If God is Good Why Do Bad Things Happen?

Genesis 4:1-6:22

I wonder if Adam and Eve were the first people to ask that question? Did they dare?

They were the first to know God; they had just left the paradise he made for them.  When Eve gave birth to her first son, she said, “With the help of the Lord I have brought forth a man.” She attributed the miracle of new life to God.

Adam and Eve knew God was good, so when their firstborn son murdered his brother, did they understand this evil came from sin, not God?

Sin is not part of God’s character.

Was That Fair?

The Bible doesn’t tell us how Cain and Abel learned about worship, but they knew it involved sacrifice and they each chose something to bring to God. Cain brought produce from the soil and Abel brought fat portions from the firstborn of his flock. God accepted Abel’s offering but rejected Cain’s.

Why was Cain’s sacrifice was rejected?

Perhaps it’s because plants in a field were so plentiful that offering some of them wasn’t much of a sacrifice. There was a big difference between whacking down stalks of grain and killing a warm-blooded animal as an offering to God.

But God cared about Cain even in his disobedience. He didn’t want Cain to be consumed by this sin. Justice called for punishment, but God offered mercy and reason.

“Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.” (Genesis 4:6-7)

God releases Cain and he goes on to commit an even more heinous sin, despite God’s warning. Was it fair for God to let Cain go after the first offense?

Not Fair, But Merciful

God’s treatment of sinners in these first chapters of Genesis tells us a lot about his mercy.

Adam, Eve, and Cain all sinned grievously, but God let them live. He gave them children and they went on populating the world, even when their legacy was riddled with sin. Cain’s grandson Lamech used his grandfather’s story of murder to excuse his own act of homicide (Genesis 4:23).

These early stories of sin are like distant thunder warning us of storms that lie ahead in the Bible. People are not going to get better, but the world will go on because of God’s mercy.

So Why Does God Let Bad Things Happen?

God hates the consequences of sin more than we do, but he is patient with sinners. If he weren’t patient, the world would end. Getting rid of all the sinners in Genesis would have wiped out the human race almost before it began. God waits for the people who love him to come on the scene and then he works his will through them.

Which Brings Us to Noah

Noah was born in very bad time. People were so fascinated with sin that “every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled.” (Genesis 6:5-6)

People actually broke God’s heart.

It was time for a Creation reset.

“I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created – and with the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground – for I regret that I have made them.” (Genesis 6:7)

Wiping people from the face of the earth is what happens when God decides to stop sinners in their tracks. We should remember this passage when we think that God doesn’t do enough to stop crimes on the earth. He is able, but he may not be willing to do it. He acts according to his infinite wisdom when he deals with sin and sinners.

Standing out among all those criminals causing havoc on the earth is Noah who was “a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God.” (Genesis 6:9) God loved Noah and he decided to restart the world through him and his family.

Is It True?

Is the story of Noah’s Ark true? There is one reliable authority who absolutely believed it. This is what Jesus said about Noah in Matthew 24:37-39.

“As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.”

God is just, merciful, reasonable and forgiving. But God is also able to deal fiercely with sin when the time is right. Isn’t it wonderful to have this book that tells us so much about God!