I. Introduction

This is not a doomsday sermon; it is a wakeup-call sermon. A warning shot has been fired across the bow. It is just a warning we think. The shot streaked across the bow in December 2019, but it has been in flight some seventy-four years since 1945, and at the time of this writing the bow and the stern and everything in between are shaking from that shot. We think that Jehovah God permitted this projectile to take wings and fly to get our, that is, to get the world’s, attention. Specifically, to get the attention of a largely Jehovah-Godless, pleasure-sick world. Unprecedented Godlessness, and pleasure-sickness—particularly these two growing trends on the base of a burgeoning, on the base of an exceedingly massive world population receptive to and quite hardened in these trends—is what God is warning us about. His concern is over the potential for exponential growth of this wickedness we think. The affluent (not all), and maybe even more so the spiritually dead educator-intelligentsia in academics, especially in the eased-back and spiritually dead West, are the trend setters here we think; we would lay the blame for the warning shot largely right here. Why? Their infectious, Godless world views and attendant practices have spread like a contagion back and forth across the earth, not unlike the warning from God in the dress of Covid-19 that now makes its way back and forth across the earth. It will take more than a warning for God to right the ship here because of arrogance and stubborn self-righteousness (Psalms 10:1-7, 8-11). So for now He simply warns, but O how His warning shot shook its targets—in the blink of an eye it is no longer “business as usual,” particularly in the pleasure businesses. Instead of lots of fun and games at the raucous arenas and pleasure venues across the world, “day in and day out,” God has shut us up in quarantine; time to slow down, meditate, contemplate; time for prayer for the first time in the lives of many. It is not an accident that the entertainment business, one of Jehovah’s chief competitors, has taken a direct hit here. Let’s talk, say, sports for a moment—that industry is all but dead at the time of this writing—and if not dead, it is but a mere shadow of its former self. And nobody wants to be huddled in a theatre or a bar with a mass of potentially infected people about, so those kinds of venues are all but dead too for the moment. These are attention-getters—one can hardly miss what’s going on here. So, what is the point; what is the attention, the sobriety check, that is being called for? It is for one and all to see and grasp that this modern world is a pleasure-sick world, that it lusts after ease and pleasure 24/7, and that the Benefactor Jehovah God is at best a burden and a nuisance to its pleasures. We are not at all shocked and surprised that God’s ubiquitous, not so little micro-servant Covid-19 has forced change, because God is not mocked, not ever, not even a little bit (Galatians 6:7-8). Yea, that God forced change here is not a typo, it is the right way to understand what is happening—specifically God permitted this attitude readjusting Covid-19 servant of His to roll for a while, and only He knows how long it will be necessary for His attention-getter to roll on.

Because this is a pandemic, it is not hard to figure out that God’s focus is on the entire world—all peoples and nations—and it follows that attention to the problem, and repentance thereof, on a worldwide scale, is our best vaccine and cure per se for this costly attention-getter crisis we find ourselves mired in. With nowhere to run to escape it God has us shut up to a new reality, even His, and He has kicked our props out from under us forcing us to face up to His Reality, even Truth, the Truth, which finds us guilty before Him, and motivates His warning for—notice carefully please—our long-term good, not the appeasing of His righteous indignation. We dedicated our JA “Please Join Us” focus this month (April, 2020) for said introspection and repentance and prayer for mercy; let us each hold ourselves accountable before God and to the best of our human abilities make the necessary changes in the things His Spirit reveals need changing, with a mindset of never turning back.

Practically speaking now, Jehovah God will raise up a different kind of servant, a medical servant or servants, to turn this around when we humble ourselves and confess our wickedness before Him and repent. But we do not see this repentance happening on a wide enough scale (unless things get much worse) because these pleasure sins are ever so endearing, and not least because the humility that attends repentance is far beneath many an eased-back, better-than-Thou modern who, according to their humanist, secular norms, will argue that they are anything but evil and wicked. But God says otherwise of this generation, and all the ones before. Please notice what Jehovah God says here—He says that humankind is desperately sick in the heart, deceitful, and wicked (ouch-Psalms 53:1, ouch-Jeremiah 17:9, ouch-cf. Jesus Matthew 15:19, et al.; humankind has a heart problem), and modern humankind has taken this wickedness to new depths. We think it is remarkable, nay, it is incredible, that God but warns here; but then again, He is deity, and His ways are infinitely more elegant and holy than ours. Finally, Scripture makes it clear that no amount of shots over the bow will in fact humble Godless and pleasure-sick humankind (Revelation 1-20), only rebirth of spirit by Jehovah’s Spirit truly humbles people (John3:1-21, “A Letter of Invitation”).

II. Benchmark: Godless and Pleasure-sick Sodom and Gomorrah

We would like now to focus on an apt biblical precedent, namely, ancient Sodom and Gomorrah, to sort of benchmark the above-mentioned Godlessness and pleasure-sickness in effort to figure out how this modern world stacks up, spiritually. Of course, from God’s perspective, the Sodom and Gomorrah spiritual benchmark pegs the holiness meter in the negative.

