Sometimes bad things happen to people

Sometimes disasters are very directly related to our sins. Lying can very often directly lead to troubles for us. Immoral sex quite often leads to direct problems for us. Paul says of such things,

“Flee sexual immorality! “Every sin that a man does is outside the body,” but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.”
1Cor 6:18

Sometimes it is so direct that we have sexually transmitted diseases from our sins, and we are in direct agony from our sins. At other times it is more indirect, but it is still there, in the form of troubles with our sexual partners, or destroyed homes, of the fathering of children who bear part of the curse of our sins, even as it is with all sin. Or even further, possible damage to our own genome, so that years later we have premature aging and health problems that no one can heal.

Sometimes it brings disasters that even kill us,
or cause our death.

King Ahab clearly comes to an early death in battle, because of his many sins. This death was by the direction of the Lord, as told in 1Kings 22. On a more personal level we see the story of one of Judah’s sons, a man by the name of Er. Simple statements are made, without explanation of where or how.

“Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the sight of Yahweh. Yahweh killed him.”
Gen 38:7

Such things happen all the time. We often hear it on the evening news.

Even so, not all calamities are because of our sins.

Jesus is an example, and Job is another example, and there are many others we can see both in life and in Scripture.

Also Jesus tells us another part of the story.

Some men came to Jesus telling stories of men dying in horrible and disastrous ways.

“Now there were some present at the same time who told him about the Galileans, whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices.”
Lk 13:1

Many might assume they were worse sinners than others, and that is why they died. It is true that God sometimes takes men early because of their sins, as is documented time after time in Scripture. However, Jesus says that not all calamities are because of our sins.

“Jesus answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered such things?”
Lk 13:2

Jesus gave another example, then Jesus tells us,

“I tell you, no, but, unless you repent, you will all perish in the same way.”
Lk 13:3

Unless we repent? Perish in the same way? What does that mean? I guess it means we will all die a violent death unless we repent?

Notice that this is a prophecy

Jesus is forecasting what “will” happen. If we believe this prophecy, it will indeed provide powerful motivation to repent, and be reconciled to God. Prophecy is never a neutral informational matter. Believing what God says in prophecy does matter! It is an ethical matter, and indeed an eternal matter.

Scriptures are from the World English Bible (WEB), a copyright free revision of the original ASV American Standard Version 1901