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Nehemiah prayed to God, \u201cYou said, \u2018If you people are not faithful, I will scatter you among the nations. But if you return to me, I will bring you back. If you obey my commands, I will gather you together again. I will bring you back from the farthest places on earth. I will bring you to the special place where I have chosen to put my Name.\u2019 Lord, they are your people. They serve you. You used your great strength and mighty hand to set them free from Egypt\u201d (Nehemiah 1:8-10).

Nehemiah has heard the dire reports coming from Jerusalem, the city of the returned exiles. He has sat in lament, sorrow and prayer. Such lament leads him to intercede for the community being re-established in Judea.

In his prayer, he acknowledges that this exile, which is coming to an end, was caused by Israel\u2019s sin. God had warned Israel that if they abandoned him, he would scatter them among the nations. And so, it happened.

For a variety of reasons, Christians find it tantalizing to follow Nehemiah\u2019s lead, believing any misfortune to be God\u2019s judgement on some specific sins. Thus, there are voices in the Christian community who are treating this current pandemic as such.

But I think that this is a misreading of scripture. The judgement which was the Babylonian exile is not the norm. Let me use two other stories to illustrate my point. Nehemiah makes reference to Egypt and how God used his mighty hand to free his people from there. But why was Israel in Egypt? Had they sinned in any way? Were they under God\u2019s judgement?

Not at all. No where in Genesis is there even a hint of such. Nothing in the rest of the Bible suggests this either. In fact, Joseph says that his coming to Egypt was intended by God to save many lives (Genesis 50:20). Horrible things happened to Israel in Egypt, but none of it was because of God\u2019s judgment.

We have looked at the second story during our sermon series on Acts. In Acts 11:19 we read, \u201cSome believers had been scattered by the suffering that unbelievers had caused them. They were scattered after Stephen was killed. Those believers traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch.\u201d

Again, the suffering of God\u2019s people had nothing to do with judgement. The scattered feelings we have because of COVID are akin to the suffering of God\u2019s community in Genesis and Acts. And it is necessary to say that the scattering in Acts continues to this very day.

The story of Acts is that the Holy Spirit pushed the followers of Jesus out of Jerusalem so that they could fulfill their mission to be Jesus\u2019 witnesses to the furthest ends of the earth. Its important to see that.

Israel returned to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple where God was worshipped. We might be temped to do the same, to make our church buildings some sort of temple. But in the gospel of John, Jesus implies that he was the new temple (2:19). We can worship God where ever we are when we worship in his name. His promise is that he is with us there. Paul develops this temple imagery even further and declares that followers of Jesus are God\u2019s temple.

This has massive implications, one of which is this. The temple in Jerusalem was the place where God was present. So wherever Jesus followers go, God is present today. That is part of the New Testament story. This brings us back to Nehemiah and his prayer.

In the face of suffering, we tend to ask why. It is a very human question. But the more Biblical question is, \u2018what are we going to do in it\u2019? John 9 illustrates this. Jesus and his disciples encounter a man born blind. The disciples want to know who sinned, him or his parents. That\u2019s a question about judgement. But Jesus replies that this is about God\u2019s glory. Then he gives the man his sight. That\u2019s the glory of God.

Nehemiah mentions, almost casually, that God\u2019s people serve him. That\u2019s a matter of glory. If we focus on the \u2018why\u2019 of suffering we will have wonderful philosophical conversations, but that is about it. But if we ask, \u201chow can we serve God in the middle of this suffering?\u2019 that\u2019s a matter in which God\u2019s glory can be revealed.

We have said it before in these Wilderness Wanderings, but I think I ought to say it again. We need to ask God for our daily bread. And this is not just food, but for the space to serve others. As the second wave hits, potentially worse than the first, what the world needs desperately is the servants of God to serve him and their neighbours. We may already be tired, but we need to carry on. As Paul writes, \u201cLet us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up\u201d (Galatians 6:9).