Ecclesiastes 9:11-12, “I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all. For man also knoweth not his time: as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare; so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them.”
Yes, God does usually allow the righteous to suffer along with the wicked, because we live in a fallen world. I wrote this helpful article in 2012, when 95 deadly tornadoes touched down across the Midwest in the United States. Even the righteous are still sinners living in a fallen world. There are no special Bible protections guaranteed to the righteous in this world. But what about God's promise to deliver them that fear Him? Psalms 34:7, “The angel of the LORD encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them.”
A thief (or thieves) stole my $75 propane tank off my barbeque last month. They also pulled up and stole all my $100 of solar-powered lawn lights. Why didn't God protect my stuff? You see dear friend, time and chance happeneth to all (Ecclesiastes 9:11). As long as we live in this sinful world, bad things will happen to everybody. God is not to blame for man's sins. Shoplifters are having a heyday all over California today, since proposition 47 effectively decriminalized shoplifting. That is not God's fault, but stupid leaders in California.
I believe Psalms 34:7 is simply saying that God is in control, and He will deliver us if it is His will, but there is no guarantee of deliverance, evidenced by the suffering saints. God's children still die of cancer, accidents and heart attacks at the same rate as unbelievers. Crime happens to Christians at the same rate as unbelievers. So how does God deliver the saints? Psalms 34:7, “The angel of the LORD encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them.” I admit that I do not completely understand how God works in relation to this verse. But I do not that my God is able, and He keeps His promises. To those who fear God, and live within the confines of the law (both God's law and man's law, if it doesn't contradict God's law), the Lord promises to watch over us and deliver us from our enemies. That doesn't mean that nothing bad ever happens to us. It just means that, like Job in Job chapter one, NOTHING can happen to a believer which God does not allow.
In Judges chapter 6 we find Gideon complaining to God, asking why God's miracles weren't happening to them, as they did to the ancient patriarchs. But Gideon failed to see the big picture. If you read Judges 6:1, you will see that the Israelites did evil in the sight of the Lord, and He gave Israel over into the hands of the Midianites for 7 years. This is just like the United States today. Many saints are complaining to God, asking why they've lost their job. They are upset and want to know why God won't give them health insurance. Nothing is going right, and they are wondering why God has seemingly failed them. Dear reader, our nation has spit in God's face for long enough. We've murdered 63,000,000 human beings in the womb by abortion since 1972. And don't be deceived by the overturn of Roe vs. Wade in April of 2022, the abortion pill is now LEGAL in most states! Why should God bless this mess? We are playing with fire as Americans, which ultimately will burn us! Read Revelation chapter 18.
The Bible says in Matthew 5:45, "That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." Rain can be good or bad, depending on the amount and the geographical area. I don't think God grants any special protections to the saints. We read in Ecclesiastes 9:11 (easy to remember because of the 911 attacks), that "time and chance happeneth to them all." There is such a thing as, “luck.”
I read Mrs. Beverly Hyles, Pastor Jack Hyles wife, say on her blog that: "Everything happens for a reason." Although I agree with her statement, I also think that sometimes things just happen randomly to whoever is there at the time, whether good or bad. The reason may be our lax laws on drunk drivers, or our society's lack of punishment against criminals, or an ignored safety hazard, or any one of hundreds of “reasons,” but time and chance happens to everyone. I read years ago in the news about a deadly tornado that destroyed a Baptist church in Georgia, killing 7 Christians.
Jesus made it clear in Luke 13:5b, “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.” There misfortunate wasn't because of their individual sins. Those 18 people died when the Wall of Siloam fell upon them because of sin in general (i.e., because we live in a fallen world of sin - 1st John 5:19). We live in a fallen world because of the sin of Adam, who opened the floodgate of sin and death upon the human race, and death came upon all men as a result, for all have sinned. Romans 5:12-13, “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.” Because we live in a fallen world, something very bad could happen to anyone at any time, maiming or killing us. This doesn't mean that God is punishing us directly for some sin that we commit, but because we live in a fallen world as guilty sinners.
In December of 1980, a crazed lunatic named Mark Chapman took a gun and shot The Beatles' legend John Lennon (1940-1980) five times. One bullet missed, the other four hit, two in John's chest. Chapman admitted later at a parole hearing that he wanted to become infamous by murdering a famous person! I seriously doubt if Chapman will ever be given parole in New York until Yoko Ono (1933-present) passes away. Yoko is 90 years old! Wow! She is an amazing woman if you read her life's story! She still lives in the same condominium that her and John lived in when he was sadly killed in 1980.
Chapman eerily said John was an easy target, since he lived in New York. Chapman said he had also considered murdering George C. Scott and some other celebrities, but he said Lennon was his easiest target. Was John Lennon a bigger sinner than you or me? No, not at all. John was in the right place at the wrong time. John died that fateful day in 1980 because of a nutcase with a gun. It wasn't God's judgment upon him. You never know what is going on in somebody's else's mind. As Christians we choose to think about good things (well, most of us do at least), but there are some unsaved people with the mindset of a monster, if you knew what they were thinking. People can become real monsters without Jesus Christ!!!
When hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in August of 2005, preachers everywhere were errantly saying that it was God's punishment for Mardi Gras. I don't think that at all. If God thought that way, Sin City Las Vegas would be under millions of tons of fiery brimstone like Sodom and Gomorrah. The architects and land planners of New Orleans foolishly built their homes too close to the ocean, and when the hurricane storm surge came inland, it did billions of dollars in property damage, and hundreds of people died as a consequence. It wasn't God's fault or doing.
If God punished places for their wickedness, then Hollywood in California would be somewhere at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean! God would have carried out Lex Luthor's sinister plot in the movie 'Superman' to detonate a nuclear bomb on the San Andreas Fault, causing the entire perverse state of California to plunge by a massive earthquake into the Pacific Ocean. No dear reader, God allows nature to take its course. Let's face it, good things happen to bad people, just as much as bad things happen to good people. Truthfully, the Bible says in Romans 3:10b-11, “There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.” So NO ONE is “good” in God's holy sight. You may be a good person as far as sinners go, but whether a good sinner or a bad sinner, WE ARE ALL GUILTY SINNERS!!!
The same with the 911 attacks. That wasn't God's judgment upon America. Our own White House orchestrated the attacks. It was a blatant INSIDE JOB! New York City Firefighters (NYFD) said that they heard BOMBS going off in World Trade Center buildings 1 and 2 just before the towers came down in a professional symmetrically fashioned demolition, completely to the ground in less than 15 seconds. Those firefighters were gag ordered by a New York judge to shut up or face jail time and loss of their jobs and retirements. It was a cover-up of mega proportions!
The Bush Administration got caught red-handed, but they got away with it because the ungodly Masonic controlled U.S. Justice Department refused to even investigate the crimes, under the excuse of being "a matter of national security." In other words, if the American public learned the truth, they would have revolted overnight and the U.S. government would have collapsed! But I think that is a copout. Criminals ought to be, and need to be, tried and punished regardless of how high in power they may be. Thankfully, God put Ecclesiastes 5:8 in the Bible, which says, "If thou seest the oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of judgment and justice in a province, marvel not at the matter: for he that is higher than the highest regardeth; and there be higher than they." The Bush crime family's day of reckoning is coming, and all their rotten accomplices!!!
Anyway, I believe that God does sweep away the righteous with the wicked in this sin-cursed world. Albeit, in Job chapter one we learn that Satan could not touch job without God's explicit permission. Having said that, God sends the tornadoes, earthquakes and Tsunamis, not Satan. 1st Corinthians 10:26 says: “For the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof.” Albeit, Satan is the god of this evil world (2nd Corinthians 4:4). But wait, we read in Job 1, that God gave Satan permission to take away Job's children. The Devil sent a tornado (or mighty wind) to bring the house down upon Job's children, killing all 10 of them. So Satan can control the weather, but only with God's permission.
Anyway, I believe that God does sweep away the righteous with the wicked in this sin-cursed world. Albeit, in Job chapter one we learn that Satan could not touch job without God's explicit permission. Having said that, God sends the tornadoes, earthquakes and Tsunamis, not Satan. 1st Corinthians 10:26 says: “For the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof.” Albeit, Satan is the god of this evil world (2nd Corinthians 4:4). But wait, we read in Job 1, that God gave Satan permission to take away Job's children. The Devil sent a tornado (or mighty wind) to bring the house down upon Job's children, killing all 10 of them. So Satan can control the weather, but only with God's permission.
We find biblical support for the idea that God sweeps away the righteous with the wicked in Luke 4:25-26, where Jesus said, “But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land; But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow.” The righteous and the unrighteous starved together in the famine, except one woman who befriended the prophet Elijah with food and drink when he asked for it, and Elijah promised to take care of her and her son.
Through the Bible we find saints suffering the same fate as the unsaved. God did deliver Lot and his family from Sodom. But we read in Hebrews 11:36-40, “And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.”
Noah by faith built the ark for 120 years, but the prophet Elijah was purportedly by history to have been sawn into pieces by his wicked grandson, King Manasseh. Why does one Christian woman get violated on the mission field (which happens quite often, especially in Russia), yet most Christian women on the mission field are left alone? It is time and chance, as Ecclesiastes 9:11 teaches, nothing more or less. Certainly God can protect His own when He so chooses, but so often evil things befall believers and it tests our faith to the very core.
People often say that someone was "in the wrong place at the wrong time." If you think about that statement, it is impossible! You can be in the wrong place at the right time, or be in the right place at the wrong time, or be in the right place at the right time; but you cannot be in the wrong place at the wrong time, otherwise you wouldn't be there! Thank you for reading.
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