Q: Why do bad things happen to good people?
A (in scripture):
While you are in the world, you will have to suffer. But cheer up! I have defeated the world. - John 16:33B
18 If the people of this world hate you, just remember that they hated me first. 19 If you belonged to the world, its people would love you. But you don't belong to the world. I have chosen you to leave the world behind, and this is why its people hate you. 20 Remember how I told you that servants are not greater than their master. So if people mistreat me, they will mistreat you. If they do what I say, they will do what you say.
21 People will do to you exactly what they did to me. They will do it because you belong to me, and they don't know the one who sent me. 22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. But now they have no excuse for their sin.
23 Everyone who hates me also hates my Father. 24 I have done things no one else has ever done. If they had not seen me do these things, they would not be guilty. But they did see me do these things, and they still hate me and my Father too. 25 This is why the Scriptures are true when they say, “People hated me for no reason.” - John 15:18-25
31 Jesus said, “Simon, listen to me! Satan has demanded the right to test each one of you, as a farmer does when he separates wheat from the husks. 32 But Simon, I have prayed that your faith will be strong. And when you have come back to me, help the others.” -Luke 22:31-32 CEV
8 Be on your guard and stay awake. Your enemy, the devil, is like a roaring lion, sneaking around to find someone to attack. 9 But you must resist the devil and stay strong in your faith. You know that all over the world the Lord's followers are suffering just as you are. 10 But God shows undeserved kindness to everyone. That's why he appointed Christ Jesus to choose you to share in his eternal glory. You will suffer for a while, but God will make you complete, steady, strong, and firm. 11 God will be in control forever! Amen. - 1 Peter 5:8-11
7 the Lord asked, “Satan, where have you been?” Satan replied, “I have been going all over the earth.”
8 Then the Lord asked, “What do you think of my servant Job? No one on earth is like him—he is a truly good person, who respects me and refuses to do evil.”
9 “Why shouldn't he respect you?” Satan remarked. 10 “You are like a wall protecting not only him, but his entire family and all his property. You make him successful in whatever he does, and his flocks and herds are everywhere. 11 Try taking away everything he owns, and he will curse you to your face.”
12 The Lord replied, “All right, Satan, do what you want with anything that belongs to him, but don't harm Job.” - Job 1:7-12
Explanation:
There are several reasons why bad things happen to good people
Being disobedient - A Jonah situation:
One day God gave Jonah an instruction. He told him to do something crazy and dangerous - He told Jonah to go to a dangerous place where they hated God, Nineveh. The Ninevites were a very violent people — they had a reputation for amputating and skinning people that they conquered and capture. The book of Nahum describes Nineveh this way:
1 Doom to the crime capital!
Nineveh, city of murder
and treachery …4You were nothing more
than a prostitute
using your magical charms
and witchcraft
to attract and trap nations. - Nahum 3:1, 4
Going to Nineveh, was only part of the battle, once Jonah got to Nineveh he was then to warn them that if they did not stop what they were doing and start following God that God would destroy them.
Needless to say, Jonah did not want the assignment that God had given him. Going to Nineveh meant it was almost certain that he would be tortured and/or killed plus Jonah did not think the bad guys deserved to be warned about their pending doom and that made him resent the assignment even more. Jonah’s rebellion was understandable but God was not concerned at all about how Jonah felt about the matter…God gave Jonah an assignment and He wanted him to do as he was told. When Jonah almost died at sea and ended up trapped in big fish for 3 days his “bad thing“ was a direct result of his disobedience.
A Plan to force your hand - Getting to you via those who you are connected to - A Job situation:
In the story of Job you see early on that all of Job’s children were killed at the same time (Job 1:19) Did they do something wrong? I don’t know, maybe, maybe not, the Bible doesn’t tell us if they did something wrong or not but nevertheless they were all killed. We can gather from scripture that the reason Job’s kids were killed was to hurt Job so that he would turn away from God. Their death was not about them it was about their dad. Sometimes when bad things happen to you it is not about you it is simply because of who you are connected to. God or Satan’s plans may touch you because of something that is going on in you region, country, state, school, workplace, home, family, friend circle, romantic relationship, etc. Usually if God is behind it his purposes are to eliminate wickedness or to implement a punishment. Likewise, if the devil is behind it it is usually to shake someone up, to destroy them or manipulate them into doing what he wants.
In spy movies you often hear people mention that they have no family/no ties so they were chosen to become elite spies so on and so forth — the reasoning behind it is that if they ever get caught/captured their enemies cannot exploit their relationships in order to get information out of them or to force them to do something . This concept, keeps in mind a common enemy strategy: hurting those you love in order to gain control over you.
This “bad thing” is designed to force the hand of someone who cares about you
A Test from to turn you against God - A Grinch situation:
Have you ever heard someone say “if God is real and if God is good then why does he let bad stuff happen to good people?” When people hold the view that a real God or a good God couldn’t possibly allow bad to happen they then reason that the existence of bad things taking place in the world means that God is not real or God is not good and so they then choose not to believe in a God that must be fake or bad. The Entire point of every bad thing that happen to Job was to get Job to turn away from God and curse him to his face (Job 1:11). Satan’s goal in Job’s crippling sickness, the passing of all of Job’s kids, the loss of all of Job’s wealth was to hurt Job so badly that he would then say: “if God was real and if God was good then these things would not have happened to me…I am a good person and I didn’t do anything to deserve this…how could God be real if all this happened to me?”
This “bad thing” is designed to wound you so deeply that your heart turns cold and hard
Conclusion:
God never wanted bad things to happen to good people. In fact, God did not create bad things nor did he create “good” people (or bad ones)…. when God designed and created this world there was no such thing as good things or good people nor bad things or bad people, there was just things and and just people — everything God made was good…good was the default ( Genesis 1). Bad things happening in this world don’t disprove God. Bad things happening in this world is not God’s desire—-bad things happening is simply the result of a spiritual rule, that God made, being executed because the conditions that make the spiritual rule trigger came true. God makes rules that even he follows (yes, God subjects himself to rules too = self control)
Spiritual Rules that apply here :
23 Sin pays off with death. (Romans 6:23A)
15 Our desires make us sin, and when sin is finished with us, it leaves us dead.(James 1:15)
16 But the Lord told him, “You may eat fruit from any tree in the garden, 17 except the one that has the power to let you know the difference between right and wrong. If you eat any fruit from that tree, you will die before the day is over!”(Genesis 2:16-17)
