Why Bad Things Happen to Good People

Day 3,219, 12:29 • Published in Canada Canada • by Jesse2016

There’s a lot of talk about karma and how good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people but the Bible clearly gives two examples of men who were righteous but had bad things happen to them as part of God’s overall plan.

The first man was called Joseph and he was one of the favourite sons of his father Jacob. His brothers were really jealous of Joseph and one day decided to sell him off to a caravan heading to Egypt. There Joseph was a slave but he eventually was promoted to head of the master’s household because he was so successful. But again tragedy struck as Joseph was falsely accused of trying to have sex with his master’s wife. He was thrown in prison and even there he was successful and was put in charge of all the prisoners. Joseph got out of prison when he correctly interpreted the dream of a cupbearer who later suggested to Pharaoh that Joseph should interpret his dream for him. The dream predicted the coming of seven years of prosperity and seven years of famine after that and because Joseph correctly interpreted Pharaoh’s dream he was put in second in command in all Egypt and was in charge of storing up food for the famine years. Ultimately Joseph’s family was saved from the famine when they were able to buy food from Egypt and the whole family moved to Egypt and stayed there for many years. Therefore Joseph’s hardships were planned by God in order to save the lives of many by storing up food to last the famine years.

The second man was called Job and he was an extremely righteous and extremely wealthy man who helped the poor, widowed and fatherless. Satan challenged God saying that Job was only righteous because God had blessed him so much, so God allowed Satan to take away all that Job had (all his livestock and even his children). God even allowed Satan to strike Job with painful sores all over his body. Even through all these hardships, Job stayed righteous and never accused God even though all these bad things were happening to him. Job 1:20-22 says “At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship and sai😛 Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.” In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.” In the end, after proving Job was obedient even without all his prosperity, God gave Job twice as much as he had before and he lived a very long and prosperous life.

Therefore, both these examples show that even good people may suffer hardship and it’s all part of God’s plan whether it was to save people from famine in Joseph’s case, or because God wanted to be glorified by proving Satan wrong as in Job’s case. Also, it’s possible that God may be disciplining people in order to get them to repent of some wrongdoing. Heb 12:7 says “Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father?” So whatever the reason, we shouldn’t get panicky when hardship comes but realize it’s all in good hands.