LOCKDOWN

It is shabbat again and all is quiet – too quiet, ominously quiet. I cannot hear the children playing on the swings in the little park next door. There are no crazy teenagers roaring up the track on their quad bikes or families passing on their way to the forest walking trails. It is a fairly dull, cloudy sort of day but that is not the reason. It is rather the shadow of the coronavirus that has us all indoors.

We here in Israel, like many of you my readers, are in a tight lockdown and are not allowed to go outdoors except to buy food or medicines. We may walk our dogs or take some exercise but not beyond 100m of our homes. These rules are being enforced by the police which have the power to stop anyone, on foot or in a vehicle, to check where they are going, and hand down fines or even prison sentences to violators. Now there is talk of an even tighter lockdown, which would prohibit even these activities, possibly just for the over 65s (that includes me) though perhaps even for the wider population. An announcement on this is expected tomorrow.

It is a strange time and a new experience for every one of us. I find it rather interesting that the whole world is being forced to share such an experience at the same time. I think it is making us all aware that we are family, and we need to help each other. In some ways the enforced separation is drawing us all together. I remember someone telling me that people who have faced a common threat of death, people like soldiers who have gone into battle together, forge a very special bond. I have felt that in Israel as we have gone through wars and terror attacks together. There is definitely a special bond amongst those who have shared those experiences. I wonder what effect this all may have on us all afterwards. Perhaps the world will be a better place. Perhaps we will all have a better perspective on our place in the world, and better list of priorities in our lives. Perhaps we will be more caring towards our family members, friends or neighbors. Or then again, humans have very short memories, perhaps we will all forget and fall back into our old ways. I don’t know, but this I do know, God has a purpose in all this. The Covid-19 virus is His tool to chastise mankind, making us consider our ways, in order to bring us back to him and force us to call upon His name for salvation. There is a saying here, “There are no atheists in battle”.

My pastor shared this verse with us a week or so ago, and it sent shivers down my spine.

Come, my people, enter your chambers,
And shut your doors behind you;
Hide yourself, as it were, for a little moment,
Until the indignation is past.
 For behold, the Lord comes out of His place
To punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity;
The earth will also disclose her blood,
And will no more cover her slain.

Isaiah 26: 20-21

Although addressed to the people of Judah just prior to the Babylonian conquest, somehow these words seem to speak into our time as well. Lets enter our chambers and shut the doors until the indignation passes. We are coming up to the Passover celebration, when we remember that the people of God were warned to shut themselves and their families indoors until the final plague, the angel of death passed over. It was not to be forever. The time of indignation will pass and if we want it, we can then take hold of the freedom that God offers us.

The question is, how will I, how will you respond to these things. Will we be crippled by fear or fall into depression and despair? Or will we see this as a God-given opportunity to spend more time with Him, to examine our own lives and call upon His name. Paul also lived in perilous times and he said this:

Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!

⁵ Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand.

⁶ Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; ⁷ and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

⁸ Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. ⁹ The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.

Philippians 4: 4-9

Are you feeling down? Are you afraid? Are you lonely and bored? Then rejoice in God. A little while ago in the midst of his sermon my pastor asked us what were the tools that God had given us to fight against our spiritual enemy, Satan. A little girl, aged about 4, immediately piped up saying “Be happy”. Out of the mouth of babes!!! She was so right. I am not talking about cheap, shallow ‘happiness’ which is often just denial, but rather the deep joy of the Lord. If you have lost it, dig into the wells of everlasting water which is in Yeshua (Jesus). Turn to the riches of the Bible and remember God’s past blessings in your own life. These things can help us overcome depression and loneliness. Paul also suggests another antidote; looking at all the good things, the pure, the beautiful, and the true. One thing I have found I need to do in these days is to turn off the news on TV. It is coming at us 24 hours a day constantly padded out by endless discussion and speculation, not to mention a great deal of misinformation and unbalanced hype. I am not saying we should not listen to the news but just to do it occasionally in order to keep in touch with developments, but rather to moderate our ingestion of bad news and balance it with all that is good and pure and true, especially from the Word of God.

One of the hardest aspects of the lockdown for me is that just as the seemingless endless rainy days of winter are giving way to a glorious spring, and the landscape is filled with the best display of Israel’s glorious wild flowers for years, we are not allowed to go out and enjoy them. The day before the lockdown restrictions were tightened, I did take a lovely walk around University Hill, a little forested knob of a hill nearby with a circular path of about 3 km.. I knew it would be my last walk in the forest for a while, and that made it even more special. Below are some photos of the wildflowers I saw. Enjoy!

I want to finish by sharing this worship song with you. God Bless and Keep you all.