Why Bad Things to Good People

R. Stanley
Why do godly people suffer from incurable diseases? Why do servants of God
meet with accidents? Why do bad things happen to good people? These age-old
questions puzzle people everywhere.
Nowhere do we find satisfactory answers to such questions except in the Bible,
God’s Word. The understanding of God’s nature as revealed in the Scriptures
provides the key to unlock this mystery.
Jehovah-Makkeh
We are all too familiar with the redemptive names of God such as Jehovah-
Jireh, Jehovah-Rapha and Jehovah- Shalom. But there’s also another name by
which God has revealed Himself: Jehovah-Makkeh. “I am the Lord who strikes”
(Ezek 7:9).
God bruises and bandages!
God constituted the nation of Israel both by trials and triumphs (Dt 4:34).
Explaining the blessedness of God’s chastisement, one of Job’s friends said, “He
bruises, but He binds up; He wounds, but His hands make whole” (Job
5:17,18). Prophet Hosea endorsed this ancient thought when he said, “He has
torn, but He will heal us; He has stricken, but He will bind us up” (Hos 6:1). Some
preachers point out that Job was right in saying, “The Lord gave,” but was wrong
when he added, “The Lord has taken away.” But in the very next verse the Holy
Spirit has recorded, “In all this, Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong” (Job
1:21,22).
Both the day and the night are the Lord’s (Psa 74:16). God has appointed the
day of prosperity as well as the day of adversity (Eccl 7:14). Both woe and well-
being proceed from the mouth of the Most High (Lam 3:38).
A Painful Truth
Hebrews chapter eleven is the favourite for Christians today. This chapter on
faith is expounded in every other seminar and conference. Books on faith make
bestsellers. But what about the twelfth chapter? It speaks of the chastisement of
God. The writer himself calls it a “forgotten” truth! (Heb 12:5). Majoring on Hebrews
eleven and minimising the teaching of the twelfth chapter will leave us half-baked.
Because, we are called not only to believe but also to suffer (Phil 1:29).
It is widely preached and taught that coming to Christ ends all our problems.
But folks experience the contrary and they are disillusioned. One side of the coin
alone is always misleading. “That is the trouble with the Church today; there’s too
much of the hospital element; we have lost sight of the great battle,” writes David
Watson (1933- 1984) in his excellent book, I Believe in the Church.
A study of Hebrews 12 with the background of the rest of the Scriptures unfolds
the purpose and profitability of chastisement.

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Excess Baggage
Christian life is a race (Heb 12:1). Runners get rid of all unnecessary weight when
they get set on the track. When unnecessary things occupy us, God gets angry. He
is displeased when any pastime steals our prayer time, or the reading of a secular
magazine sidelines Scripture meditation. All idols must be excluded from our lives
so the Lord alone may be exalted (Isa 2:17b,18).
Even blessings at times can blur spiritual vision and blunt spiritual sensitivity.
Eternal values become obscure and earthly blessings become our objective. God
cannot tolerate this. He is a consuming fire! (Heb 12:29). He will therefore give us
the fan-cum-fire treatment (Mt 3:12). When everything seems to be going alright,
He will suddenly send a storm. He is interested in the removal of shakable things
so that the unshakable things alone may remain (Heb 12:27). He lays us down on
our backs so we may look up!
“The Heavenly Father never takes away anything from His children unless He
means to give them something better,” said George Muller (1805-1898).
Sin of Disobedience
God warns us through His Word and His Spirit when we disobey Him. But if we
turn a deaf ear, He takes the rod in His hand. The cane is the most powerful
attention-getter! It works instant miracles, as every parent knows!
The writer of Hebrews warns, “See that you do not refuse Him who speaks” (Heb
12:25). We cannot “escape” if we disobey God. The Heavenly Father has no spoilt
children. He loves them too much to allow that. “Whom the Lord loves He
chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives” (v6). God punishes us most
when He punishes us not!
Traffic accidents are becoming common. True we have the promise that God’s
angels shall keep us in all our ways lest our foot strikes against a stone (Psa
91:11,12). The Lord is our Protector and He neither slumbers not sleeps (Psa
121:4). But in a surge of anger, He may hide His face from us for a moment (Isa
54:7,8). Which father will be silently watching his son going the wrong way? The
donkey crushed the prophet’s foot against a wall when he went against God’s perfect
will (Num 22:25). Another prophet was thrown away from a ship into the sea
because of disobedience. He landed inside the belly of a large fish. There he
repented and found time to prepare his next sermon! This does not mean that all
accidents are God’s punishments, but we must take an immediate stock of our
lives when unpleasant things happen (Job 13:23).
His Holiness
God wills that His children hate sin with perfect hatred and love righteousness
with perfect love. He worries that we have not resisted to bloodshed, striving against
sin (Heb 12:4).
We get satisfied with our lives comparing ourselves with others. But God is not
content until we partake of “His” holiness (Heb 12:10). He does not lay down the
pruning knife until we become like His Eldest Son. At the beginning of the Book of
Job, God Himself testified that Job was more upright than anyone else at that

