Pestilence is mentioned 49 times in Scripture, always in the context of God’s judgment. The first mention pertains to the judgment of Egypt (Ex. 5:3; 9:15). It is a general term for deadly plagues on man and beast (Ps. 78:50; Jer. 21:6) and crops (2 Ch. 6:28). Pestilence is often used to describe one of the three major ways that men die in wars (sword, famine, pestilence, Eze. 12:16). The pestilence of David’s day killed 70,000 (1 Ch. 21:14). At the beginning of the day of the Lord there will be “famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes” (Mt. 24:7). In the companion prophecy in Luke 21:11, these earthquakes, famines, and signs are accompanied by “fearful sights and great signs from heaven.” This will occur during the first part of the day of the Lord as described in Revelation 6. Christ called them “the beginning of sorrows” (Mt. 24:8). Covid-19 is a pestilence, but it is not the pestilence described in this prophecy. We are not in the day of the Lord. It is still the day of the Great Commission as described in Matthew 28:18-20. The day of the Lord will begin with the Rapture of church saints, which is described in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. The day of the Lord is described immediately thereafter in 1 Thessalonians 5:1-9. Here we see that the believers in the church at Thessalonica were told that they were not appointed to wrath. The day of the Lord is for “them,” referring to the world of the unsaved. “For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Th. 5:2-9).
(Friday Church News Notes, May 14, 2021, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)