Dr John Mohan Razu
I’m reminded of Charles Dickens, one of the English literary luminaries and a social critic said: “It was good times. It was worst times”. However, we live in “dire” times. The term “dire” assumes several meanings: calamity, suffering, terrible and desperate. We are in the midst of deadly pandemic. COVID-19 has neither disclosed its identity nor its origin of entry nor its exit. It is on a supersonic mission covering the entire world killing and infecting millions of people right across the world. Everyone is stunned by the way coronavirus has invaded the world.
As a consequence fear and anxiety have gripped everyone. COVID-19 has ravaged and decimated everything from economy-to-polity-to-education-to-society-to-faith-to-what not. It is like watching a horror movie. Those diagnosed positive gets admitted and none is allowed bedside; for the dead mass burial or cremation—vulnerable communities succumb to coronavirus more. It pierces through the lungs; shuts all parts of the body in such speed and precision. This is the worst ever catastrophe that the global humanity has faced in recent human history.
Everyone is visibly shaken and totally dumbfounded. Scientists are struggling to develop a vaccine and say that it would take more than a year. Those who subscribe to their belief in God are by and large refraining to offer any definitive answers and solutions to the current pandemic. Coronavirus has leveraged both science and faith, reason and faith. The world is treading cautiously not knowing its direction. Homo sapiens once lived with confidence now wears weary look and presents a gloomy picture. Hopes and promises, visions and prophecies are in fluidity.
As a faith-based community subscribing to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior look for something to hang-on for hope fulfilling and life enlivening, if something deadly happens everything is in animated suspension. .In such a context people of faith look to the Holy Scripture vis-à-vis the Bible. It is believed that for the Christians the Bible as the Word of God illumines direction and prescription. The settings we live are posing anxious moments though some say COVID-19 is a mixed bag. It is going to be with us for some more time and continues to inflict more pain.
What is the way out? Who do we look for? One of the biblical texts that could offer assurance and comfort is Daniel: 6: 18-28. It is one of the fascinating narratives that depict the way Lord God delivered from the fearsome deadly predator regarded as the king of the wild. Daniel, a Jewish youth of Jerusalem taken as a captive by Nebuchadnezzar 11 (605/604-562 BCE) was the greatest King of ancient Babylon during the period of the Neo-Babylonian Empire and has been portrayed and lauded for his good works in the Bible notably in the Book of Daniel.
The text mentioned above unfolds the intricacies and dynamics involved as there were some who wanted to terminate physically plotted against Daniel. Darius King of Persia 522-486 BCE known for his able administration liked Daniel for his honesty, hard work, maturity and wise counsels. The sycophants, power-mongers and inner circle of power cliché thought that Daniel was a block to their power equations and so devised a game plan—wanted to get rid of him once for all. A beautiful description of those who wield power and the games they play.
The sycophants devised a plan pressurizing King Darius to invoke a decree which would enforce everyone to worship and adore the Emperor Darius as the only absolute and supreme implying Darius was like a “demi-god”. Their plan was basically to wilt Daniel’s closeness to God and the hours he used to spend in prayers conversing with God who he believed and adored; failing which his defiance to the decree that the king Darius invoked would throw him into the den of lions. Knowing well all these, Daniel continued his prayerful life by defying king Darius’ decree.
According to the Persian custom those who defy were to be thrown into the den of lions. Since he challenged the king’s decree during dusk Daniel was thrown into the den of lions. Darius had a sleepless night because he knew that he was forced to make such decision against Daniel he trusted the most because of the good values he showed in his work. He was restless and his conscience started to prick. At dawn King Darius rushed to the den of lions to check whether Daniel was alive or dead. He was shocked to see Daniel was intact and responded.
King Darius was dismayed and asked him what had happened. Daniel said the God who he believed and affirmed tied the mouths of the lions so that he would not be devoured. Daniel gave the testimony about the God who could intervene and save the lives of those laying their trust in Him. Having witnessed Daniel episode Darius proclaimed that the God who Daniel worshipped be adored and worshipped and said the God of Daniel was the true God. King Darius used the Persian custom against those plotted against Daniel and ordered that they be thrown to the lions.
Daniel was indeed one of the faithful and prayerful warriors of his times. He defied and not at all worried about the consequence. We are in times of exponential crisis and do not know who to believe and what to follow. People from all walks of life say many things, offer all sorts of diagnoses and predict that seem to be convincing. And yet there is no reprieve or clarity on the global pandemic. Whether a deadly pestilence or snare of fowler, those who lay their trust and believe in God shall never be moved. This is the basic biblical affirmation for all Christians.
The core of the text is FAITH. Faith is understood in different ways. For me, whatever may be the scenario or setting I am into: Faith in God does not simply mean my deliverance from it be it pestilence or me caught in the den of COVID-19 or trials and tribulations I encounter—whether I’m visibly delivered or not, I shall continue to affirm and believe in God who I believe and as my God and Savior for me the God who I worship is everything. And so when my God is there who should I be afraid of.
We live in a scenario caught up in the den of deadly coronavirus. Whether we are delivered or not, our faith in God should ever waver. This is what I see with those frontline workers across the world knowing well that they are entering into the den of COVID-19 to help those infected and entering into portals of death. As a result there are some who get infected and some succumb. Those who recover continue their mission. There are numerous witnesses and the undergirding factor is that their faith alone propels them.
