The Goodness of the Character of God

[Original post Monday, April 30, 2007]

"The Almighty has made my life very bitter. I went away full, but the LORD has brought me back empty." (Ruth 1:20-21)

At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship and said:
"Naked I came from my mother's womb,
and naked I will depart.
The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away;
may the name of the LORD be praised." (Job 1:20-21)

It is good to wait quietly
for the salvation of the LORD.
Though he brings grief, he will show compassion. (Lamentations 3)

Naomi's emptiness. Job's brokenness. Jeremiah's devastation. All that they loved and valued had been stripped from them. And yet God remained good. His goodness sustained them in the midst of complete and utter emptiness. What strikes me the most is that Job, when he had lost everything, fell down in worship. His heart found its abode in the depths of the goodness of God. Because he knew God's goodness, because he trusted in God's goodness, he could collapse into God's goodness. There is no other way he could have said what he said: "The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised."

Having gone through the past five years, one thing I learned - if I've learned nothing else - is this: God is good. I realize others have been through far worse (this is by no means a contest!), but I've been through enough to know that God is good. And when you lose that which you love deeply, the Lord asks that you trust in his goodness. We ask why, we don't understand, BUT one thing we do know: we know that God is good. When we don't know what to believe, we know that God is good. So, when the Lord sends trial and tribulation, when he takes that which you love, the only thing you can do is fling yourself wholly into God's goodness. I have learned to say:

All good things come from God
and all good things go back to God
For God is good
and in his goodness I rest.

Because of God's goodness, we have hope. Because of God's goodness, we can surrender everything into his hands, knowing that it belongs to him to begin with. When God gives us promises, when he assures us that he will send his salvation, when he shows us the wonders of his amazing plan, we hope not in the promises themselves, but in the goodness of the character of God. And because of his goodness, we can wait, knowing that he will indeed send his salvation. We wait with patient endurance. We wait in hope for his arm, for though he brings grief, he will show compassion.

To wait on his salvation, to believe in his deliverance, to trust that he will answer, are the disciplines of a warrior's heart. He will rescue. He will deliver. For he is good. And even if he doesn't rescue, even if his salvation never comes, we remain in his goodness. We say with Job, "Though he slay me, yet will I trust him." And so we wait, we rest, in the goodness of God.