Is this covid-19 related destruction of the world economy a conspiracy?

First let’s take two case studies of the effects of covid-19 on relatively similar-sized populations and geography using today’s data.

Sweden has just around 10 million people and New York state has just around 20 million people. Sweden really didn’t do a lockdown of any significance it all, and New York did one of the hardest lockdowns in the country. Both had covid-19 death rates significantly impacted by those in nursing homes.
Since we don’t really know how many people are infected with covid-19, we’ll use the deaths per million of population. New York has had over 1,400 deaths per million population. Sweden had under 400 deaths per million population. So it would seem that a hard lockdown didn’t help New York at all.

Critics will say that Sweden did far worse than all its neighboring Nordic countries, which is true, but it did far better than the UK, Italy, Spain, and Belgium, all of which had much higher numbers than Sweden.

Rahm Emanuel, the former Obama aide and former mayor of Chicago, is somewhat infamous for his saying, “Never let a good crisis go to waste,” in relation to putting forth liberal agendas in the midst of economic crisis.

There are countless commentators saying this is the ideal opportunity to implement things like a Green New Deal, guaranteed healthcare, guaranteed income, and all sorts of other liberal extremist thoughts. (Despite the fact that failed versions of all these ideas have been partially implemented already.)

Sweden isn’t the only indicator; it’s becoming more and more obvious that countries that didn’t implement lockdowns are not significantly more impacted than the regions with a hard lockdown.

Is all of this a grand conspiracy to implement anti-democratic principles and socialism, or is this something orchestrated by a power greater than anyone can appreciate?

I could not have received a clearer answer then I did this morning in my scheduled reading of Isaiah in my plan for reading the Bible over a year.

Isaiah 8:11-18

For thus the LORD spoke to me with mighty power and instructed me not to walk in the way of this people, saying, “You are not to say, ‘It is a conspiracy!’ In regard to all that this people call a conspiracy, And you are not to fear what they fear or be in dread of it. “It is the LORD of hosts whom you should regard as holy. And He shall be your fear, And He shall be your dread. “Then He shall become a sanctuary; But to both the houses of Israel, a stone to strike and a rock to stumble over, And a snare and a trap for the inhabitants of Jerusalem. “Many will stumble over them, Then they will fall and be broken; They will even be snared and caught.”  Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples. And I will wait for the LORD who is hiding His face from the house of Jacob; I will even look eagerly for Him.  Behold, I and the children whom the LORD has given me are for signs and wonders in Israel from the LORD of hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion.

The Israelites would consistently forget to depend on God and turn to everything around them in the world for their source of security and provision, and as a result be overrun by their enemies.

It says in 1 Corinthians 10:11 in the New testament that, “Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.”

Is our current situation a conspiracy against everything that’s right, or is it a result of exalting medical science over God Himself? Did our leaders conspire to shut down the economy to implement socialism, or did they merely trust in the corrupt system of a medical community that for the most part denies the existence of God?

Perhaps God is just showing us the folly of our dependence upon the world around us, just as God constantly showed Israel the folly of depending on the nations around them.

And just as Isaiah said, we can, without fear, trust God to deliver us with signs and wonders if we trust in the Lord, Jesus Christ, whose coming Isaiah prophesied in the adjoining passages to this passage.