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time (Job 1:8). But, after going thro’ God’s furnace, at the end of the book, Job
confessed to God, “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye
sees You. Therefore, I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes” (42:5,6). Oh,
the blessing of buffeting! When the outer man is perishing, the inner man is
renewed.
Reverence and Humility
God deserves all our reverence (Heb 12:9). Walking humbly with Him is our basic
duty (Mic 6:8). But too often our respect and fear for the Lord evaporates into the
clouds and the pride of Lucifer enters our spirits. The Lord knows how to humble us.
He may permit a sickness or a loss. He puts His finger on that thing which inflated
our ego and pride. That breaks us and we come back to our senses.
God was prospering King Hezekiah abundantly. He was exalted before all nations.
But he became proud. Therefore, God struck him with a boil. He declared to the
king that his days were numbered. Hezekiah wept bitterly and repented. God
forgave him and extended his life. After he was healed, he sang, “I will walk humbly
all my years because of this anguish of my soul” (Isa 38:15).
George Whitefield (1714-1770) was called the prince of open-air preachers. He
confessed, “It is necessary to heal the pride of my heart that trials should come!”
The thorn in the flesh was to buffet Paul lest he became conceited because of his
abundant revelations (2 Cor 12:7). God does not author sickness but He allows
it.
We become aware of our weaknesses only when storms hit us. Otherwise, we
would simply be boasting of our strengths. The day of adversity measures our true
strength (Prov 24:10).
Faith and Confidence
Impossible it is to please God without faith. When we take our eyes off Jesus,
who is the Author and Finisher of our faith, we run into trouble (Heb 12:2). Our
boats begin to sink. We then cry to Him. He asks, “Where is your faith?” (Lk 8:25).
Sufferings, if handled properly, will strengthen faith. At the height of his
despair, Job triumphantly declared, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him” (Job
13:15). Prophet Habakkuk, being unable to understand God’s dealings, filled his
first chapter with questions of “Why?” (Hab 1:3,13,14). In the second chapter God
answered, “The just shall live by faith” (2:4). The prophet learnt the lesson and sang
in the third chapter, “Though the fig tree may not blossom... though the flock be
cut off from the fold... yet I will rejoice in the Lord!” (3:17-19).
Trees subject to violent winds take deep roots. Richard Wumbrand (1909-2001)
once described what he learnt amidst fourteen years of torture within communist
prisons: “In prison we unlearnt theology and we learnt Theos, the One about whom
theology speaks!” Martin Luther (1483- 1546) also said something similar: “I never
knew the meaning of God’s Word until I came into afflictions!”
Afflictions increase our appreciation of God’s grace. Jeremiah was a prophet of
tears, and Paul an apostle of tears. Both of them saw the rainbow of God’s grace
thro’ tear drops. The former testified that God’s grace was “new” every morning (Lam
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3:1,22,23). The latter said that God’s grace was “sufficient” (2 Cor 12:9).
The Lord removed from Job his brothers, acquaintances, relatives, friends,
guests, servants, wife and children (Job 19:13-17). When human props are
removed, we look to the Lord alone. He may even hide Himself. We cannot find Him
whether we go forward or backward and we cannot see Him on the left or the right.
In such a situation, Job confidently said, “But He knows!” We don’t know, but He
knows! (Job 23:8-10).
Fellowship of Believers
As long as the sailing is smooth, we tend to be too independent. But when we
run aground, we crave for the fellowship of God’s people. Times of testing and the
hour of trial teach us the importance and preciousness of the help and company of
brothers and sisters in Christ (Heb 12:22,23). “If one organ suffers, all the organs
suffer with it” (1 Cor 12:26). “A brother is born for adversity” (Prov 17:17). How
much Jesus longed for the company of His disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane!
The Lord takes a serious view of damaged relationships. We earn His displeasure
when we fail to reconcile with one another. “For this reason many are weak and
sick... For if we judge ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged,
