(217) – GOD IS GOOD – III

217 – GOD IS GOOD 3

God is good! Luke in his gospel reveals that God is kind to even the ungrateful and evil (Luke 6:36).God, the Father, is good, for he sent his Only Begotten Son to save the world, not to condemn it (John 3:17). God is good because he does not destroy sinners with plagues and curses, but saves them through Jesus Christ (1 Tim. 1:15). God is good because he rejoices when one sinner is saved; therefore Jesus said, “In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents” (Luke 15:10). Notice that it is not the angels who rejoice, but someone rejoices in the presence of the angels. Jehovah acts differently, for he rejoices in the destruction of sinners (Deut. 28:63). God is good, because when someone is saved, he wants to save the entire house; this is why it is written about the conversion of the Centurion Cornelius, “He [Peter] shall speak words to you by which you will be saved, you and all your household” (Acts 11:14).And when the jailer in Philippi asked Paul, “What must I do to be saved?” Paul answered, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you shall be saved, you and your household” (Acts 16:30-31). Jehovah acted differently. When one man sinned, Jehovah destroyed his whole house, the innocent included. Jeroboam sinned, and Jehovah destroyed his whole house, that is, all his descendants. It happened that, “As soon as [Baasha] was king, he struck down all the household of Jeroboam. He did not leave to Jeroboam any persons alive, until he had destroyed them (1 Kings 15:29). But Baasha walked in the ways of Jeroboam (1 Kings 15:33-34). Jehovah, then, lifted up another king to destroy the house of Baasha. He was king of Israel—Elah, son of Baasha, who was dead by then (1 Kings 16:6-7). A servant of Elah named Zimri conspired against Elah and killed him, ruling in his place. “And it came about, when he became king, as soon as he sat on his throne, that he killed all the household of Baasha; he did not leave a single male, neither of his relatives nor of his friends. Thus Zimri destroyed all the household of Baasha, according to the word of Jehovah” (1 Kings 16:11-12).They are opposite spirits. The apex of this kind of injustice is revealed in David, Jehovah’s beloved. When he committed adultery, Jehovah killed his innocent newborn baby (2 Sam. 12:14-15). Did not Jehovah care to save this child?

Beware, worshippers of Jehovah, for his vengeance is terrible over children and grandchildren (Ex. 20:4-5). Jehovah declares that he is merciful towards the thousands of those who love him and keep his commandments (Ex. 20:4-5). But he also declares that all men will sin, some day. “Indeed, there is not a righteous man on earth who continually does good and who never sins” (Eccl. 7:20). No one, therefore, escapes the vengeances of Jehovah. Adam sinned once, and so, therefore, lost the right to life and to freedom. He was sent away from paradise to fend for his food with his own sweat, and left for his descendants, for eternity, the condemnation to death. This god is not good. If a god turns his face to the needy, he is not good. Solomon knew Jehovah very well, and wrote, “Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me (Prov. 1:24-28). The good God revealed in Jesus Christ sent his Son to the world to die in the place of sinners and criminals, independently of their conversion, so John said, “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:1-2). And John goes on saying, “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10). In the Old Testament there was no advocate, only accusers. We read in the book of Ecclesiastes, “         Surely the serpent will bite without enchantment; and a babbler is no better. The words of a wise man’s mouth are gracious; but the lips of a fool will swallow up himself (Eccl. 10:11-12). Jesus made it clear that the birds of heaven symbolize malignant demons, and the very devil  (Matt. 13:4,19).Jehovah himself was an accuser, for he accused the sin of Adam, of Cain (Gen. 4:8-11). He accused the sin of David (2 Sam. 12:7-12). He also accused the sin of Solomon (1 Kings 11:11). Jesus does not accuse anyone, not even Judas Iscariot. Jesus said, “Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; the one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you have set your hope” (John 5:45).

The Father, because he is good, works through Jesus alone. “I showed you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you stoning Me? (John 10:32). Jesus, answered to Phillip, “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works” (John 14:10).Jehovah, on the contrary, works through Satan. He worked terrible disgraces in the life of the innocent Job, by the hand of Satan: “‘Behold, all that he has is in your power, only do not put forth your hand on him.’ So Satan departed from the presence of Jehovah” (Job 1:12). We know that serpent is one of the names of Satan. “And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world” (Rev. 12:9). Jehovah spoke against Israel by the mouth of the prophet Amos, saying, “And though they hide on the summit of Carmel, I will search them out and take them from there; and though they conceal themselves from My sight on the floor of the sea, from there I will command the serpent and it will bite them” (Amos 9:3). It is obvious that this serpent is a picture of Satan. Jehovah works and acts through the serpent, that is, Satan. Only an evil god would use Satan to deal with his people. The very angel of Jehovah changes into Satan to kill and to destroy, for Balaham said, “And God’s anger was kindled because was going, and the angel of Jehovah took his stand in the way as an adversary against him. Now he was riding upon his donkey, and his two servants were with him” (Num. 22:22). And for the second time Moses wrote, “And the angel of Jehovah said unto him, “Why have you struck your donkey these three times? Behold, I have come out as an adversary, because your way is contrary to me” (Num. 22:32).

The angel of god is this evil: He loves to look like Satan, for his works are the same as those of Satan, but the works of Jesus are those of the Father.

 

by PASTOR OLAVO SILVEIRA PEREIRA

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