2 Samuel 24:12-15 “Go and tell David, 'thus says the Lord: "I offer you three things; choose one of them for yourself, that I may do it to you." ‘“(13) So Gad came to David and told him; and he said to him, "Shall seven years of famine come to you in your land? Or shall you flee three months before your enemies, while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days' plague in your land? Now consider and see what answer I should take back to Him who sent me." (14) And David said to Gad, "I am in great distress. Please let us fall into the hand of the Lord, for His mercies are great; but do not let me fall into the hand of man." (15) So the Lord sent a plague upon Israel from the morning till the appointed time. From Dan to Beersheba seventy thousand men of the people died.”
As we have already mentioned, pestilence is another of the judgements that God brings on nations. In the above quoted passage of scripture we see that God presented David with the choice of all three judgements that we have already mentioned, and we see that of the three David chose the plague. From this passage we see that seventy thousand people died from this particular plague over just three days, and so clearly this was an extremely deadly disease that struck the population of Israel. The reason given in scripture for this particular judgement falling on the nation of Israel is that the nation had angered the Lord because of their wickedness (2 Samuel 24:1). If you read the full account of this incident you will see that David interceded to the Lord on behalf of the nation, and so God put a stop to the plague after the three days had ended. Just as with the other judgements however, there are also instances when because of their wickedness, God chooses to judge all the nations of the world with pestilence. An example of this type of global judgement would be the recent Corona virus Pandemic that has struck every nation on the earth, and in which almost one million deaths have occurred thus far.
Michael E.B. Maher
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