Nahum 1:6-7: The Lord is Good

Nahum’s Oracle Against Nineveh and the Lord’s Sovereign Power

So we're going to be going through chapter 1 verses 6 through 7 this morning so Nahum 1 verses 1 through 8 the Oracle of Nineveh the book of the vision of Nahum the Elkishite a Jealous and avenging God is the Lord.

The Lord is avenging and wrathful. The Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries and he reserves wrath for his enemies. The Lord is slow to anger and great in power and the Lord will by no means leave the guilty unpunished.

In whirlwind and storm is his way and clouds are the dust beneath his feet. He rebukes the sea and makes it dry. He dries up the rivers. Bashan and Carmel wither the blossoms of Lebanon wither. Mountains quake because of him and the hills dissolve.

Indeed the earth is upheaved by his presence the world and all the inhabitants in it. Who can stand before his indignation. Who can endure the endure the burning anger burning of his anger? His wrath is poured out like fire and the rocks are broken up by him.

The Lord is good a stronghold in the day of trouble and he knows those who take refuge in him. But with an overflowing flood he will make a complete end of its sight and will pursue his enemies into darkness.

Once again, these are strong words from the prophet prophet Nahum and they're designed to get us to take Account of where we are with God and exactly who God is. This is not a God to be trifled with. This is not a God to play games with.

This is a God who? Means what he says and says what he means. So let's just take a quick look of what we went over last week. Verse 4 he rebukes to see and makes it dry. He dries up all the rivers. Bashan and Carmel wither the bloom of Lebanon withers.

So we we realize that God is sovereign over the natural order. He has complete control over all things natural. Okay, he's a supernatural. God. He created the the the universe. We are his creation and he is sovereign over every inch of it.

Jesus also rebuked the sea showing his sovereignty over it also. We have to remember when Jesus was in the boat and the disciples were with him. The same way God rebukes the sea and and the mountains.

Jesus does the same thing. Okay, this is gonna identify him with the sovereign God of the universe. All that glitters is not gold. God will destroy seemingly beautiful things when you Recognize that Bashan and Carmel and Lebanon were places of plush.

Beauty places where things grew and God's going to come in and tear those things down. There's a reason for that. Sometimes things look very beautiful on the outside, but on the inside, they're corrupt.

They're not good for us. We have to recognize the symbolism in this in the world. We live in now and look at the things That seemingly look good, but could corrupt our souls. Even Satan masquerades as an angel of light.

Okay, so just because something looks good doesn't mean it is good. Yes, Steve.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, God sees the heart.

That generally people look at that and say, oh, that's good. God sees my heart. That's really not good. Because when God sees your heart, he sees all the corruption that goes with it. All right, the heart is deceitful above all things who can know it.

All right, unfortunately, we're self-deceived. We're born into this world as sinners and we think we're good. When God says I can see your heart that should cause us to tremble.

Okay.

Mountains, Temples, and the Fear of the Lord

Next verse. The mountains quake because of him in the hills dissolve indeed. The earth is upheaved by his presence the world and all its inhabitants in it so mountains we Learned are symbols of temples temples governments and kingdoms.

The mountain of the Lord is going to grow and fill the earth. That's not a physical mountain. Okay, that's a spiritual mountain. It is a mountain on us in a real sense. In a spiritual sense. And God's kingdom is going to cover the entire earth.

Assyria is going to be judged and removed. There is no fear of God before their eyes. The presence of God will bring them and us to our knees. Okay, when God comes in judgment, it's not a pretty sight.

We're all going to tremble even though as Christians. We are his children. It's still gonna cause us to tremble. You know, I remember when I was little my father came in the room and he was angry. I was trembling.

I mean, I wasn't gonna die. He wasn't gonna kill me right even though he's Italian. See, right, but you know. You know that you know, there's he means business. So when God comes in his presence in judgment, the church is going to be affected by it.

Thankfully we're going to be preserved. But we will be affected by it. The church is the temple of God and will biblically fear the Lord the thing. That's one of the things that separates God's people from the rest of the world is that God's people fear him.

Biblically not enough. Freddy Krueger type of sense. Okay, but they're a reverential fear of God.

Okay.

Who Can Stand Before God’s Wrath?

So let's get into This morning's verse. Who can stand before his indignation. Who can endure the burning of his anger? His wrath is poured out like fire and the rocks are broken up by him. The conclusion that Nineveh and all who read Nahum's prophecy should have come to is found in verse 6.

Who can stand before God's indignation? Who can endure the fierceness of his anger? The answer is no one. In fact Malachi repeats the same question in chapter 3 verse 2 of his letter. No matter how brazen and defiant Nineveh was No one can maintain such an impotent posture in the face of the terrifying presence and power of God's fierce anger.

