Nothing New about Crisis--by Linden Malki

History has always been a record of crisis. We don’t realize how fortunate we’ve been; most of the recent outbreaks we’ve had have been limited to a smaller subculture and didn’t impinge on everybody, and settled down to being “under the radar.” The medical advances of the last few decades have made it seem too easy. A few generations ago it was common for every family to go through all of their kids having measles, mumps, chicken pox, maybe even rheumatic fever or scarlet fever. I can recall having such a heavy rash that my face was one giant dark-red measle, and spent about three weeks in bed with the lights low (visual damage was one of the possible side effects. My older daughter had all five variations of measles at one time or another; I recall the doctor calling one of them “fifth disease” because they gave up naming them. There was even a song that our Sunday School kids sang for Christmas programs called “Santa, I Hope You’ve Had Measles”. And the rate of lasting side effects was significant.

The last major epidemic disease scare in the US was polio, which was curtailed by the Salk vaccine in 1954. I recall the summers when parks and pools were closed. The worst year was 1949, with 2720 deaths and over 42,000 cases reported. Some of us still recall family members or friends who were affected; one of my father’s sisters was on crutches and braces for most of her life.

Some of the major epidemics and plagues in the Bible include cholera, bubonic plague, smallpox, typhoid, typhus and measles. After the Ark of the Covenant was captured by the Philistines, it was associated with an outbreak of bubonic plague there, and was returned with small sculptures of mice and boils. The Assyrian army that besieged Jerusalem was destroyed by a plague carried by mice. I found references in the Gospels of 18 specific incidents (mentioned in one or more Gospels) of dramatic healings by Jesus, in addition to mentions of more mentioned without specific detail. We can see here what the people of that culture lived with, and that Jesus has the power to heal.  And we still see occasions of healings that are beyond medical knowledge, even today. For whatever reason, God has allowed disease and disabilities since the earliest histories we have, and has shown His power over them as well. . It could be that we need imperfections to keep us balanced as a society; crisis brings out both good and evil in us. (This is one of those questions for the day that we hope all will be explained.)