“The Terrible Goodness Of God” (Part 1)

Mae West, the Hollywood blonde bombshell of the 1920’s and 1930’s is reputed to have said, “When I’m good, I’m very good. When I’m bad, I’m even better.” Interesting perspective, eh?

How would you define “goodness”? Purity? Niceness? Not-badness? The New Testament word for “goodness” means “moral excellence”, and that, not surprisingly, moral excellence displays itself most completely and perfectly in the person of God Himself.

Notice:

•    Psalm 31:19: “How great is Your goodness, which You have stored up for those who fear You.”
•    Rom. 8:28: “All things work together for good…”

—OR—

•    Rom.2:4: “Goodness leads to repentance…”
•    Rom.11:22: “The goodness and severity of God…”

There is a significant contrast in those two sets of scriptures. We want to know and experience God’s goodness, but aren’t sure what to do when His goodness is seeking to trigger repentance in us (instead of blessing) or His goodness is accompanied by His severity. So, how do we respond to the goodness of God? I would suggest, and suggest rather strongly, that we tend to respond very differently to the wonderful goodness of God than we do to the terrible goodness of God.

•    Wonderful goodness? Joy, celebration, perhaps even an unspoken thought that somehow we really deserved this expression of God’s goodness;
•    Terrible goodness? Doubt, anger, disappointment with God, and a sense that God’s love has failed us.

Following a colleague’s death, I was returning home when, in Ohio, I heard a radio program. The preacher’s message? Sometimes it is not just the wonderful goodness, but the terrible goodness of God that we experience—terrible because of what God asks of us. That intrigued me to think about this more.

Sometimes our encounters with the terrible goodness of God result in family pressure, personal pain, grief, disappointment in relationships—and we ask, “I thought God was good—how can this be happening? How can this be the goodness of God?”

I would like for us to consider one man’s response to the terrible goodness of God—and learn from it. We see it in Genesis 22:1-8.

Abraham faced, and embraced, the wonderful goodness of God in the miraculous conception and birth of Isaac. In Genesis 21:8, we see his celebration and rejoicing. God has been good, why not celebrate?

In Genesis 22, however, Abraham faced the terrible goodness of God, and the pressure point was the same as before—Isaac. Notice Genesis 22:1-2, and see God’s unbelievable, seemingly brutal demand of this old Dad. Hear the pain of the instructions…

Your son… your only son… whom you love!
Offer him as a burnt offering to Me!

Does that sound like goodness to you? As a Dad, I continually stub my toe here. But, Paul says God is the one (no doubt because of His perfect goodness) who makes all things work together for good! Even this? Paul would say an emphatic YES! But Paul’s response is less significant—it is not his son whose life is on the line. How does Abraham respond?

He Obeyed (v.3)

“So, Abraham rose … and went…”

He did as God had commanded, and took Isaac for an offering to the living God! Think of who this God is—He is the One who gives life, offers hope, extends grace, answers prayers, provides our needs, loves with an everlasting love. He is also the One who commands! He is not just a cosmic grandfather who dotes over us and with a wink and nod gives into our whims.

He is the sovereign Lord of the universe who wants to mold holiness and obedience into us. So, He is also the God who commands us, stretches us, challenges us, and tests us.

Real growth comes from the challenges and pressures of life. So said James 1:2-3, as well as 1 Cor. 10:13. God is not whimsical or capricious. His work in our lives is as purposeful as it is pointed—and that purpose is always our ultimate (though it doesn’t feel like our immediate) good.

See this situation as tough as it is. Genesis states it rather in a matter-of-fact way. It was anything but that for Abraham! Still in the face of God’s demand—a demand that reflects what must have seemed like the terrible goodness of God—Abraham obeyed, without hesitation.

Wednesday, we will see Abraham’s next response to God’s “terrible goodness.”