It is one of the most frightening diseases in the world. As the word cancer strikes fear into the hearts of people who are diagnosed with it, so the word Ebola is terrifying. There are good reasons to be frightened of this virus. There is no known cure for the Ebola virus. Seventy percent who contract the Ebola virus die from its revenging effects on the body.
People are afraid to travel because it is still unclear if the Ebola virus is an airborne disease. An overwhelming number of Americans want to ban travelers from the three source nations of the Ebola virus from coming into the US, but for political reasons the president disagrees. He refuses to protect Americans in this area despite the fact that more than one hundred and fifty people from the three affected nations enter the US every day. The potential for a pan-epidemic of the Ebola virus is real.
The president has sent American soldiers into harm’s way, not to fight for freedom or to defend the nation against ISIS or Russian aggression, but for a social experiment. Their new mission in Africa is to help stop the spread of the Ebola virus. It is foolish to think that some of our brave soldiers will not be exposed to and will die from Ebola. Some soldiers will bring the virus back to the US in their bodies.
If a Christian were to ask, “What is the reason for the Ebola virus?”, a Biblical answer would not be difficult to discern. One reason for this deadly disease is that the Lord Jesus Christ rules the world with a “rod of iron.” A fundamental difference between the Amillennial position and the Premillennial position is that the later believes the kingdom rule of Christ is in the future, while the former believes that Jesus Christ is even now King of kings, Lord of lords, and rules the nations with a rod of iron.
By way of personal application, Americans should not think that the slaughter of the innocent through abortion, the militant homosexual movement, the exploitation of women through pornography, the exporting of child pornography, and the promotion of drugs will go unchallenged. Judgment has been passed upon America, according to the principles of Romans 1. What the nation is witnessing is the outworking of a judgment already passed.
When a nation forgets God, the Lord has a way of reminding individuals that He is still the Living God, and He is not silent. The Bible teaches that the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ rules the nations with a rod of iron. The evidence for this is found first in the Messianic promise.
Psalm 2:8 Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. 9 Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.
Jesus Christ asked the Father for His inheritance, and received it. Following the Lord’s resurrection from the dead, Jesus told His disciples of the inheritance He had asked for, and received. Matthew 28:18 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
As the first part of the Messianic prophecy was fulfilled, so the second part of the Messianic prophecy is being fulfilled, for the Lord is ruling the nations with a “rod of iron.” What does this mean? It means, in part, that the Lord will break the nations. The Lord Jesus will break the cycles of sin that destroy lives. The Lord will break the madness of the militant mindset whereby every imagination of the heart is evil in the sight of God.
Suddenly, people are confronted with sin, death, and the judgment to come. Suddenly, individuals are made to realize that Someone else is in control of the universe. Men are subject to the Sovereign. Suddenly, people are forced to wonder if they should repent of sin in order to be healed of deadly diseases set loose among them.
That God is the ultimate Author and Administrator of diseases is the testimony of Scripture. Ancient Israel was warned that if they did not live righteously before God He would bring upon them dreadful diseases. Deuteronomy 28:60 Moreover he will bring upon thee all the diseases of Egypt, which thou wast afraid of; and they shall cleave unto thee.
The sobering truth of Scripture is that the Sovereign Lord is in control of diseases, and will use them to break nations. The hope of the heart is that the Lord who rules with a rod of iron will have mercy, as indeed He will. The Lord Jesus is the one, “Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases” (Psalm 103:3).
If America would be spared the full effects of the Ebola virus then let individuals begin to repent, turn from their evil ways, and call upon the Lord.
For the Christian community, there is no need to fear the Ebola virus because the principle of Romans 8:28 will always be at work. “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”
Cursing can be turned into blessing based upon gospel obedience.