A friend of mine recently messaged me about a struggle she was having. In the Old Testament we read of God doing and saying things that can be hard to reconcile with the idea of God being “good.” Below is my reply to her. It”s not an exhaustive reply, but hopefully a helpful one. If you’ve had a similar struggle, maybe it will help you too.
Dear XXXXXXX, Your confusion is very understandable. I”m not entirely certain that an explanation has the power to resolve this kind of question, though I will make a brief attempt.
First, God has many attributes. He is good. He is just. He is righteous. He is Jealous. He is wrath. He is sovereign…The list could go on and on. We make a mistake when we choose to focus on one of these in a way that doesn’t allow him to fully be the others.
Second, there are things about God in scripture that I don’t understand with clarity. There are other things that seem very clear. It is not wise to hold those things I do clearly understand hostage with those things I don’t. A God that neatly fits between my ears is not likely to be worthy of my worship. Figuring him out is not the path to worship. Surrender is.
Third, one of the things that scripture is very clear about is that Jesus is the ultimate revelation of God. God becoming flesh gives us the very clearest possible revelation of who God is and what he is like. Hebrews 1 tells us that Jesus is the exact imprint of God’s nature. Colossians 1 tells us that Jesus is the image of the unseen God. John 1 tells us that Jesus is the Word that was with God and was God and became flesh and dwelt among us. Jesus himself said to Philip “If you’ve seen me you’ve seen the Father.” If you really want to know what God is like, look at Jesus. That’s the bottom line. If reading the Old Testament diminishes the revelation of God in Christ then you are probably reading it through the wrong set of lenses, because it’s whole point was to point you to Christ. If Jesus is the ultimate revelation of God, then the revelation we had leading up to Jesus must have somehow been less than ultimate. This doesn’t mean that Old Testament revelation is inaccurate at all. It simply means that we must interpret the lesser by the greater, not the other way around.
If you’re struggling with this issue, I would encourage you to take a season and just read the gospels. Really get to know what God is like through Jesus. After that, I recommend you read Philip Yancey’s book The Bible Jesus Read. It’s a great survey of the Old Testament and it will help you begin to read the Old Testament in some new, fresh, and helpful ways. Hope that helps! Again, your struggle is very understandable. I’ve struggled through it already. It’s worth the effort so don’t quit.
Blessings,
Alan
4 Comments
“More of Him equal Less of Me”
Very good point thank you Alan.
What I really dig about you, Alan, is that you see the heart of the matter rather than just the facts surrounding an idea. You could go into all of these explanations about a point, but you see beyond the question and almost surreptitiously skirt the question (not malevolently) choosing, instead, to love on the asker as Jesus would. You give them something to chew on and invite them to “See”. That’s a true gift.
After attending your class ‘Attributes of God’, things really started to sink from my head to my heart. LIke you said above but in my words, In surrendering, I lay down my need to understand everything and focus on the sovereignty of God. With so many things out of order in my own life and all around it would be easy to question if God is really good and especially His intentions towards me. I have just come to a place where I realize that it’s in faith that I say, ‘I know you are good’, ‘I know you are for me’. In my journal a few weeks ago, I wrote and continue to confess, ‘ I know that you have never done one thing to harm me or hurt me and anything that has happened to cause pain was not of you. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. My ability to love and worship God has expanded greatly with this new perspective. Thanks Pastor Alan.