Corona Comparisons, Plagues and Priests by Guy Cohen, Revive Israel
Would you join me in praying together with Daniel?
“O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and with those who keep His commandments.”
“We have sinned and committed iniquity, we have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts and Your judgments…”
“O Lord, righteousness belongs to You, but to us shame of face … those near and those far off in all the countries to which You have driven them, because of the unfaithfulness which they have committed against You.” (Daniel 9:4-7)
I cannot help but think how privileged we are to be among the generation here on earth at this time!
Some may think this an odd statement considering what the world is facing with the modern day plague called coronavirus. However, how many generations of believers have gone before us waiting for these last days when the return of Messiah was drawing near? The question is what should we be doing and what can we expect?
Similar “symptoms” of the last days were seen during Joseph’s time in Egypt just before he revealed himself to his brothers. What did he do? He asked all the Egyptians to leave the room. What happened in our day? Tourists from abroad were restricted from entering the land. Are we drawing closer to the revealing of Messiah to His people?
The Hebrews were in Goshen before the Exodus at the time of the plagues. How was Goshen affected by the plagues? Was there darkness there? No. In fact the only plague that went through Goshen was the angel of death, yet they were covered by the blood of the sacrificial lamb on their doorposts. We need to be covered with the blood of Yeshua as the plagues of today fill our cities; to be a witness of Him as we go forth, filled with faith and hope. The victory is not ours but His through us in order that others may experience His peace.
God could have accomplished everything in Egypt with one plague. Why was it necessary to repeat the process of Pharaoh’s heart being hardened over and over? If we think about the disasters that have happened throughout the world recently what do we see? Earthquakes, volcanoes, floods. Unfortunately, people tend to go through these, get past them and go back to life as usual.
Numbers 16:41-50 shows why God sometimes repeats things in order for us to get the point. The people were complaining, God told Moses and Aaron to get out of the way because well, enough is enough. What did they do? Because they knew God’s heart, which was not to destroy His people; they stood in the midst with an offering. They stood between life and death holding the censer in the midst of the congregation for atonement of sins. The plague had begun. Many died, and yet the plague was stopped before total destruction. The people needed to be awakened to God, not the wisdom and knowledge of man.
Our place is to seek the heart of God. This is his heart: ‘As I live,’ says the Lord God, ‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?’ (Ezekiel 33:11)
Our place is to be his witnesses here on earth. Like Aaron the priest we are called to stand in the midst of the people, raising the censer and interceding on their behalf.