“Oh, that My people would listen to Me, that Israel would walk in My ways! I would soon subdue their enemies and turn My hand against their adversaries.” Psalm 81:13,14
It was J. Hart who wrote the following stanza of a hymn: “How good is the God we adore, Our faithful unchangeable Friend; His love is as great as His power, And knows neither measure nor end.” The goodness of God is a concept that can elude mankind very easily if he becomes bogged down in the effects of sin on this earth. In the multitude of considerations in everyday life, we are apt to forget that God is good, perfectly good. He only gives good gifts, and mostly, He gives Himself by His Spirit, which is the ultimate gift of His goodness. Indeed, the humble man will attest to the fact that any goodness that he possesses is of God, and to Him belongs all the praise and blessing. Why is the matter of God’s goodness so very important, not only to know about, but to live in the vast expanse of it in Christ? It is there in that utter Goodness which created the world “good,” and then created man good, and in God’s likeness, that we are to find God’s blessing. It is as we gaze at the goodness of God as revealed in Christ that God gives to us a basis for faith to believe Him for His highest and His best. Why did God say to Israel, a nation which came to the point of refusing to hear God’s voice, and indeed, would have nothing to do with God, that He would have fed them with finest of wheat, and “with honey from the rock I would have satisfied you?” (Ps. 81:16) It is because of the fact that though Israel, and mankind itself, turns away from God, refusing to hear Him, in order to obey Him according to His truth, that He remains the same. He is always good, in every generation, at all times, regardless of the void of goodness in men. When Jesus died on the cross, God was still good. His goodness was revealed in the fact that He still loved mankind, even His enemies who nailed Christ to the cross for their sins. There is never a moment, or circumstance, in which God is not good, for He can never deny what He is. The creation is not the dictator of God’s will and purpose, His power and love. God is holy and separate from creation in that He alone is Creator. The same goodness that was revealed at the creation is revealed today. The question is, “Who will believe it, and live in light of it, appropriating that goodness in Christ?”
In the days of Haggai and Zechariah the prophets in Israel, with regard to the building of the second temple, after the return of the people from exile, God confronted Zerubbabel, their governor, Joshua the priest, and the remnant of the people, those who had true faith in God. He would speak to the people of comparisons between that which He desired to do, and that which the people were only willing to receive. He spoke to them of sowing much, but bringing in little, of eating but not having enough, and drinking, but not having their thirst quenched, and then being clothed but still not being warm. (Hag. 1:5,6) What is the Lord seeking to convey, not only to His people Israel then, but to every believer in Christ in this world today? It is that, in His goodness, He would have us trust Him now for His highest and best, for His glory. The problem with being able to do this has to do with priorities in the church, the body of Christ, today. For Israel in Haggai’s day, their priority was self-consideration, their lives, their paneled houses, and this while neglecting the first priority of rebuilding the temple of the Lord. (1:4) God in His goodness waits to bless.
Dear Father, Conform us to Yourself. In Jesus’ name, Amen.