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WHY DO BAD THINGS HAPPEN TO PEOPLE?–PART 1

Introduction

In light of the devastation left in the wake of Hurricane Katrina this week, questions are being asked. In the newspaper, on the radio, and on the television we hear the questions posed.

Perhaps you have been asking some of these same questions yourself, struggling to find an answer. What questions am I talking about?

You know them:

Why? Why did this happen? Why this place at this time? How can an all powerful, all knowing all loving God allow this to happen? Or in the words of one newspaper account I read, “Why did you do this to us, God? What did we do to upset you?”

The tragic devastation left by the hurricane this past week brings to the forefront these very difficult questions of faith. The final death toll at this time is unknown but by some estimates it could be in the thousands and might even be the most deadly natural disaster in this country.

We see the faces of just a few of the tens and even hundreds of thousands that have been and are being affected in various ways. Many people are suffering in many different ways and the suffering even reaches to us (i.e. high gas prices) although our suffering pales in comparison to those down where the storm hit.

As we consider this destruction the questions come streaming Why? Why? Why?

I don’t expect to have all the answers this morning, but I do hope to give you some ground on which to stand in order to come to some resolve within yourselves and perhaps even to be able to offer comfort support and understanding to others who ask you, Why?

Today I want us to consider some of the many possible answers that are being offered.

I.         IT IS POSSIBLE FOR US TO TRY TO EXPLAIN IT NATURALLY.

            i.e. That is, this is what happens in nature – naturally– it is a Natural Disaster.

Those who look at it this way go to great lengths to explain how hurricanes form and about the natural consequences of various factors bringing about the storm and its results.

That is the natural scientific answer to the “why” question – and so the explanation would basically be that these things happen with no respect to persons or place–they just happen.

Some who try to explain it naturally might say there is no reason at all – i.e they use a philosophical approach.

They say that there is no rhyme or reason to anything that occurs in life.

            Things just happen. Earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, destruction and death happen.

“Que sera sera” – whatever will happen will happen, and what ever will be will be.

            Just hope that you are not in the wrong place at the wrong time.

            That’s the natural approach.

II.       IT IS POSSIBLE FOR US TO TRY TO EXPLAIN IT SPIRITUALLY.

            This may come in several different forms:

            A.      IT IS POSSIBLE TO EXPLAIN IT AS SATAN’S WORK.

i.e. The Devil did it! The devil is mean and nasty, he hates everyone and he revels in suffering, death, and destruction.

1 Peter 5:8–“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:”

Remember the calamity that Satan brought upon Job – his cattle and flocks were destroyed, his servants and his children were killed and then Job himself was covered with painful boils.

                        We know that Satan is able to bring about great suffering and destruction.

Considering all the suffering and destruction that we have seen this week, this could certainly be a possibility.

            B.        IT IS POSSIBLE TO EXPLAIN IT AS A CONSEQUENCE OF LIVING IN A SIN CURSED WORLD. (Romans 8:22)

            C.       IT IS POSSIBLE TO EXPLAIN IT AS GOD’S JUDGMENT OF THE WICKED AND/OR AS CHASTISEMENT OF HIS CHILDREN.

                        1.    We Know That In Times Past God Has Caused Calamity To Fall On Cities And Even Nations For Their Sin And Wickedness.

                                    a.         In Genesis 19 we see the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. God rained down fire and brimstone from heaven to totally destroy those cities.

                                    b.         In Exodus 7 - 12, it is recorded that God poured out ten plagues against the land of Egypt and the Egyptians for their refusal to release Israel from her bondage and servitude.

                                    c.         In the Book of Lamentations, the prophet Jeremiah describes the awful pain and destruction suffered by the children of Israel as God chastised them for their sin.

                                    d.        Moses warned the people of Israel in Deuteronomy 31:29–“For I know that after my death ye will utterly corrupt yourselves, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you; and evil will befall you in the latter days; because ye will do evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger through the work of your hands.”

And of course the entire book of Judges involves the cycle of idolatry, God’s judgment, repentance, a Judge to deliver them, then after the judge dies the people fall into idolatry again.

                                                God does send judgments to punish sin and wickedness.

                                    e.    So when we consider the area where this disaster occurred – we find it is an area that is known for its wickedness, godlessness, and things that stink in the nostrils of God.

So some might think that God could be judging them for their wickedness.

                                    f.    Or perhaps God is judging our nation for its wrong stance in recent days with regard to the Nation of Israel.

Genesis 12:3–“And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee.”

Listen to the words of this news article from the Jerusalem Newswire:“Katrina - The fist of God?”

                                                By Stan Goodenough dated August 29th, 2005

Today is going to be a terrible day for millions of people in the United States as Hurricane Katrina comes roaring ashore on the northern Gulf Coast of the country.

Hopefully, prayerfully, despite the worst-case scenarios being predicted by many weather experts and others in the media, there will not be an enormous loss of life.

But even if no one dies, the thought of hundreds of thousands of people having to leave their homes in the last 48 hours to stream out of the hurricane’s path, not knowing what they will come back to – what will happen to their neighborhoods, their houses, their possessions, almost everything they hold dear – is a terrifying thought indeed.

Untold numbers of people are about to be made refugees. Life, as many in the south-eastern USA have known it for generations, is about to change, painfully and dramatically.

For millions more citizens in the “greatest nation on earth” – those who are not physically near the advancing storm – their existence is also about to take a turn for the worse.

