesus did not come to this earth merely to demonstrate how to live, but He did show us that. He showed us how to live in a humble, prayerful manner, depending upon God the Father. Yes, Jesus lived the perfect life before God. But He also offered up Himself as the perfect sacrifice for the sins of mankind. In rising again, He showed every one of us how to rise up out of our naïve, skeptical foolishness. He promised that the Holy Spirit would indwell those who would turn to Him. And the words of Scripture authored by the Spirit will have new meaning to us (John 7:17).
A political leader from ancient times shows us the way forward in this pandemic. When Solomon consecrated the temple in 1 Kings 8, he anticipated pandemics such as we are now facing. Knowing that his people were also tempted to be naïve, skeptical and foolish, Solomon prayed for them. In 1 Kings 8:33-40, he anticipated invasions, drought, pandemics, crop failures, plagues of locust, and widespread sickness due to the disobedience of the nation of Israel. He described a nation who had sinned against God (v. 33). And in the midst of those hard times, the conscience of every man would bear testimony to “the plague of his own heart” (v.38). This is what comes to mind in severe circumstances. Believers start looking for what has broken their fellowship with the Lord and confess it. And even sinful people who become sensible will search their hearts for the sins that separate them from God. Though these words were written for the nation of Israel, they surely give us good medicine for today.
And when people turn, they will know that it’s not just about the math. It’s about our Maker.
Pastor Gordon Dickson, Calvary Baptist Church, Findlay, Ohio
[i] Lucas Jackson and Brendan McDermid, “New York sees uptick in bodies buried at mass gravesite amid coronavirus pandemic” Reuters Global News, April 10, 2020, accessed at https://globalnews.ca/news/6804468/coronavirus-new-york-mass-graves/
[ii] Amanda Prestigiacomo, The DailyWire, “Cuomo Boasts Of Low COVID Infections: ‘God Did Not Do That’” April 14, 2020, accessed at https://www.dailywire.com/news/cuomo-boasts-of-low-covid-infections-god-did-not-do-that
[iii] Tremper Longman III, Proverbs, Baker Commentary Series on the Old Testament Wisdom and Psalms, Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2006 p. 112
[iv] Duane A. Garrett, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, vol. 14, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1993), 72.
[v] Read Proverbs 1:24-33. According to this passage, refusing to listen to God’s wisdom can result in permanent tragedy. Stop to consider the contrast between proud Herod and humble Peter: see video and manuscript from Psalm 91 at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-n7ZOCYsDEM