God is Good Part 1 – Creation and the Patriarchs

God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. Genesis 1:31

Probably the most important theme in the bible, and the most misinterpreted and open to deception is this one issue, is God really good. This theme if well understood, will lay the foundation for our faith, believe and obedience to His commands and voice . The bible teaches us that our life experiences are tests to bring our true estimate of our understanding of who God is.

The bible describes the universe before God got involved as ‘darkness was over the surface of the deep’ and after completion of creation as ‘ God saw all that he had made, and it was very good’  .When God spoke the first command he did not change the darkness into light instead he created light and separated it from darkness and from then on the foundation of all creation was light. The first book of the bible mentions the work of God as good 7 times, therefore this is the theme of Genesis and as we will study more, the whole bible.

Lesson 1: God did not convert darkness (evil); instead he separated good and evil. Consistently in the bible you will see how God separates good from evil, light and darkness. He intentionally does not destroy evil, but allows it to co-exist  with good and uses it as the canvas to bring out good.

The Fall of ADAM

Eve was created to live in God’s goodness but true to God’s nature he allowed the serpent a crafty animal – ‘clever at achieving one’s aims by indirect or deceitful method’ – to co-exist with the first family. The purpose of the serpent was to test, Eve’s obedience to Gods voice and bring out Adam’s estimate of God’s true nature

“For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

In other words God has withheld this extra knowledge from you, and the reason he is doing this is because he does not want you to be like Him. The implied deception is that this command is not good because it is withholding something good from you, therefore God does not have your best interest.

Lesson 2: To this day one of the biggest reasons for rebellion is grounded in that one lie, that God’s commands are burdensome that they withhold something good from us. Our response to this commands bring the hidden understand in our subconscious about God’s true nature

Abraham’s Estimate of God

Abraham had to deal with darkness.. another form of evil, bareness. Bareness in a sense is darkness, because it did not exist in the garden of Eden, it contradicts God’s good command to multiple and be fruitful. Again God uses this evil canvas to bring out goodness in an impossible situation.

Abraham was asked to sacrifice his son his only son. This is surely an outrageous command harder than any other command I have read in the bible, and totally inconsistent with God’s promise to Abraham, but unlike Adam, Abraham followed this instruction to the letter.

First of all, we need to understand that in Abraham’s mind God was not bluffing. Just a few years before that incident God had commanded Abraham to kick out his 1^st born son Ishmael in the cruelest way

Early the next morning Abraham took some food and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar. He set them on her shoulders and then sent her off with the boy. She went on her way and wandered in the Desert of Beersheba.Genesis 21:14

The command to kill His only remaining son, must have made Abraham to wonder and question God’s goodness, but the bible records that Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead.. Hebrews 11:19

We all know the story, Abraham passed the test with flying colors the standard for obedience had been set and the covenant confirmed.

Abraham’s action spoke volumes of who he believed God was, he demonstrated that God can be trusted even though this command seemed unjust. Abraham believed, in the Goodness of the one giving the instructions rather than on the content or the command. Not leaning on his, own understanding.

Lesson 3: True Faith is anchored in the understanding that God is good. That he is reliable and we can trust him fully and therefore blindly follow his instructions, knowing if we do so the outcome is always good. Abraham’s faith was however not developed overnight..

Joseph’s Attitude

Joseph’s heart wrenching story overshadows his grandfather’s, but again we see God use evil as the canvas of this story to bring a good ending. 

Joseph’s dream sets him apart for a great destiny.

Great destinies require great testing and training.

Joseph was betrayed and sold by his brothers, falsely accused by his master’s wife and jailed for a crime he did not commit.

As the book of genesis is ending he reflects on what has happened to him ‘As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. Genesis 50:20

Conclusion

The book of Genesis starts with and ends with a demonstration of God’s good work.  In the beginning God’s goodness/light ruled the world but after the fall we see evil/darkness enter the world, but God continues to bring out goodness out of the darkness in the life of the patriarchs.

being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion Philippians 1:6

The cost of obedience pales in comparison to the cost of disobience – TB Joshua