Biblical theology is your friend
Every time there is a tragedy or catastrophe in the world, some well-meaning “teachers” will declare that it is an act of God to bring humanity to repentance or just to punish some of us (no one ever testifies about themselves being punished by God). They will usually base their claim on Old Testament verses taken out of context which were spoken to a specific person or persons at a specific time which they apply to the existing cause of suffering. This is happening with the current COVID-19 outbreak, of course.
I firmly believe this idea, this way of seeing how God relates to humanity, is mistaken.
Part of my reason for believing that God is not sending COVID-19 (or any other calamity) is that the Old Testament from which those alleged statements of God’s wrath come, the Old Covenant, is no longer in effect. In fact, it was never in effect for anyone but the nation of Israel. I’m not going to spell out the explanation for that here. I want to get into something else, and try to keep this short.
I can’t quote a statement from the New Testament that says, “God doesn’t send suffering to the world.” (Neither can anyone quote a verse that says he does.) My reasoning is based on clear Biblical theology.
It seems to me that the New Testament teaches that the death/resurrection of Jesus made something profound happen; a real change took place in the relation of God and humanity. Peace was made. Paul wrote: “For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation…” (Colossians 1:19-22). See also Ephesians 2. There was a state of war between humanity and God. God changed that – reconciled everything to himself. Jesus did not only reveal a God of peace; he made peace. Humanity continues to live in rebellion against God, live at war with him, acts violently against him, but God has made peace and now relates to humanity in peace. Perhaps the “violence” of God we see in the Old Testament was God acting appropriately (maybe even necessarily) to the situation – war (“we were by nature objects of wrath” Ephesians 2:3) – and has now changed the situation. In Jesus the Messiah God acted to end the war and to make peace with us his rebellious enemies.
I believe this means that God does not “attack” people with viruses, fires, tornadoes, cancer, etc. Yes, God disciplines his children (not the whole world) with hardship (Hebrews 12), but he doesn’t send suffering to hurt people so they will straighten up and fly right. God is relating to humanity from the standpoint of peace. We have an enemy working against us, but it’s not God.
As far as our current situation, let’s remember that the Heavenly Father is with us in this corrupted, evil-dominated world and the Spirit strengthens our hearts and Jesus has overcome the world.