Coronavirus: Why All the Hype?

The title may seem unkind to many.

But really, let's get this Coronavirus crisis in perspective.

Here are some crucial data to help us see this viral spread in light of other health plagues:

Intelligence Report, University of Hamburg

The number of deaths in the world in the first two months of 2020

       2360 : Corona virus

      69602 : Common cold

      140 584 : Malaria

     153,696 : suicide

     193,479 : road accidents

     240,950 : HIV loss

     358,471 : alcohol

     716,498 : smoking

  1,177,141 : Cancer

 Then do you think Corona is dangerous?

 Or is the purpose of the media campaign to settle the trade war between China and America

Or to reduce financial markets to prepare the stage of financial markets for mergers and acquisitions

Or to sell US Treasury bonds to cover the fiscal deficit in them

Or is it a Panic created by Pharma companies to sell their products like sanitizer, masks, medicine etc.

If you look, more people die from the common cold, cancer, HIV than the coronavirus!

So, what is going on?

People are more afraid of what they cannot control, what they cannot understand. The Coronavirus can catch anyone unawares, and it's not detectable with our eyes.

The Coronavirus undermines people's sense of self-control and mastery.

When it comes to cancer, alcohol abuse, or even HIV, there are best practices and behaviors which are easy to abide by, which enable individuals to avoid contracting these illnessess or falling victim to these diseases.

But let's take this analysis one step further.

This Coronavirus crisis truly is a great deal of hype, and nothing more. This virus will not kill you, necessarily, if you catch the virus. It's important and necessary to stay at home, rest, and recover. It's worthwhile to stay put and stay in peace.

And that is the larger problem in this world. People are running around, scurrying, refusing to rest, refusing to let God lead, let God reign. Well, point of fact God is going to reign, whether we respect Him or not.

But it works so much better for all of us if we just sit down and let Him make all our enemies our footstool. This was a big problem for me. Over the last two years, more or less, I have needed to learn to walk more and more by faith. I don't necessarily understand everything that is happening, but it does not mean that nothing is happening. It was essential for me to stop listening to the upsetting voices inside of me that were telling me to worry, wonder, and get worked up about what could be happening--or whether something was happening or not.

The people in this world think that the world cannot operate without their efforts, without their scheming.

Well, God has something to say about that:

"The wicked plotteth against the just, and gnasheth upon him with his teeth.

"The Lord shall laugh at him: for he seeth that his day is coming." (Psalm 37:12-13)

People have laid out their best plots and plans, to do the best they can, or rather the worst, for their benefit and at the price of everyone else.

James writes:

"13Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: 14Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. 15For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that." (James 4:13-15)

People around the world think that they have everything mapped out. They know where they are going, and they know how they are going to get there. They have mapped out their lives five years in advance, and they never once considered what God wanted, or what God could do, if He so chose.

As for the world:

"He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing." (Job 26:7)

The world hangs on nothing. The world does not need our help to keep turning, either.

The fallen people of this world are falling victim to their own self-loving pre-eminence. They are not victims of the worlds that they mapped out in their own minds, and it all comes to naught.

As for me and my house, we are resting in the LORD, believing that He is taking care of all things for us. The hype will affect this fallen world, as it should. For too long, they have treated God with such arrogant disdain, assuming that they are gods unto themselves. Now they face their grave mortality, and the greatest fear has come upon them:

"14Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; 15And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage." (Hebrews 2:14-15)

For those who walk by faith, not by sight, there is nothing to fear. For those who trust in Christ Jesus, there is no reason for the hype. For those who do not believe, hype and the hurts and harms which follow are inevitable--and they are indeed necessary to teach these fallen, rebellious creatures on two legs to honor their Creator and believe on their Redeemer.