Sodom was a great agricultural and technological and business center of the ancient world (Genesis 13:10), and accordingly Sodom was exceedingly rich and wanted for nothing. All that money found its way to the metropolis making it a wonder of the ancient world—magnificent in its layout and architecture, technologically prominent for its day. Peoples from across the ancient world were attracted to Sodom and congregated and settled there. So much for the dazzling exterior, let’s look down under the surface a little bit: what did they do that was so bad from God’s perspective (Genesis 13:13, 18:20, 19:13)? Immorality, licentiousness, brutality, and pride, and not least selfish indifference per se were Sodom’s great sins. And of course, they worshipped not Jehovah. The Sodomites wore their lusts and sensual pleasures “on their sleeves” as it were. Particularly, homosexuality was rampant; it was a norm that needed not legal sanction, it was a way of life for the Sodomites. The Bible says they “were given over” to homosexuality (Genesis 19:5, Jude 1:7—so too Gomorrah and the cities round about).

Moreover, the Sodomites were brutal and violent—these are significant reasons why the cry went up to God against them (Genesis 18:20, 19:13). Whence this outcry, and why (Strong's-H2201 for “outcry”)? Here is a possible angle: homosexuality, rather, forced homosexuality—rape—motivated much of the violence (Genesis 19:5-9). Since the homosexuals held sway there, homosexuality was a law unto itself, and thus the cry of the abused had not an ear, but God’s, whom they knew not, certainly. That is one possibility. But given this angle it follows that when God ultimately moved against Sodom, He destroyed both the abuser and the abused. Yet we know that Abraham interceded with God to spare Sodom if there were as few as ten righteous people in Sodom from God’s perspective, and God concurred (Genesis 18:23-29, 30-32). Obviously, there were not as many as ten righteous in Sodom; save for Lot and his family, the whole place was wicked in God’s estimation. We take it that the cry of all, and the aggregate volume of that cry, is definitely noticed by God, and He moves to save specifically His people (Lot and family in this context), and certainly He moves to save the times—near and future, for all, thus acting as the absolute Sovereign that He in fact is, and acting always in keeping with His holiness and His holiness goals for humankind. Covid-19, getting back to that theme for a moment, is but a warning we think, but we reckon Jehovah God is moving, warning here, to save the times going forward—specifically, the potential for exponential growth on the base of a massive and burgeoning world population that shows accelerated growth in its Godlessness and pleasure-sickness. There can be little doubt that God has heard the cry of His people in that regard to move against that Godlessness and pleasure-sickness which His own disdain to put it mildly. God’s people do not want to be exposed to such wickedness and we certainly do not want our little ones to be inculcated by it through exposure to it at all levels of society these days—thus we cry out against it. Now, if the Sodomites had a cry before God that brought judgment, we Christians have a vastly better and stronger cry before Him that moves Him to judgment ever so much more. We fully realize that when God moves against this wickedness all alike suffer in the flesh, but not all alike suffer in spirit. That is of little worth in the estimation of the Godless humanist secularists that worship their fleeting todays, but it is exceeding blessedness to the God-fearing Christian who accordingly takes these things in stride awaiting better, everlasting tomorrows with our Lord and great savior God Jesus Christ and with His people; thus together as a holy Family going forward into eternity quite alive and quite well.

Moreover, the Sodomites were eased-back, and fat, haughty, full of themselves with hardly a concern for the marginalized and poor and hurting whom their wealth of money and resources, and wealth of time, could have much helped (Ezekiel 16:49-50—here our Lord speaks to Judah by way of analog). Notice that the Sodomites were sinful specifically against the Lord God Jehovah (Genesis 13:13).

With some of the basics thus laid out before us we shall by God’s grace try to tie all this together with respect to Covid-19 in the concluding comments section just next.

III. Concluding Comments

Covid-19 is a warning from Jehovah God for Godless, pleasure-sick humankind to turn from these sins. It is a warning to the entire world in this regard, and yet at the same time it is a heads-up: that the world has bought into a lie modeled and propagated largely by the eased-back, Godless, and exceedingly pleasure-sick West. The lie is this: the normalization of Godlessness and pleasure-lust in the course of self-actualization. The West here no less, imagine; the West, who, of all peoples, has been blessed by Jehovah God arguably the most, on a wide variety of fronts. There was a time not long ago when the West was at the vanguard of evangelism and was utilizing God’s blessings aright in keeping with that evangelism, and accordingly God’s blessings accelerated and the West prospered and waxed mighty, but that all changed to the negative in the last century, and decidedly so after World War II through the generations born after that last great worldwide calamity. Humanist, secular ideals and philosophies, emanating largely from the universities and nowadays from all levels of academia, are seeding, and feeding, respectively, this (normalization) contagion to said generations quite predisposed to it. God has brought attention to this deadly contagion and is calling for a halt to it via His not so little micro-servant Covid-19 and the deadly contagion it is seeding and feeding. A contagion for a contagion, and a life for a life. How so? The former couplet finds its motivation in the offenses toward God discussed throughout, and the latter couplet finds its motivation in the countless millions of innocent lives that are aborted in none other than the pleasure-sick West, who holds forever in infamy the record here in lives thus snuffed out.

