The Goodness of God: In the Beginning (Genesis 1-3)
Most of us have had those moments. Moments when something drastic happened that changed the course of our expected life. If it hasn’t happened yet, someday it will. It could be the birth of a baby with unforeseen health problems, a traumatic car accident, the unexpected death of a family member, or the end of a once hope-filled marriage. Unfortunately, we live in a world that has fallen well below its potential.
For myself, I was a happy-go-lucky kid born and raised in a small town (>950) surrounded by the cornfields of Nebraska, who had a life ahead of her that looked a lot like those who surrounded me: graduate high school, get a bachelor’s degree, come back and settle down with a husband to raise a family, spending time in church all week. But that’s not exactly how it worked out. Right before my 6th grade year, I was in a car with my maternal grandmother when we were hit by an intoxicated driver. My Grandma was killed instantly; he was paralyzed from the neck down, and the way I looked at the world was forever changed.
I wrestled with whether God was and is good in those early moments. Would a good God allow a child to be traumatized? Would a good God take a woman of valor from this earth right as she began to disciple her granddaughter?
Why is understanding God’s goodness important?
Every part of the framework of our faith rests on our belief that our God is good. His entire nature is built upon goodness, and if we doubt His goodness, our trust in Him will be shaky. When situations arise, our first thoughts will not go toward His goodness but will instead shirk to worry, anxiety, and fear. Sound familiar?
God’s Goodness Demonstrated
I think the place to start every time we want a reminder of God’s goodness is in Genesis 1-3. Moses has held the author’s place throughout history, and Jesus agreed with the historical narrative (Matt. 8:4), so we will go with that. 😀But what we need to remember is that Moses was writing Genesis to the Hebrew people who had been enslaved and surrounded by not only Egyptian gods for hundreds of years but also any other gods of enslaved people that were around them. Moses wrote Genesis to point to the Hebrew God as the One True God by pointing to all the other gods surrounding them and said, “Our God is good.”
We see this clearly from the very beginning of the Creation narrative. Not only has God created a world for us to reside in that is “good” and “very good” (take a moment and read through Genesis 1 and highlight each time the word “good” appears), but He also goes beyond creation to provide for us. God provides humanity with food in the very first “Behold Moment” in Scripture (Gen. 1:29). Now, you may scratch your head and ask, “Uh, Meg? We know that God provides for us.” And you’re right. He does. But we MUST understand that the Hebrew people, who were the original readers of Genesis, would NOT have known this unless it had been passed down orally. In fact, when the Hebrew people would have looked around, the “gods” that surrounded them were not at all providers for humans. In Mesopotamian creation accounts, the gods created humans to relieve the lesser gods of their forced labor. In the Sumerian account, humans were created to allow the gods to relax from their toil. In the tale of Marduk, humans were partially designed to worship the gods, but more adequately, they were meant to provide homes and act as food for the gods. Did you catch that? Humans were created as food for Marduk. In all other creation accounts, humans were the provision.
In comparison, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob created food for the humanity He created. Puts a different spin on it when you now read, “And God said, ‘Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food,” (Gen. 1:29 ESV).
And yet, two chapters later, the humans that God placed in the Garden doubted His goodness (Gen. 3:1-8). They doubted that God had filled them in on everything. And they doubted that He had their best interest in mind. When Eve “saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise,” she walked away from God’s definition of what was good for her and her husband. She chose to make the decision for herself. It’s interesting how her desires took her away from God’s intended goodness for her life.
In the aftermath of the car accident, I struggled to feel in control of my emotions. For two years afterward, I secretly began pulling my eyelashes and hair from my scalp. It wasn’t until my mother noticed a bald spot on my head when I was helping hang a new photograph at my Dad’s office that I was whisked into a counselor’s office. Even though the pulling gave me a sense of control at the moment, I soon realized that it now controlled me. I could not stop without help and intervention. Can we all just sit for a moment and consider the fact that God DID intervene with Adam and Eve? Praise the Lord!
Underneath the Translation
While in his first semester at Ozark Christian College, our oldest son, Titus, recently texted me, “Sodom and Gomorrah is the weirdest story ever.” Later, we caught up and talked through it. Although we wouldn’t usually point to the story of Sodom and Gomorrah as a story that points to the goodness of God, let’s look at it through another lens.
