When Bad Things Happen to Good People

Why do bad things happen to good people?

That is one of the questions that have nagged at Man’s mind for generations.

I could take the easy theological option and simply say that there aren’t any good people and close, but I won’t.

Ecclesiastes 7:20 (NET) - For there is not one truly righteous person on earth who continually does good and never sins.

That certainly would be an answer, but I suspect that is not the answer that people are seeking when they pose that question.

Perhaps it would be better to reformulate the question.

"Why does God allow bad things to happen?"

I suspect that this question is closer to the mark.

We are taught that God is good and yet bad things happen even to those who have faith in him.

Similarly, there are those who publicly state that they do not believe in God and yet things seem to be going their way.

Nothing more clearly illustrates the fact that bad things happen, even to the best of us, than the account of Joseph in the Old Testament.

Joseph was given prophetic dreams by God along with the gift to interpret dreams. This caused his brothers to despise him.

Genesis 37:5 (NET) - Joseph had a dream, and when he told his brothers about it, they hated him even more.

Joseph had another dream and he told it to his father and his brothers. This resulted in yet more trouble for Joseph.

Genesis 37:10-11 (NET) - When he told his father and his brothers, his father rebuked him saying, "What is this dream that you had? Will I, your mother, and your brothers really come and bow down to you?" His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept in mind what Joseph said.

Later, Joseph’s father sent him to check on his brothers. As he approached, they planned to take his life.

When Joseph arrived, they stripped him of the coat his father had given him and threw him into a pit.

As a caravan approached his brothers concocted another plan.

Genesis 37:28 (NET) - So when the Midianite merchants passed by, Joseph’s brothers pulled him out of the cistern and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. The Ishmaelites then took Joseph to Egypt.

Thus, Joseph was sold into slavery by his own brothers. They then compounded their wrong by telling their aged father that Joseph had been killed by a wild animal.

Once in Egypt, Joseph was purchased as a slave by Potiphar. Potiphar saw that God was with Joseph and so he put Joseph in charge of all the affairs of the household.

But, just when it seemed Joseph was having things go his way for a change, Potiphar’s wife began making sexual advances to him.

Joseph rejected these advances and as a result, Potiphar’s wife lied to her husband implicating Joseph as the wrongdoer.

Genesis 39:20 (NET) - Joseph’s master took him and threw him into the prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined. So he was there in prison.

Yet even in prison, the warden recognized that God was with him and even put all the prisoners under Joseph’s care.

While in prison, Joseph interpreted dreams for two of the prisoners including the king’s cupbearer.

Joseph listened to his dream and told him that in three days, he would be released from prison and once again serve the king.

Joseph asked this man to remember him and mention his plight to Pharaoh.

Even when the cupbearer was restored to his former position, just as Joseph foretold, he was quickly forgotten and remained in prison.

Two years later, Pharaoh was troubled by dreams of his own.

No one in Pharaoh’s service could interpret his dreams.

Finally, the cupbearer remembered Joseph and Joseph was brought into the presence of Pharaoh.

Joseph correctly interpreted Pharaoh’s dream and was made the second highest official in the land.

Joseph was second only to Pharaoh himself.

God then used Joseph to store enough food to keep many from starving to death during a severe famine.

Among those saved from death were the brothers that sold him into slavery in the first place.

Joseph was the victim of many wrongs, yet God used the combination of all these wrongs ultimately for good.

Sometimes it appears that absolutely nothing is going the way that it should.

Yet appearances are deceiving.

God has a plan.

We will not always understand the facets of this plan, but then again, we are not supposed to.

What is of paramount importance is to trust that God’s plan is perfect and that He understands that plan perfectly.

That, is the essence of faith,


Blessings,
Jim Pokorny
The Other Brother Jim
Look for me at http://faithfulfeetteam.blogspot.com/ on Friday, August 12, 2011.
Please enjoy the contributions of my fellow Christian bloggers while you are there!
I’ll be back here on Friday, August 19, 2011.
Schedule subject to change.