#2: January 7, 2008

The 7 should read 2, or the 2 should read 7. Nonetheless, I really should be keeping this up.

But it's 2008, and I figured 8 resolutions for the year ought to be a nice number.

#1: Get a first in my exams. Or well, really just do the best I can.
#2: Figure out something for my summer internship - this looks like more of a half-year resolution.
#3: Finish my chronological Bible reading plan
#4: Spend more time in prayer
#5: Make time to talk to more friends
#6: Forge better relationships with certain individuals, who will not be named here
#7: Update this blog regularly
#8: *private resolution*

Lol. The last one will be kept a secret.

Anyways, like I promised, insight #2:

It would be a bit long to quote the whole bit. But I'm currently reading through Job, and today's chapters are 14-16. The insight today however comes from a bigger overview of the situation in Job. And perhaps there is a key passage here, taken from Job 2:9-10.

[Job's] wife said to him, "Are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die!"

He replied, "You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?"

In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.

The question to contemplate is: Is God responsible for evil?

This question cannot be appropriately addressed in such a short space. But I think that justice, however small, must be done. Firstly, the definition of responsibility is crucial. God is not the origin of evil, He is not the author of evil, but He permits it. For His own purposes God permits evil. Yet God's very nature is goodness, and in Him there is no evil. This is right doctrine, for it is said that Job did not sin when he said that trouble also comes from God. So it seems that we arrive at a contradiction, at yet another question. How can a good God allow evil?

In the book of Job, God chooses to answer this question in pretty spectacular fashion, by revealing Himself. And today, it's even more spectacular when you realise that God has revealed Himself ultimately in the person of Jesus. The answer to how a good God can allow evil is Jesus. Strange answer you might think. In fact the question doesn't even seem to be answered. To answer that question will require much review of many different theological arguments. But stop a moment and think about it: when people are faced by evil, as much as they want to know why it is happening, I believe they want a solution even more. And so Jesus is that solution. He is coming to set things right, while we just hold on a little longer.