I read The Circle by Ted Dekker last year and did in fact review it on this blog this year. In book 1, Black, a virus is released upon the world – The raison Strain. Unlike Corona virus, its completely airborne and within the shortest possible time, everyone has caught it.
In Black, when a certain charming reporter first catches wind of the fast-spreading virus through the mouth of his scientist girlfriend, he jokes, “how bad is it? The Ebola?” To which he is told, “Even worse“.

Ebola.

But first,

Corona Virus.

Before Corona Virus hit Nigeria, I had began studying the book of Job. Reading through each verse of Job’s calamity and pondering.

Hold that thought still, and let’s discuss bedbugs as the prelude to this.

Bedbugs.

Some weeks ago, I obeyed the clarion call to serve my nation in the compulsory one year youth service, and I was thrust in the southern part of Nigeria – Rivers state.

In the capital city, my first night at my lodge was a living hell. I got awful reactions from bed bug bites; my body was swelling all over and itchy. I was most uncomfortable and the room was very hot. In the initial misguided notion that it was mosquito bites, I had slept (well, the closest I could come to sleeping) under a small mosquito net drawn over the slim mattress placed on the floor. It was the worst night I’d ever had. I couldn’t turn on my side without bodily discomfort. In accidentally touching the mosquito net in that heat, the itch would burn even worse. By the time we discovered they weren’t mosquito bites but bedbugs bites, my reaction was very far gone.

It all got settled finally. I was treated that night. Lacking the right drug and cream in the clinic, I was alternatively helped with drips and injections until the swellings were down the following morning.

Now, I write all of this to tell you when I read Job chapter 7 vs 4-6, I could picture it mentally. I could relate. The night of the bed bug infestation, I couldn’t sleep. One minute was like an hour. Four hours like twenty tortuous hours.

Here, Job speaks of his turmoils, worst being that his own days are spent without hope. I had hope. Follow Job:

When I lie down, I say, When shall I arise, and the night be gone? And I am full of tossings to and fro until the dawning of the day. My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust; my skin is broken and become loathsome. My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle and are spent without hope”.

I had nothing close to what Job went through. My flesh wasn’t coated with worms and clods of dust.

How did Job in the midst of what he went through (not for one night, but) for weeks on end, not curse God?

Or
How did Nigeria’s Igonoh hear the heart breaking words “Your blood tested positive for Ebola” and not curse God?
Dr Ada Igonoh was twenty eight; young, brilliant, beautiful, bright and full of ambition. How could she go into isolation and there watch people with the same condition she had, writhe in pain and bleed through their eyes, noses and mouths till they die.

These were people occupying the beds to her left and right, other health professionals like herself who got infected when striving to do their jobs. How?
Igonoh would come out to testify that her faith kept her through. Her faith. This is the subject matter.

So with Covid-19 pandemic ongoing, what if, my friend, the news wasn’t that anyone was recovering, what if the news wasn’t that there could be an escape from death? What if the situation is that you caught it?
What then? Do you curse God?

Selah.

Will you, when God appears to be silent about your matter, refuse to be silent to him?
Will you say like Job:

I would seek unto God, and unto God would I commit my cause. Job 5:8.

For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace

Hebrews 13:9

Christian, at what point do you really curse God?
You can read Dr Ada Igonoh’s Story online and when you do, read carefully of how her exposure came from working professionally as a doctor. Experience through reading, the deserted ward she was placed in, read of her young husband and ask yourself at what point you would blame God.

We are a generation of them that seek Him even when his face appears to be (hidden).

Whether we have a reaction to bedbugs, or a physical ailment, or corona virus disease, or Ebola or the Raison Strain, we are convinced that no physical ailment can separate us from the Love of Christ.

Psalm 27:13,14:

” I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the lord in the land of the living

Wait on the lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the lord.

 

Job 19: 25-27

For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:

²⁶ And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God:

²⁷ Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.

And that, friend, is a Christian’s response.

Have you read Dr Igonoh’s story? What’s your comment? Don’t forget to share this post with your friends.

As always,

your friend,

Debby.