Replies

This is our great chastisement today:

Ezekiel 7

Impending Disaster

7The word of the Lord came to me: 2You, O mortal, thus says the Lord God to the land of Israel:
An end! The end has come
upon the four corners of the land.
3Now the end is upon you,
I will let loose my anger upon you;
I will judge you according to your ways,
I will punish you for all your abominations.
4My eye will not spare you, I will have no pity.
I will punish you for your ways,
while your abominations are among you.
Then you shall know that I am the Lord.
5 Thus says the Lord God:
Disaster after disaster! See, it comes.
6 An end has come, the end has come.
It has awakened against you; see, it comes!
7Your doom* has come to you,
O inhabitant of the land.
The time has come, the day is near—
of tumult, not of revelling on the mountains.
8Soon now I will pour out my wrath upon you;
I will spend my anger against you.
I will judge you according to your ways,
and punish you for all your abominations.
9My eye will not spare; I will have no pity.
I will punish you according to your ways,
while your abominations are among you.
Then you shall know that it is I the Lord who strike.
10See, the day! See, it comes!
Your doom* has gone out.
The rod has blossomed, pride has budded.
11 Violence has grown into a rod of wickedness.
None of them shall remain,
not their abundance, not their wealth;
no pre-eminence among them.*
12The time has come, the day draws near;
let not the buyer rejoice, nor the seller mourn,
for wrath is upon all their multitude.
13For the sellers shall not return to what has been sold as long as they remain alive. For the vision concerns all their multitude; it shall not be revoked. Because of their iniquity, they cannot maintain their lives.*
14They have blown the horn and made everything ready;
but no one goes to battle,
for my wrath is upon all their multitude.
15The sword is outside, pestilence and famine are inside;
those in the field die by the sword;
those in the city—famine and pestilence devour them.
16If any survivors escape,
they shall be found on the mountains
like doves of the valleys,
all of them moaning over their iniquity.
17All hands shall grow feeble,
all knees turn to water.
18They shall put on sackcloth,
horror shall cover them.
Shame shall be on all faces,
baldness on all their heads.
19They shall fling their silver into the streets,
their gold shall be treated as unclean.
Their silver and gold cannot save them on the day of the wrath of the Lord. They shall not satisfy their hunger or fill their stomachs with it. For it was the stumbling-block of their iniquity. 20From their* beautiful ornament, in which they took pride, they made their abominable images, their detestable things; therefore I will make of it an unclean thing to them.
21I will hand it over to strangers as booty,
to the wicked of the earth as plunder;
they shall profane it.
22I will avert my face from them,
so that they may profane my treasured* place;
the violent shall enter it,
they shall profane it.
23Make a chain!*
For the land is full of bloody crimes;
the city is full of violence.
24I will bring the worst of the nations
to take possession of their houses.
I will put an end to the arrogance of the strong,
and their holy places shall be profaned.
25When anguish comes, they will seek peace,
but there shall be none.
26Disaster comes upon disaster,
rumour follows rumour;
they shall keep seeking a vision from the prophet;
instruction shall perish from the priest,
and counsel from the elders.
27The king shall mourn,
the prince shall be wrapped in despair,
and the hands of the people of the land shall tremble.
According to their way I will deal with them;
according to their own judgements I will judge them.
And they shall know that I am the Lord.

Sometimes a disease is just a disease. Asserting that it is heavenly wrath forces some unkind observations. Such as that heaven favors the wealthy, for they suffer far less than the poor, and that the faithful often perish where the heathen survive and prosper.

After a major plague, until we understood the causes of plague, there was usually a decline in the faithful, because as a group they tried to pray the disease away, and died as a group, infecting each other in church.

So while it is not wrong to pray for preservation from plague, it is also very wise to do those things that prevent disease transmission. For it has long been said that heaven helps those who help themselves.