Katrina has forced oil workers to evacuate rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, stopping the production of 600,000 barrels of oil a day. Seven oil refineries and a major oil import terminal have been closed.

Oil prices have already gone through the roof, soaring to a record high of $70.80 a barrel of crude since last Friday. Things could get much worse.

The US is particularly sensitive to oil price hikes. While comprising just five percent of the world population, Americans daily consume 20 million barrels of oil – 25 percent of the world’s total.

Two weeks ago, the monster Katrina was not on any radar screen, although the 2005 hurricane season, which began in July and will not peak until September, had already seen a record number of hurricanes.

On August 14, citizens in the United States, like people around the world, heard about the issuing of an order for the forced evacuation of Jews from parts of Israel’s biblical land.

For six days they watched as thousands of weeping people were pulled and carried from their homes, forced to leave their gardens, parks, communities, schools, towns and synagogues, everything they had spent decades building; banned from ever returning again.

Those scenes were soon followed by pictures of bulldozers and other earth-moving machinery pulverizing the just-vacated homes into heaps of dust.

While this was taking place, a small tropical depression was forming near the Bahamas in the Atlantic Ocean. Slowly, as the air began to revolve, the nonthreatening weather system began moving in the direction of Florida.

Yesterday, we in Israel watched as American officials, including President George W. Bush, ordered the mandatory evacuation of New Orleans and its surrounds. That small depression had turned into a frightening fiend. Now we are seeing on our television screens up to a million people being forced to leave their homes. People are weeping on camera, mourning that they are going to lose “everything we own; everything we have worked for.”

As today unfolds we are bracing to see wind and water pounding homes, whole communities, into the ground.

Is this some sort of bizarre coincidence? Not for those who believe in the God of the Bible and the immutability of His Word.

What America is about to experience is the lifting of God’s hand of protection; the implementation of His judgment on the nation most responsible for endangering the land and people of Israel.

The Bible talks about Him shaking His fist over bodies of water, and striking them.

While the “disengagement” plan was purportedly the brainchild of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, the United States of America has for more than a decade been the chief sponsor and propeller of a diplomatic process that has dangerously weakened Israel in the face of an overwhelming, growing threat to annihilate her.

In the context of the last 12 years of peace-process history and not withstanding the desire of many on Israel’s left to go ahead with this process, the Sharon disengagement plan was something that was forced on Israel, primarily by the United States.

“It is a fact that Israel’s very existence is in grave danger, because of our nation’s sponsorship of 'land for peace' plans, which have led her to the brink of war,” writes US author William R. Koenig, in his 2004 book Eye to Eye– Facing the consequences of dividing Israel. (21st Century Press, Springfield MO, ISBN 0-9728899-9-X).

On the cover, a grim-faced President Bush is shown looking warily at a massive hurricane threatening his country.

Koenig writes, in a book listing major natural and man-made disasters experienced by the USA during its peace-process efforts in the Middle East:

“America is now experiencing the consequences (curses) of Middle East policies, which have been opposed to God’s Word and to the preservation of His covenant land.”

As this “storm of a lifetime” wreaks its rage on the southern United States today, non-believers may be tempted to shake their fists at God. Others will cry out for mercy. Will God hear them?Our prayer is that He will.

“Pray for us. Pray for all of New Orleans,” a weeping woman resident of the city pleaded on an international television network Sunday evening as Katrina barreled its way towards her.

Many in America couldn’t have cared less about Jews being forced out of their homes and losing everything they have built. Here in Israel, many Jews will be feeling for the Americans who are now facing similar tragedies, tragedies brought about by the forces of heaven rather than through the political power of men.

                                    Can’t you see the link, America? Won’t you see the link?

                                    Copyright 2005 Jerusalem Newswire

                        So it is certainly possible that God is sending his judgment in our land.

            D.    IT IS POSSIBLE TO EXPLAIN IT AS PART OF THE SIGNAL OF THE END OF THE AGE! (Luke 21:25-28) (i.e. This is a sign that the end is near.)

                        Jesus predicted that there would be signs to tell that the end is coming soon.

So it could be that the world is on the brink of the end of the Church age and Christ will be coming soon for his saints and the 7-year Tribulation Period will begin culminating in the Second Coming Of Christ. This could be a possibility.

            E.   IT IS POSSIBLE THAT THERE MAY BE MULTIPLE REASONS.

It could be a combination of any or many of these reasons with so much overlapping that it is difficult to distinguish one reason or cause from another.

                        That is also is a very valid possibility.

Conclusion

Our text says in verse 3 that “the LORD hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm.”

You may be here and just want to pass hurricane Katrina off as just another natural disaster this morning or as just a natural consequence of living in a sin cursed world.

But have you considered that God could be trying to get our attention?

This disaster didn’t directly involve our area, but the next one could!

If you are here without Christ in your life, you need to realize that the Bible says that you are lost in your sin, and you are under the condemnation of your sin!

Could God be trying to get you to see your need of salvation and urging you to be saved?

2 Corinthians 6:2–“. . .now is the accepted time; behold now is the day of salvation.”

Luke 13:1-5

We who are saved, could the Lord be trying to get us to see our great need for Revival?

2 Chronicles 7:13-14–“If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people; 14If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”

Could the Lord be telling us that we’ve left him out of our plans?

James 4:13-16–“Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: 14Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. 15For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that. 16But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil.” 

Let’s not be like those that Jeremiah prophesied to:

Jeremiah 5:1-4; 9-12

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NOTICE:   THESE SERMONS ARE FREE TO BE USED BUT ARE NOT TO BE SOLD