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From: Chris Jolliffe

Subject:

Date: 23 March 2011 4:52:18 PM ACDT

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Dear 10am family,

If God is all powerful, he could have stopped the Tsunami and earthquake, and if God was all good, he would have. For

an atheist like me, will someone please explain?

That comment appeared in the newspaper soon after the Japanese earthquake and Tsunami, and was the opening line for

Paul Harringtons address at the special service last Thursday night. Its an argument often raised whenever an event of

large-scale human suffering occurs, and an argument which Christians need to answer sensitively, but compassionately.

But still it got me thinking.

I drove home from that service after Id spent a whole day in Isaiah 28 and 29, which spoke of Gods strange work, his

alien task in turning against his people so as to re-make them. This passage is got me thinking in two ways.

First, it helpfully reminds us that Gods judgment against his own people is something that runs against the grain of his

character in normal circumstances. Just as a parent whos confronted with long-term patterns of destructive behaviour

in a child may need to exercise severe discipline for the sake of the long-term re-moulding of that child, so too did God

punish his people in Isaiah 28 and 29. The old adage, This will hurt me more than it hurts you applies as much to God

as it does to the parent. But the point is this: in this passage, Gods essential goodness as a parent doesnt

falter. In fact, his parental goodness is seen precisely in his act of judgment upon Israel, and

not apart from it.

Second, it is chilling that the very language of a Tsunami is used to describe the action of God against his people Israel:

Is. 28.18 Your covenant with death will be annulled;

your agreement with the grave will not stand.

When the overwhelming scourge sweeps by,

you will be beaten down by it.

Is. 28.19 As often as it comes it will carry you away;

morning after morning, by day and by night,

it will sweep through.

The understanding of this message

will bring sheer terror.

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