I am really struggling to answer this question. It can't be just be about free will. Natural disasters, accidents and diseases are the cause of many deaths each day. Dying without having a choice sounds like the opposite of free will to me.
Always a good question, Markuss. I knew a South Korean American Air Force pilot who was once a christian but left God and became an atheist because he couldn't fathom why there is so much unanswered suffering.
Job and his three friends used to think that the answer to your question was simple: "Righteous people are blessed; evil people suffer." But when Job began to suffer for no reason, he was forced to re-think his original beliefs. He began to ask questions and make statements that most people can't satisfactorily answer or contradict today such as here:
"The dying groan in the city and the souls of the wounded cry out, yet God charges no one with wrongdoing" (Job 24:12). What Job is saying there is that so many people suffer needlessly and die unnecessarily but that God doesn't frown on or condemn or bring to justice those who harmed them or/and those who stood by and watched and did nothing while they suffered or died. Job isn't too sure that God is fair and just because of
needless (not godly) suffering.
You mentioned things like natural disasters and diseases that have nothing to do with freewill and so can't be answered with the freewill argument. One of those, a hurricane, just tore through Texas. The Bible gives answers for those; for example, many natural disasters are caused by the sin, iniquity, and ungodliness on earth in general which affects nature and our environment. In 2Chron. 7:14, God says that when His people repent and live righteously, then
the very land around them will also benefit with healing; and Paul more clearly reveals in Rom. 8:19-23 that all these earthquakes, hurricanes, and natural disasters are all a result of the Fall (ie. sin) and that as believers walk in the Spirit as mature sons, the healing away of their sin (replaced with righteousness) will also affect "the Creation" all around us,
effecting healing for nature and our environment as well. A healed Creation doesn't heave and toss and wretch and cry as it is with natural disasters (because nature is alive and can therefore feel and be affected by what is good as well as what is evil). And so many other answers to the question of suffering are in the Bible; but most of them have to be revealed by the Holy Spirit as we ourselves study and investigate them and ask God to reveal these answers to us. I hope that's been helpful.
