The New Normal - Conquering the Plague or Getting Right With God?

Reading Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the minor prophets sobers me. Times of great turmoil present both opportunity and danger. Recent history offers examples:

• World War 1 and the Spanish flu epidemic, followed by the roaring twenties.
• The Great Depression that birthed the Nazi regime in Germany.
• World war 2 laid the foundation for the Pax Americana and the Cold War. But ....
• Sustained prosperity led to the world’s values progressing ever more into the seven deadly sins.
• The fall of the iron curtain changed little, but freed the west to accelerate, until ....
• The events of September 11, 2001 shocked the west with the need for a global war on terror, 
• The economic contraction of 2008 created a bunker mentality for the financial sector.

We could see these events as simply the stuff of history, that perseverance and human ingenuity overcome.

Is the current situation similar to the great historical events, such as the bubonic plague in Europe 1348-1351, or the Babylonian and Assyrian invasions of Judah and Israel? Is life so fundamentally changed that it won’t return to the way things were? How will we respond to the New Crown Virus and the economic catastrophe that ensues? Major options:

• Individually and corporately figure out how to defeat it, medically, socially, economically,  and get back on track.
• Expect the government to intervene and fix everything.
• Repent our wandering hearts, cry out to God, and change our ways.

History and current events support the rejection of the credibility of the first option. It didn’t happen in 1348 or in 1929, and the dysfunction of our current approach suggests it won’t now. The experience of the 1930’s does not bode well for the second. Because the bottom line alternatives are either man’s ways or God’s. There is no mystery here, only pride and free will. Even the outcome is not in doubt (Revelation 19:11-16, 20:11-15), only our participation and place in it result from our free choice.

Until that event, the new normal likely is based on social distancing, prohibition of large gatherings, wearing personal protective equipment in public; it will take awhile for us to figure out how we relate, work, play, and worship under these new norms. The economy will suffer, at least by the metrics of existing business structures. Some industries may vanish, such as tourism, sit down restaurants, public education, organized sports. 

https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/04/new-model-looks-at-what-might-happen-if-sars-cov-2-is-here-to-stay/

Our apparent standard of living will drop. Amidst it all, will we say the following with Habakkuk?

Though the fig tree should not blossom

And there be no fruit on the vines,

Though the yield of the olive should fail

And the fields produce no food,

Though the flock should be cut off from the fold

And there be no cattle in the stalls,

Yet I will exult in the Lord,

I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.

The Lord God is my strength,

And He has made my feet like hinds’ feet,

And makes me walk on my high places.

[Habakkuk 3:17-19, NASB]