With one hand God sends lesser plague after lesser plague, warning of the greater one to come. With the other, he sends the Lamb of God, whose righteous life and atoning death provide the one house into which we may safely flee. There alone the final plague will pass us by.

I would like to offer a Christian perspective on the coronavirus pandemic.

Some 3500 years ago God spoke through Moses to a despotic Pharaoh in Egypt, telling him, “Let my people go.” Nine times Pharaoh refused, until at last God sent a final plague by which all the first-born sons of Egypt died. God’s people, however, were safely quarantined at home. When the angel of death saw the blood of a lamb on the doorposts and lintels of their houses, he passed them by.

This story speaks comfort to us today. Ever since Adam’s rebellion in Eden, all are infected with the virus of sin. Most freely do we display its ugly symptoms, and spread the disease wherever we go. But in love and mercy, the holy God withholds his final judgment. Instead, with one hand he sends lesser plague after lesser plague, warning of the greater one to come. With the other, he sends the Lamb of God, whose righteous life and atoning death provide the one house into which we may safely flee. There alone the final plague will pass us by.

The coronavirus is but a prod to enter the house. The risen Jesus Christ is the house. In love, he bids us all, “Come home.”

Dean Davis is the Director of Come Let Us Reason. This article is used with permission.