“Senseless Death”

Wednesday, August 22, 2018

There has been a murder in our small town this past week, which doesn't happen often at all.  It was very gruesome the way it happened.  I know it was a part of God's plan, but why?  Did this lady deserve what happened to her?  And if she did, does that mean the bad things that happen to children are deserved also?  It's really hard for me to understand why such a horrible thing happened to this lady, and it was planned.

Sincerely,
Sickened Neighbor

Dear Sickened Neighbor,

Murder is a sin (1 Jn 3:15), and it isn’t a part of God’s plan.  God can cause a horrible situation to work out for good (Rom 8:28), but that doesn’t mean that He desired for that woman to be murdered. People suffer for various reasons:

1. Sometimes we suffer for our own sins (Gal 6:7-8).
2. Sometimes we suffer because of others’ choices (like David’s sufferings at the hands of Saul – 1 Sam 20:1).
3. Sometimes we suffer in order to glorify God through our suffering and recovery (like the blind man – Jhn 9:2-3).

All bad things are a result of sin.  When God made the world, He placed mankind in the Garden of Eden and gave us a joyously blissful existence in that paradise.  Who caused the pain?  We did.  It is sin that has brought all of the death, disease, decay, pain, suffering, troubles, and heartaches into our world.  We all, in varying degrees, are reaping the benefits of a world with sin in it.

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