God’s Health and Safety

• Blog

One side-effect of living in a pandemic is heightened awareness of germs. For some, that increased awareness causes anxiety.

Our family has recently been reading through some of God’s laws for the ancient Israelite nation. Some of those laws are “health and safety” laws. Things like the requirement to build walls on the edge of flat roofs so no one falls off, or to designate somewhere outside of camp or a city to dump waste. And so on.

One thing that struck me and that we have talked about numerous times since was this: God’s laws are very reasonable and balanced. He doesn’t say: “You can’t have flat roofs, they’re dangerous!” Or “Don’t have animals, they’re dirty.” His laws amaze me. He laid down sensible, wise, and loving precautions and then expected people to get on with their lives.

An anxiety about germs could make us want to wash our hands because we maybe might have possibly touched something (or someone) dirty, even when we didn’t. But what we see in God’s word are reasonable, not worry-causing precautions. He doesn’t want us to worry! Yes, we should be careful and be respectful of others’ safety (build that wall, wash your hands when you need to), but once we have, we should get on with our lives. Leave the ‘what ifs’ to God. We can trust Him with our lives.

– E.M. Harding