Most people immediately jump to Genesis 19 when looking at the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. However, it starts much earlier. In Genesis 18:20-21, we read in the Message, “God continued, “The cries of the victims in Sodom and Gomorrah are deafening; the sin of those cities is immense. I’m going down to see for myself, see if what they’re doing is as bad as it sounds. Then I’ll know.” The word in Hebrew zeaqah that’s been translated as “cries” means an outcry against something or a cry of distress. It’s often translated as lamentations. To give you another idea, the feminine form of this word means “to shriek.” The word rabbah translated as “deafening” or “great” could be literally also be translated, “numerous,” or “abundant. These were not the cries of a single baby. Numerous people were screaming in torment. Instead of ignoring them, instead of stating, “Well, they’ve got what’s coming to them,” Yahweh COMES DOWN to actually check it out. He physically comes down, hangs out with Abraham and two other angels for a bit, and listens to Abraham’s plea to save the city if there are 10 righteous people left. God in no way, shape, or form had to do this. But He did. Because He is good.
How Can We Trust God’s Goodness?
Our God is good because He provides (Gen. 1:29) and comes down when He hears our cries (Psalm 18). But there’s also another aspect to God that we’ve not touched on. It’s seeing His faithfulness and goodness in our past. As Western thinkers, we think of the future as something we are walking into. We like to think that we can make out what’s ahead, but no one actually can. I love how ancient Hebrews thought about the future. They actually didn’t have a word for future (or even a future tense), but how they described it is beautiful. The word picture they have for the future is a person rowing a boat. Their future is at their back, so they cannot see it. But they can see their present surroundings (what’s beside them) and their past (where they’ve rowed from), and they can trust in God’s provision for the future because of seeing all that He has done for them in their present and their past. The word we often translate in Hebrew for future is the word qavah, which is the word for hope.
So, how can we rest in knowing God’s goodness, especially when it feels like nothing is good in this world?
We can remember Him. Psalm 13 shows a beautiful picture of David thinking God had forgotten and abandoned him. But then he prays and remembers the character of God.
Keep track of how you’ve seen God’s goodness in the past and present.
Write down God’s goodness moments in a place where you and your family can see them
On rocks on your front step
On a canvas in your home office
On a chalkboard in your kitchen
We can hide His Word in our hearts all about His goodness.
Psalm 27:13 Psalm 145:17 Psalm 31:19 Nehemiah 9:20
Exodus 33:19 Psalm 145:9 Psalm 119:68 Micah 6:8
Nahum 1:7 Psalm 145:9 1 John 5:11 Romans 2:4
Psalm 34:8 James 1:17
Just like we trust in Jesus, we must choose to trust in God’s goodness.
Our God is Good!
In the years following the car accident, I processed through numerous things in counseling. First, even though our family lost our matriarch, my Grandpa grew deeper in his faith and closer to Jesus. Second, I learned how to process grief at an early age and how to embrace it. Third, in those moments immediately following the car accident, Jesus became more real to me than ever. Because of that, I learned early to follow Jesus’ leading and watch how He provides for me, my family, and my friends over and over. Fourth, I realized that my Grandma had been discipling me since I could listen. I’ve often thought back to what she taught me about who God is. And she always talked of His goodness. Fifth, due to her example, I’ve learned to talk about God’s goodness with my children, husband, and anyone who will listen as much as I can. When we’ve been hit with unexpected chaos or change that rocks our world, I know in my gut that I can fall back upon the goodness of God for a soft landing. In moments like this, I cling to the Hebrew word picture of “future,” clinging and pointing to what God has done for me in my present and my past. I can stand honestly and truthfully, saying, “God has been good for me today and yesterday. I trust that He will be good tomorrow, too.”
In the coming months, the Behold Collective will explore God’s goodness displayed across the entire Biblical framework (Genesis to Revelation) and the lives of those who sought to know the God of the universe. As we learn of their narratives and row our own boats of life, we can rest in knowing the God who is actively pursuing us daily since we have seen what He has done in our past and present that is wholly good. Funny how this reminds me of God’s name (YHWH), which can be translated as “I Am Who I Am,” or “I Will Be Who I Will Be.” The root word, which is close to the name of YHWH in Hebrew, is a verb that means not only to exist but also to be actively present. Isn’t it interesting that His name is more than a title? His name tells the story that He not only exists but that He is near to us.
