Battling Infectious Disease
| “The days are coming,”
declares the Lord, “when I will punish all who are circumcised only in
the flesh—Egypt, . . . all who live in the desert in distant places. For
all these nations are really uncircumcised, and even the whole house of
Israel is uncircumcised in heart.” Jer. 9:25, 26, NIV. |
Not too many
years ago scientists thought that they were on the verge of conquering
infectious illnesses. Advances in hygiene, nutrition, antibiotics, and
immunization had apparently removed much of the serious threat of infectious
scourges. In many countries it sounded like ancient history to talk of
the ravages of such diseases as measles, mumps, rubella, tuberculosis,
polio, or smallpox. Yes, it seemed to be a real triumph for humanity and
medical science.
Today, however, humans seem
particularly impotent when it comes to defeating infectious illnesses.
For every success a new infectious threat seems to arise. Newly recognized
infections keep raising their ugly heads. A dozen years ago who heard of
the deadly hantavirus that not too long ago grabbed attention in the four-corners
area of the U.S. Southwest? Who knew about the diarrheal illness called
cryptosporidiosis, which in a single outbreak caused some 400,000 Midwesterners
to develop prolonged diarrhea? What about the scourge of recently recognized
tick-borne infections such as Lyme disease and Ehrlichiosis? And then there
are the international tragedies of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)
and drug-resistant tuberculosis.
E. coli 0157 h7 was unknown
until 1982, but since that time it has caused multistate outbreaks and
deaths from eating ground beef. Other infectious diseases relatively recently
have become an important part of our vocabulary. They include Ebola virus,
hepatitis C, Legionnaires’ disease, and toxic shock syndrome.
Yesteryear’s seeming progress
of science against infectious disease is much like our individual human
struggles against sin. Sometimes it may appear that we are getting the
upper hand. By our ingenuity, determination, and effort we seem to be making
ourselves into better people. But then reality confronts us. It is only
through Christ that the power of sin can be broken in our lives.
“‘Let not the wise man boast
of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast
of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands
and knows me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness
on earth, for in these I delight,’ declares the Lord” (Jer. 9:23-25, NIV).
| Can you boast that you understand and
know God? What could you do today to get to know Him better? |
|