Why Do Bad Things Happen?

Genesis 50:20 “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.”

Why do bad things happen? Why is there so much evil in the world? In short, because of us.

Humanity was made in the image of God with the capacity to understand good and evil. We were also given the freedom of choice to decide how to live out our lives rather than be robotic. God advised the first humans to not seek out the knowledge of the tree of good and evil, but humans were tempted to understand both what is good and what is evil and chose to disobey. Now armed with that knowledge of what is evil, humans can think, say, and perform evil deeds.

The unfortunate thing is that we have chosen to lead a life of sinfulness and with each generation we continue to perpetuate this cycle. Despite all of our poor and sometimes very bad choices, the Lord still calls to us to repent and He waits patiently. But why does God allow it? Why does He not just stop humans from doing anything bad? This was one of the very things I wrestled with for a long time and will cover it more in tomorrow’s post. For now, know what we humans have planned for evil, God has planned for good to bring about the salvation of many.