we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world” (1
Cor 11:30-33). The horizontal component of holiness is peace with men. We will
miss God’s grace if we don’t root out whatever bitterness we have against others (Heb
12:14,15). God struck an outstanding singer with leprosy for backbiting. He healed
her only after she realised her folly (Num 12).
Trials and difficulties soften our hearts, thus making reconciliation easy.
Longterm enmity has been healed when one of the persons is suddenly and
seriously taken ill. Confessing our sins to one another and praying for each other
is God’s prescription for healing (Js 5:16). God had to cripple Jacob the trickster
before crowning him (Gen 32:25-28).
Development of Virtues
“No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it
produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by
it” (Heb 12:11).
The lamenting Job asked, “Is there any taste in the white of an egg?” (Job 6:6).
No, it is not tasty but nutritious! The trials of life are meant to make us better, not
bitter. Through the vision of the good and bad figs, God showed prophet Jeremiah
that even the captivity of Judah to Babylon was “for their own good” (Jer 24:3-5).
Only when we suffer, we are able to truly understand the feelings and heartaches
of other sufferers around us. “God comforts us in all our tribulations, that we may
be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we
ourselves are comforted by God” (2 Cor 1:4). Christian counselling has become too
academic and professional these days. Counsellors without feeling are “worthless
physicians,” “miserable comforters” and “empty talkers” (Job 13:4; 16:2; 21:34).
Nowadays we even have computerised counselling. Our need is wounded healers!
Crises also help to release the latent or dormant spiritual powers. Don’t our
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reflex muscles act fastest at the sudden sight of a cobra? You would have never
imagined that you could run so fast until someday a mad dog chased you!
The Lord does not take us into deep waters to drown us but to develop us. My
daddy would never allow me and my younger brother to go beyond shallow waters
to bathe. But the dads of our peers freely took them to deep waters. The result is
both of us cannot swim properly to date!
Times of suffering become times of great revelations too. There are very few direct
passages in the Old Testament on Resurrection. One of them was spoken by Job
amidst intense suffering (Job 19:23-26). And it was while patiently enduring
suffering in a barren island that John received the glorious Revelation of things
to come (Rev 1:9).
Deliverance when?
In an age of instant everything, we expect deliverance from troubles or lifting of
the rod of correction the moment we repent or pray. But this does not happen so
always. Hence the exhortation: “Strengthen the hands which hang down, and the
feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not
be dislocated, but rather be healed” (Heb 12:12,13).
The Lord did not drive out all the nations “immediately,” but left them for two
reasons: One, to teach the children of Israel warfare, and second, to test their
obedience (Judg 2:21; 3:4).
Psalms 6,13,38,56,70,88 and 143 are excellent prayers of David for deliverance
from his troubles and enemies. But God did not send him instant deliverance
in every case.
Sometimes, as in the case of Paul, the thorn will never be removed. But God
will give us grace to live above the handicaps (2 Cor 12:7-10). He is Sovereign.
He is sympathetic. Let God be God!
No doubt death is an enemy, but God can use even that for His glory (Jn 21:19).
Whether we live or die, it is to the glory of God (Rom 14:8).
As long as the earth remains, day AND night shall not cease (Gen 8:22). Only in
the New Heaven and New Earth, “there shall be no night.” Afflictions may be
lasting, but not everlasting! The first thing God will do when He comes down to
literally tabernacle with us is to wipe away every tear from our eyes! (Rev 21:4).
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus! (Rev 21:20).
When my lifework is ended
and I cross the swelling tide;
When the bright and glorious morning
I shall see;
I shall know my Redeemer
when I reach the other side;
And His smile will be the first
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to welcome me!

Thru the gates to the city,

R. STANLEY, 13 CHURCH COLONY, VELLORE 632 006, TAMILNADU, INDIA