Sodom was a Godless, pleasure-sick place, but its Godlessness and pleasure-sickness pales in comparison to modern humankind’s foray into the same. Today, for example, homosexual marriage is sanctioned by governments all over the world. This is a direct violation of and frontal assault on Jehovah’s command for heterosexual unions only; it is a slap in His face. (That some of these laws are designed in large part to protect the homosexual from hate crimes is not being called into question here, what is being called into question is the redefinition of marriage, an institution so sacred that God likened it to His relationship with humankind.) Homosexuality is an abomination in the sight of God (Romans 1:26-28; the floodgates of all manner of depravity swing wide open when God is no longer acknowledged [=Godlessness], let us not miss that here in Romans 1:28); and because homosexuality can produce no offspring, it must be reckoned unnatural and deviant, a perverted satisfaction of pleasure-lust—and God severely judged Sodom for it. He will, and is, judging it again, to save the times and His holiness goals for humankind. Proof? So far, two not so little viruses is all it took for God to judge it and rock the world back on its heels: HIV unto Aids, and Covid-19, which may turn out to be a wider, follow-on judgment and not just a warning, God only knows.

Abortion and homosexuality stifle the possibility for new human life to be born and gathered into God’s Kingdom, and there can be no question that Jehovah God acts to save the times here. Let us take notice that He but warns today; at least for the moment, He but warns.

Covid-19 is a warning from God for all of us to take a step back and consider our mindset and our ways over against God’s requirements which were revealed by Jesus Christ (John 17:1-4, 8, “He Who Sent Me”). Covid-19 is a warning from God for humankind to summarily make changes unto lives that resonate with the teachings of Jesus. Let us be wise and not ignore His warning/s lest this turns into judgment/s. Let us cherish and honor and love our Creator and Benefactor Jehovah God. Let us hold Him and His Word in the highest esteem and let us call Him alongside to guide the work of our hands that He gives us to do and enjoy. Let it never be said again anywhere on this good earth that “God is not necessary.” Woe to the fools that say and think such nonsense. He is our Papa God, let us love Him as family, and honor and obey Him to the best of our abilities.

It is the precedent of Scripture that the last thing on Jehovah’s mind is to judge humankind, but it is also the precedent of Scripture that there comes a tipping point when He must and does judge us for righteousness’ sake and to save the times. Godless and pleasure-sick modern humankind ought not continue taunting and tempting and testing that tipping point in its Godless arrogance, because Covid-19 attests to how inadequate and inept its various little manmade gods are to save it. Still, the buzz about town is:

“…when things get back to normal, when this crisis is over, when our right arm saves us, then we shall do thus and so as before; business as usual…”.

God will not be mocked (“A Letter of Invitation”).

Update 04/07/2020: Oftentimes God does not stop warning us after implementing just one warning. We think that it is wise to be on the lookout for follow-on warnings, possibly with increasing severity for each. We said at the outset that this was not a doomsday sermon, and we are sticking with that—we think that Covid-19 is a (very serious) warning from Jehovah God for the reasons discussed above. (We are addressing and singularly concerned with the spiritual side of Covid-19.) Covid-19 could, ultimately, fit into an end-time scenario depending on what God does next concerning His timeline with humankind. Per Jesus' end-time outline in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter twenty-four, we should expect some very unusual heavenly disturbances if Covid-19 is a salient precursor to the end-times and not just a warning ("Matthew Chapter Twenty-four Commentary”). It is clear that the world is not going to pull out of this Covid-19 struggle overnight, because when things "unshutter" from lockdown, it only takes one sick person to start a new pandemic barring any novel treatments and preventatives, which we pray are developed for the immediate good of all peoples. (Update 11/09/2020-the best medical option to date is a candidate vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc. and partner BioNTech SE, which proved better than expected at protecting people from Covid-19 [reportedly 90% effective].)The authorities are quite upbeat here, as well they should be to placate the public, yet on a quite limited sample size and time scale. But the point of this update is largely for our Christian brethren to be on the lookout for follow-on warnings from God, and to be on the lookout for abnormal and unusual disturbances in the heavens, and not least be on the lookout for some of the other figs on the fig tree Jesus foretold of in Matthew chapter twenty-four (Covid-19 is most certainly a far-reaching, serious pestilence with the capacity to kill untold numbers of people; the virus has infected over 50 million people worldwide with approximately 1.3 million deaths worldwide attributable to it from 12/2019 through 11/2020).We do not think things are at that end-times point yet, but one must stay alert, especially given the current worldwide crisis with emphasis on “worldwide” here. Keep your eyes on events in the Middle East especially in Jerusalem, be attentive to world leader types that step to the fore, monitor droughts and earthquakes and famines, and keep your eyes on the heavens, and eastward, Christian friend.

Praised and cherished be your Name great Jehovah God. Amen.