“Why God Lets ___ Things Happen to ___ People (Acts 12:1-24)” | 5/15/22

Acts 12:1-24 | 5/15/22 | Will DuVal

Most of you have probably seen the 1994 classic Forrest Gump. One of the most moving scenes in the film takes place during the Vietnam War, when Forrest rescues his superior officer, Lieutenant Dan, whose legs were blown off in battle, followed by the loss of Forrest’s “best good friend” Bubba in the same attack. 

Bubba, like Forrest, was a good man. A simple, but kind, sweet man. 

Lieutenant Dan, on the other hand, is a mean, vulgar, bully. 

Bubba wanted to live. He had dreams of one day returning home to the Bayou and becoming a shrimping boat captain. 

Lieutenant Dan desired to DIE in Vietnam. He came from a long, proud military family who had lost a member fighting in every American war, and Lieutenant Dan felt it was his DESTINY to die with his men on the battlefield. 

And yet, much to his chagrin, Forrest managed to SAVE his life, but Forrest couldn’t save BUBBA’S. 

In his dying breaths, Bubba asks Forrest the age-old question that EVERY sufferer in life must wrestle with: “Forrest, WHY’D THIS HAPPEN?”

Lieutenant Dan similarly bemoans his fate: “Forrest, this wasn’t supposed to happen, not to ME.” 

Why do BAD things happen to GOOD people? Why do GOOD things happen to BAD people? The Bible doesn’t turn a blind eye to this unfortunate and seemingly un-JUST reality of life; on the contrary, Scripture helps give VOICE to our righteous grievance: 

The prophets are especially concerned with it: 

Isaiah 57:1 “The righteous man perishes… while no one understands”; 

Jeremiah 12:1 “Why does the way of the wicked prosper?”; 

Habakkuk (1:13), Malachi (3:15), on and on they question.

In the book of Ecclesiastes, King Solomon laments that “In my vain life I have seen [that] there is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who prolongs his life in his evildoing.” (7:15; 8:14)

The Psalms are FULL of such protests: 

Psalm 73, “I was envious of the arrogant

    when I saw the prosperity of the wicked… All in vain have I kept my heart clean…

For all the day long I have been stricken and rebuked.” (vv3-14)

But the quintessential example, of course, is JOB, the righteous sufferer (1:1) who questions God: 

“Why do the wicked live,

    reach old age, and grow mighty in power?

[Job exclaimed] …‘I am in the right,

    and God has taken away my right;

in spite of my right I am counted a liar… though I am without transgression.’” (21:7; 34:5-6)

Sometimes the righteous perish, while the wicked prosper

But then OTHER times, the righteous prosper, while the wicked perish. 

Who can make sense of it all?! 

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“The Marks of a Missional Church (Acts 11:19-30; 12:25-13:3)” | 5/22/22