Since the beginning of the worldwide pandemic I have seen several instances of people quoting Psalms 91 where it reiterates Gods promise of protection from sickness,

“Surely he will save you from the fowler’s snare and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart. nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday.” Psalms 91:1-6

And while it shows God takes care of his people, this is not the complete story. This is just the nicest quote in Bible about a plague. There were many ups in downs in the relationship between the people in the Old Testament and God and to use only one verse for guidance is to limit our understanding and perhaps prolong our suffering.

Here is a list of six plagues in the Bible and their causes. We can consider our own circumstances and see if we can glean any further understanding of those times and ours.

1. The Pharaoh sleeping with Sarah

But the LORD afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. Genesis 12:17

Here, God had promised a son to Abram and Sarai, but Abram panicked and told the Pharaoh she was his sister because he thought she was pretty. It took them a while to trust God to provide them with an heir. Even as a father of faith, Abram made several mistakes.

2. The Egyptians enslaving the Israelites

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Let my people go, that they may serve me. But if you refuse to let them go, behold, I will plague all your country with frogs. Exodus 9

(The full list includes the river of blood, frogs, gnats, flies, livestock, boils, hail, locusts, darkness, and death of first born)

Slavery was terrible sin and was the hardest for the Egyptians to give up. Additionally, the people of Israel took the treasure of Egypt as payment for lost wages when they left.

3. Creation of idols

Then the Lord sent a plague on the people, because they made the calf, the one that Aaron made. Exodus 32:35

While Moses was up on a mountain getting the Ten Commandments, the people were making the golden calf. Can you imagine people worshiping wealth in such a way?

4. Asking for meat when God already provided with manna.

While the meat was yet between their teeth, before it was consumed, the anger of the Lord was kindled against the people, and the Lord struck down the people with a very great plague. Numbers 11:33

Here, the people unsatisfied with manna God provided wanted meat as well. God gave them what they wanted and a plague to go with it. The incident is brought up in Psalms too.

But they had a wanton craving in the wilderness, and put God to the test in the desert; he gave them what they asked, but sent a wasting disease among them. Psalms 106:14-15

5. Giving a bad report of the promised land

And the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned and made all the congregation grumble against him by bringing up a bad report about the land— the men who brought up a bad report of the land—died by plague before the Lord. Numbers 14:37

Canaan was the promise land, and while two gave a good, honest report, ten stirred up fear with their fake news and alternative facts.

6. Rebellion

And Moses said to Aaron, “Take your censer, and put fire on it from off the altar and lay incense on it and carry it quickly to the congregation and make atonement for them, for wrath has gone out from the Lord; the plague has begun.” Numbers 16:46

The sons of Korah wanted to take the place of the Levites and God wasn’t having it. The Levites where the tribe that served God in the temple. They held no land of their own to farm, but had to be supported by the other tribes. No single group gets everything all the time, people were supposed to work together and support each other.

I hope this list brings a wider perspective to the plagues of the Bible and of our times. The thing that helped most of these stories was for the people to repent, stop their bad behavior and turn back to God. I wonder what our story will be like.