There is much stir and conversation right now about the freedom convoys. People are excited. Many people feel that it is finally time to stand up against tyranny. Others say this should have been done over a year and a half ago. Many are starting to believe we have been played. There is much going on around the world. We live in exciting times.
One of the things we have seen with the pandemic is great economic strain. This has been an effect of lockdowns worldwide. As someone pointed out, we are just beginning to see the effects of this lockdowns. How much toll they have taken – economically, on the lonely, on the elderly, on the children, on the vulnerable as they have had to remain in care homes or stay in hospitals with no one to accompany them and no one to advocate for them. Even if a person has a power of attorney, their pleadings and requests for help for their loved ones often fell on deaf ears as protocol for Covid took precedent over any other so called “rights” the patients or families might have had. In some countries, “Covid recovery centers” were made where they put people who tested positive, whether they had symptoms or not. Now there is a “camp” for isolating unvaccinated travelers. This camp is being made in Australia. There travelers are isolated to their rooms, tiny rooms during their "quarantine." Of course, this place is called “wellcamp,” but it is really just isolation.
Another toll the pandemic has taken upon the nations is the impact it has had on the healthcare systems. A few months ago, I had a dream. In this dream, I had a broken leg with a cast on it, and I was waiting at a hospital to see the doctor and see if I could get the cast off. A few of my friends were there and some other people. There was hardly any staff there at all. We waited outside. After a while, we went and walked around one of the wards. All the beds in that ward were in one large room together, but the beds were empty, and there may have been only one or two staff. Finally, I was called in. Down the hallway, I could see a waiting room, but there were only a few people in there, just some kids playing. We had been waiting a long time outside, so I asked a doctor in the hallway about a restroom. Though he looked at me kindly, he did not answer. I didn’t get to see a doctor but only a woman at the receiving desk. Since the pain was gone, and I was walking around fine in the cast, she declared my leg to be healed. I asked if I wasn’t to see the doctor and mentioned something the doctor said. The woman said to someone else in the office that two doctors needed to be shot. Apparently, any doctors or healthcare workers who did not go along with the current agenda were somehow dealt with. One of these must have been the doctor who had seen me previously. This was causing the hospital to run on a skeleton crew. While all this was just a strange dream, we can see in real life how the pressures of the current ideology caused many to leave their jobs. Others are having a very difficult time, even the vaccinated ones. The things that are going on cause divisions and burnout. Any doctors and healthcare workers who do not go along with the current narrative are harassed, let go from their jobs, or (at least on in one case) given a psychological evaluation. How long until things are similar to what they were in this dream?
Another area affected by the pandemic is the economy. The supply chain has been hindered. Businesses are struggling; many have closed. Some people are having a hard time finding a job; some businesses cannot find or keep workers even though they are hiring. Mail service has all but been stopped between certain countries. Items that are shipped instead of mailed might arrive, but do so many months after they are shipped. Now with freedom convoys in various places around the world blocking roads and borders, some worry that this could complete the economic collapse, perhaps depending on how long governments can hold out before giving into pressure to change policies.
While all these things seem daunting and troublesome, these are likely only the beginning of the effects we will see from this nearly two years of the pandemic and the measures that had been taken to deal with it.
What is causing all this to happen? Sin. Notice how the control of people’s lives seems to be the greatest in what were always considered “free countries.” The sad reality is that people have forgotten how their countries came to be free. And, we have forgotten the God who gave us this liberty. Long ago, God said of His people Israel, “My people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.” (Jeremiah 2:13) In our nation and other free nations, people have done the same thing Israel did so long ago. We have forgotten God. We are strong and self-sufficient and able to handle just about anything that comes our way, or so we think. Thus, when greater and greater troubles come our way, we still think we can find our own solution to the problem and figure out the answer and the remedy. Although the situation gets worse and worse, we convince ourselves that the answer is right around the corner, and we keep trying. We allow ourselves to live in fear and to be controlled and manipulated, all for our safety and in the hopes that these troubles will soon go away. But we have not sought, as a people, Almighty God, who has the only solution to our problem and who alone can change things.
When God gave the law to the Israelites, He gave them stern warnings, some of which we can read in Leviticus 26:14-28, “14) But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments; 15) And if ye shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgments, so that ye will not do all my commandments, but that ye break my covenant: 16) I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart: and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. 17) And I will set my face against you, and ye shall be slain before your enemies: they that hate you shall reign over you; and ye shall flee when none pursueth you. 18) And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins. 19) And I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass: 20) And your strength shall be spent in vain: for your land shall not yield her increase, neither shall the trees of the land yield their fruits. 21) And if ye walk contrary unto me, and will not hearken unto me; I will bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins. 22) I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children, and destroy your cattle, and make you few in number; and your high ways shall be desolate. 23) And if ye will not be reformed by me by these things, but will walk contrary unto me; 24) Then will I also walk contrary unto you, and will punish you yet seven times for your sins. 25) And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall avenge the quarrel of my covenant: and when ye are gathered together within your cities, I will send the pestilence among you; and ye shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy. 26) And when I have broken the staff of your bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver you your bread again by weight: and ye shall eat, and not be satisfied. 27) And if ye will not for all this hearken unto me, but walk contrary unto me; 28) Then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins.” If God takes sin so seriously that He would chastise His own chosen people in this way for their sins, could we think that we or other nations would receive less at His hand?
What can we do about the situation? We can heed the advice that God gave to Israel in Ezekiel 33:11, “As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die…?” Why are we waiting? What are we waiting for? Let us make haste to return unto the Lord. “Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?” (Jonah 3:9)