Urgent warning as 'Victorian' disease tuberculosis rises in California
The resurgence of tuberculosis in California to a 12-year high echoes the biblical sign of pestilence, a judgment and warning of the last days, as described in Scripture.
Luke 21:11
Prophetic Fulfillment“There will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences. And there will be terrors and great signs from heaven.”
Why this passage
In Luke 21, Jesus describes the signs preceding His return, including 'pestilences' (Greek: loimoi) as one of the birth pangs. The original audience understood this as a category of widespread, deadly disease—a divine warning and a feature of the age leading to the end.
This prophecy is not limited to a single event but describes a pattern that intensifies before the end. The resurgence of tuberculosis, a classic pestilence, in a wealthy state like California fits this pattern of recurring judgment and warning.
Behold, the Lord warns through the prophet Hosea: 'For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind' (Hosea 8:7). The return of a disease once thought conquered is a sobering reminder that the fruit of human rebellion and neglect is often reaped in the body.
Yet even in this, the Lord calls His people to repentance and faith. The pestilence that stalks in darkness is not outside His sovereign hand, and it serves as a trumpet call to examine our ways and turn to the Healer of all diseases.
Today's Prayer
Pray for the afflicted in California, that the Lord would grant healing and wisdom to medical authorities, and that this outbreak would stir hearts to seek the Great Physician.
Further Scripture
Additional passages that illuminate this event, each grounded in a distinct interpretive lens.
“The LORD will make the pestilence stick to you until he has consumed you off the land that you are entering to take possession of it. The LORD will strike you with wasting disease and with fever, inflammation and fiery heat, and with drought and with blight and with mildew. They shall pursue you until you perish.”
Why this passage
In Deuteronomy 28, Moses lays out the blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience under the Mosaic covenant. Pestilence (Hebrew: deber) is listed as a covenant curse for a nation that turns from God's ways.
While this was specifically for Israel, the principle that disease can be a divine judgment on a nation's moral and spiritual state remains a biblical pattern.
The resurgence of tuberculosis in California, a state known for its rejection of biblical morality, can be seen through this lens as a warning of the consequences of national rebellion against God.
How it applies
The rise of tuberculosis in California is a modern echo of the covenant curse of pestilence. It calls the nation to consider whether its departure from God's law has opened the door to such judgments, urging repentance before further calamity.
Related by Scripture
Other events we've interpreted through the same passage or hermeneutical lens.
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Source: Dailymail.com— we link to the original for full context.