How to Be the Bad Guy

How to Be the Bad Guy
2 Kings 21:1-26

I sometimes wish I knew what was going to happen in the future, though when I think about it, I am not so sure it’s a good idea. When my wife was diagnosed with her multiple sclerosis, if I had known how it would progress over four decades, I don’t know how I could have coped with the knowledge. Yet as the decades unfolded, I did cope. In recent days I have read one or two reports about early detection of Alzheimer’s. Would I want to know that I am going to contract the disease, given that there is no treatment and I can’t do anything about it? I don’t think so! Yet we have a natural instinct to want to know how the future will turn out, and sometimes this knowledge can be useful because we can do something about it and evade the problem. So we spend vast amounts of resources on research in the physical sciences, economics, and so on, in the hope that this knowledge may increase our sense of control...