Why Bad Things Happen: A Biblical Principle from 2 Chronicles 21
I was reading through 2 Chronicles 21:16 and I learned a principle and I said… oh, this is mind-blowing. I need to share this.
And what is the principle? “Disobedience to God gives room for the enemy to attack.”
We are already victorious in Christ Jesus but sometimes we hand over that victory to Satan by going against God’s instruction… God’s principles.
Okay.
Back to what I read. In 2 Chronicles 21:16 it says some Philistines and Arabs lived near where some Ethiopians are settled along the coast. The Lord caused them to go to war against King Jehoram. These are the same Philistines and Arabs who brought Jehoshaphat, his father, a large amount of silver and other gifts. These same Arabs brought his father 7,700 sheep and goats in 2 Chronicles 17:11. Basically the same group of nations who gifted his father… were at war against this one King Jehoram.
This is basically God telling us: obey me and there will be no room for the enemy to attack you. Disobey me and open the door for the enemy to attack you.
And when we look at it this way… disobedience to God gives room for the enemy to attack. Obey the Lord and give no room for the enemy.
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Now let’s take it further. Bad events or bad happenings are oftentimes a product of our bad choices. God already provided us with a lot of laws and guidance in the scripture for right living, for godly living, and if we obey them we won’t have to make bad choices or bad decisions.
God gave Adam and Eve instruction: don’t eat from these fruits. But immediately Satan gave them the choice. They accepted it and disobeyed God. At the back of every bad decision, Satan, with his master disruption plan, will come up with a Trojan offer of doom… a thought/choice wrapped with sweets and honey, slotted into your mind/life in the form of a choice or a decision for you to make. No matter how deceitful Satan is, he can’t outsmart us because everything he brings is always against God’s instruction.
James 4:7 says, “Submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil and he will run away from you.”
I’ll explain that as: submit yourself to God’s instruction. For if you do, automatically you will resist the devil. Because whatever the devil brings will be against God’s instruction. And that’s how you resist the devil. And if you do, he will run away from you.
When God created the universe, He built some principles to sustain it and He communicated it through His word. Obedience to it brings successful living and the prosperous life here on earth, giving no room for the enemy to attack or make our life a mess. If we go against these principles, no life we built can stand against it. It will crumble. Because disobedience to God’s principle is what causes bad decisions. It is disobedience to God’s principles that gives room for the enemy to attack. It is disobedience to God’s principle that brings bad things. It is disobedience to God that brings deadly things. It is disobedience to God that makes relationships crumble.
May God help us all.
All we have to do is apply God’s principle and God’s instructions to our life and everything we do. All we have to do is apply God’s principle and God’s instructions to our life and everything we do.
Disobedience to God gives room for the enemy to attack. But the enemy’s greatest attacks still work for God. But that shouldn’t give you the go-ahead to go against God’s principles… because if you do, you bring upon yourself a very bad experience.
God created the universe and embedded some principles in it to sustain it… All will work if we work it the way God built it to work.
