It’s 9:59 PM and COVID is Just Waking Up, But Sin Has Been Busy Since Sunset

by Tad Lindley

Several places around the country are experimenting with 10 PM curfews to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Forty counties in California, even New York City and Miami, I could go on and on. The critics have pointed out that it’s not as if it rolls out of bed at 9:59 after sleeping all day and then hits the streets looking for victims who should have been at home with their families and safe from sickness. I am not a medical expert so I’ll not offer my opinion on Covid-19 strategies, but I have studied extensively about the epidemiology of sin.

Sin gets busy at sunset

I’m not dumb. I have committed sin in broad daylight, and you have too, but when you look at your surroundings, and you read the scriptures, there is a relationship between darkness and sin. Most of the men among us at one time or another have woken very early so that we could catch the tide for fishing or seal hunting, but here’s something we’ve never seen, people getting up at 5 AM so they could go play cards. They might have come stumbling home at 5AM from the card house, trying to beat the sunrise. Heroin is a merciless taskmaster, and your local shooting gallery is open 24/7, but I can about guarantee you that there is way more activity at 3 AM than there was at 3PM. This isn’t a new thing, the Bible called it a long time ago: those who get drunk get drunk at night. (I Thessalonians 5:7) Sin is always busy, but it gets busier at sunset.

Oh yeah, prove it!

If you don’t believe me, go to your local cemetery and test it out. You know most of the people buried there. You know which ones died, because it was their time to go, the ones that died of non-choice diseases (diseases not caused by tobacco, alcohol, or diet), the ones that died of accidents not caused by drugs and alcohol. Don’t count them. Don’t count the elders who died of old age. Count the young who died prematurely, because of sin in their lives. If it was drugs or alcohol that lead to their demise, did it happen in the day or the night? If it was HIV-related, were they promiscuous at noon or at midnight? If it was violence, was the sun shining or was it dark outside?

Why is it easier to sin at night?

Jesus answered this question in John 3:19-20: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. Talking about thieves, Job said (24:16),

“In the dark they dig into houses,

They shut themselves up by day;

They do not know the light.”

Isaiah said (29:15)

Woe to those who deeply hide their plans from the Lord,

And whose deeds are done in a dark place,

And they say, “Who sees us?” or “Who knows us?”

The Lord sees us. In every bar and every bedroom of adultery, in every card house and every shooting gallery, as dark and seedy as they may be, as hidden and as out of the way as they may be, Jesus is there.

The freaks come out at night

Don’t listen to it, but it is pretty eye opening if you search up the lyrics to Whodini’s song, The Freaks Come Out at Night. It lays down a pretty good case for coming home early and avoiding the sin that stirs at night. Of course Solomon had his own version of this advice. You can find it in Proverbs 7, go read it right now and see if it isn’t telling us the same thing. King David fell in adultery (II Samuel 11), and guess what time of day it was.

Can a curfew save us?

Cornavirus is so new that it is unclear whether curfews will have an impact in slowing the spread. I do know this though. I could take you to any of our local cemeteries and we could walk around and I could point out to you this one and that one, and then those two over there, and by the time we got done, there would probably be dozens who would still be alive today, if they had been home at night with their families instead of chasing the pleasures of sin. Their lives would have been saved, but how about people’s souls? After all, a person can send a sext message at 1 PM in broad daylight. I could go berserk and pull a gun on myself at ten in the morning. Lifestyle choices can help save my body, but it takes more than that to save my soul.

Vaccine

I can’t help you with Covid-19, the vaccine has not been released yet, but the vaccine for sin was released almost 2,000 years ago. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. (Matthew 26:28) If you are struggling with sin, turn away from darkness toward the light; have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. (Ephesians 5:11) The night is almost gone; the day of salvation will soon be here. So remove your dark deeds like dirty clothes, and put on the shining armor of right living. (Romans 13:12) Take your old life off, like dirty clothes and put on Jesus! For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. (Galatians 3:27 BSB) When we repent and are baptized in Jesus’ name, if we continue with him we will receive the gift of the Holy Ghost (see Acts 2:28-39). It is then that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. (I Peter 2:9)

Tad Lindley is a minister at the United Pentecostal Church in Bethel, Alaska.

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