Too late

The Lord has spoken (Joel 3:8) 

The jury's out. The facts have spoken clearly. We went into lockdown too late. A simple comparison between Germany and the UK shows that, at the date of lockdown, we were a week later in the curve. Put simply, because the German authorities tested more and traced more successfully, at lockdown they had around 80 cases while we had over 360. So, though we locked down within a day of each other, Germany were effectively a week earlier, which saved up to 30,000 lives. Just read that again. Please. One week cost the lives of over 28,000 people. I'm still in shock over that figure. Instead of 37,460 deaths and counting, they have suffered only about 8,500. It seems that Boris Johnson and his advisors dithered about 'herd immunity' and public compliance while Angela Merkel ordered people to stay home. Without a record of every conversation and every email we'll never know exactly why our government acted differently but it is a question worth asking. I trust it will be and with forensic detail. 

Almost as difficult are the questions asked of our medical experts having to decide how to treat those infected with this virus. It really is something quite different. One doctor described their ability to respond medically as medieval. It seems to attack multiple organs at once and in a variety of ways. It does something unprecedented to clotting, it causes inflammation in the weirdest of ways and places and it saves its worst effects for a very select group of people. It is like trying to catch up on a hundred years of medical experience in a hundred days. The disease has spoken but so far it's voice is not clear and we cannot makes sense of it. 

So has God spoken clearly? I think this is a very difficult question. As I said at the start, I am not at all sure that this is a judgement from God, except in so far as it tests us as all struggles do. So, unlike Joel, we cannot be sure whom God may be speaking against. However, I am anxious for our leaders. If it turns out that they were negligent and failed to listen to their medical advisors, preferring to make politically motivated decisions instead, then I sense Joel's pronouncement of judgement might be very salient indeed. God declares to those who lay waste to Israel, 'I will return on your own heads what you have done'. I do not for one moment think that God will zap anyone from on high but I do know, as we all do, the burden of making choices that we know are wrong, of hearing in our conscience that quiet voice saying, 'you should have known better' or even worse, 'you did know better'. To have the death of 30,000 of the most vulnerable of your people on your conscience is a burden few can bear, and none can bear alone. So let us pray for our leaders as much as we challenge them. Let us call on the Lord to speak to them about forgiveness, as much as we call on him to speak to them about failures to act. If we cannot do that then we may share their burden, for we may find it hard to find forgiveness for our own failings too.

Taking the long view across the fields