So hot would God's fury be that the Ninevites would be utterly consumed even in the attempt to resist him.

God would be as.

Unstoppable as a raging fire and as shattering as splitting of rocks depicted the smashing of what appeared to be durable and fixed. So when the scripture says the rocks are going to be shattered. This is a picture of God coming in judgment.

And even rocks that are heavy and meant to be solid and not broken He'll shatter them. Okay, we have to recognize we're talking about God. And he's coming in.

Judgment.

Yes. Judgment would come to Nineveh because the zeal of the Lord would execute it. The Lord's power to affect what he said would what he said he would do was unlimited while his zeal was regulated by his absolute holiness and Consistency to his own character.

Okay, God doesn't come in judgment upon Nineveh because he had an outburst of anger. He's coming because he's righteous and just and he is allotted that. This is the time that Assyria is now going to receive its punishment.

He's extended them grace. This is not him flying off the handle, right? We use that term. Oh, he flew off the handle. God doesn't fly off the handle. He's coming for a reason for a purpose. Malachi 3 2 says.

But who can endure the day of his coming. And who can stand when he appears? For he's like a refiner's fire and like fuller soap. Right. Who can who can endure that day? Thankfully because of Who God is his people will endure that day for I the Lord do not change.

Therefore or children of Jacob you are not consumed. God doesn't change his mind. He doesn't say I'm gonna set my love on you. Might be you were gonna be in my covenant and then boom. I don't want to do that anymore.

God is not like us. Thank God, that's why this is a very very comforting verse. I do not change therefore you're not consumed if it was based on a changing God and your behavior. We're all in trouble.

Right, and then God would have outbursts. Because he doesn't change he's steady. Self-control, okay. All right, so. Verses four and five prepare the reader for the rhetorical questions of verse six where for Hebrew words expresses wrath.

Which pours out like fire and shatters rocks? Indignation. Anger wrath.

Broken.

Okay together with other Old Testament writers Daniel Deuteronomy Jeremiah and Ezekiel Amos Nahum makes the red flames an apt picture of God's consuming wrath. Even the rocks typical of that which is hardest and strongest crack into pieces.

Here's what Deuteronomy says. Know therefore today that he who goes over Before you as a consuming fire is the Lord your God. He will destroy them and subdue them before you. So you shall drive them out and make them perish quickly as the Lord has promised you.

So good God goes out as a consuming.

Fire.

Jeremiah therefore thus says the Lord God behold my anger and my wrath will be poured out on this place. Upon man and beast upon the trees of the field and of the fruit of the ground it will burn and not be quenched.

Right. So here you have a consuming fire now will burn with no quenching. Ezekiel. I will gather you and blow on you with the fire of my wrath and you shall be melted in the midst of it. See the imagery.

Okay, this is not a good situation for God's enemies. Amos 7 this is what the Lord God showed me. The Lord God was calling for a judgment by fire. And it devoured the great deep and was eating up the land.

So when God comes in judgment in fire upon his enemies. This is vivid language to show the severity of what God is doing.

Job, the Whirlwind, and God’s Unanswerable Questions

Okay.

This rhetorical question reminds me of Job. Right. Remember when God questioned Job. I'm gonna take a minute to go through this because this is this is heavy Job 38 1 through 11. Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind.

As I looked this up I saw the word whirlwind. Where do we see that in the book of Nahum? Verse 3. He's gonna come in the whirlwind. The whirlwind is a term of judgment, okay. He's gonna come now, and he's gonna confront Job now.

Obviously Job is one of God's Children so it's different when God confronts one of his children versus Somebody who's his enemy right. God disciplines those he loves so this is gonna be disciplinary for Job.

Now watch what he says. Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Dress for action like a man Job.

I.

Will question you and you make it known to me. Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth. Tell me if you have understanding who determined its measurement. Surely you know. Who or who stretched out the line upon it on?

What were the its bases sunk. Or who laid its cornerstone when the morning star sang together and all the sons of glory shouted for?

Joy.

Or who shut in the sky in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb when I made clouds its garment and thick darkness its swaddling band and prescribed limits for it and set bars and doors and said Thus far you shall come and no farther and here you shall you shall your proud waves be stayed.

Have you commanded the morning since your days began Job and Caused the dawn to know its place that it might take hold of the skirts of the earth and the wicked be shaken out of It. It changed like clay under the seal and its features stand out like a garment.

From the wicked their light is withheld and their uplifted arm is broken. Have you entered into the springs of the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep? Have the gates of death been revealed to you or have you seen the gates of deep darkness?

Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth? Declare if you if you know all this. Where is the way of the dwelling of light? And where is the place of darkness that you may take it to its territory and that you may discern the past to its home?

You know for you were born then and the number of your days is great, right Job. Have you entered into the storehouses of the snow or have you seen the storehouses of the hall? Which I've reserved for the time of trouble for the day of battle and war.

What is the way to place where the light is distributed or where the east wind is scattered upon the earth? Who has cleft a channel for the torrents of rain and a way for the thunder Thunderbolt? To bring rain on a land where no man is on the desert in which there is no man to satisfy the waste and desolate Land and to make the ground sprout with grass.

Has the rain a father or who has begotten the drops of dew? From whose womb did ice come forth and who has given birth to the frost of heaven? The waters become hard like stone and the face of the deep is frozen.

Can you bind the chains of Pleiades or loose the cords of Orion? Can you lead forth the Mazaroth in their season or can you guide the bear with its children? Do you know the ordinances of heaven? Can you establish their rule on the earth?

Could you imagine standing in front of God? Hearing him ask questions of you like this. Can you lift up your voice to the clouds that a flood of waters may cover you? Can you send forth lightnings that they may go and say to you here we are?

Who has put wisdom in the inward parts or given understanding to the mind? Who can number the clouds by wisdom? Or who can tilt the water skins of the heavens when the dust runs into a mass and the clouds stick fast together?

Can you hunt the prey for the lion or satisfy the appetite of the young lions? When they crouch in their den or lie and wait in their thicket? Who provides for the raven its prey when its young ones cry to God for help and wander about for lack of food?

That was just all the verses in chapter 39. At the end Job says. Then Job answered the Lord and said behold. I am a small account. What shall I answer you I? Lay my hand on my mouth. I have spoken once and will not answer twice, but I will proceed no further.

But God didn't stop for another 52 verses. God Continues to question Job. You think standing up in front of Johnny Cochran was bad. Stand in front of God and having to answer these questions after opening your mouth.

Presumptuously and finally Job in chapter 42. Then Job answered the Lord and said I Know that you can do all things and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. Who is it that hides counsel without knowledge?

That's what Job asked God. Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand and things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. Here, and I will speak I will question you and you make it known to me.

I. But now my eyes see you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes. When God questions Job. When God questions the Assyrians. This is not someone to be trifled with. God means business.

Could you picture yourself hearing those questions after opening your mouth? Sometimes we open our mouths. Well. Why did God do this? Why is this happening this way? Why doesn't he do this? No purpose of his can be thwarted.

He has a purpose for everything. The function of all this imagery is to underscore the Awesomeness of Yahweh in order to prepare the way for the prophets announcement of judgment on the Assyrian enemy.

Who indeed can stand before the wrath of the Lord? If the Lord rebukes the sea drives up Carmel and strikes fear into all the world. What can the wicked do. His very presence makes the mountains quake and the hills melt away?

Those who have seen the power of God know that no one can stand before this awesome God if oceans torrents plateau countries and mountain ranges can be wiped out. Should Yahweh choose to remove them. What coalition of conquerors even a Syria itself can hope to thwart his purposes.

Now again a Syria came in conquered the northern tribes of Israel. They went too far. Okay, and now this is God who's going to rebuke a Syria for what they've done. They're coming down into the southern tribes and before that happens Babylon's gonna You know take a Syria out, but God is the one who's doing all this.

These verses remind the modern reader of the book of Nahum that nothing can stand before the Lord. We tend to think that our technology can save us that our scientific research will deliver us from all this evil.

Nahum knew that the mighty army of Assyria could not stand before God. Our progress and technology stand impotent before the presence of God. So we look out at the world and we see there's a lot of evil happening out there right now.

Right all the enemies of God are going to be punished Righteously for what they've done. Nahum's questions demand a negative answer. Who can stand before his indignation. Who can endure before his anger.

No one. None can survive the burning anger of God's wrath which we which will be poured out like fire. The word indignation is a synonym for anger in this context and is sometimes translated wrath in the NIV.

Even huge boulders are shattered before God again. Look at the imagery of that Nahum's Admonitions are a warning to Nineveh to repent in order to avoid the wrath of Israel's powerful God. It is futile to resist.

The Prophet describes God burning with rage. However, this is no vengeful God. Vengeful God breathing destruction for destruction's sake. This is not a God who flies off the handle. Here's why. Rather Nahum is quick to point out that the Lord is good.

The Lord Is Good: Refuge, Covenant Love, and Judgment

He's a stronghold in the day of trouble and he knows those who take refuge in him. Again when judgment comes upon the earth, the church will feel it. There's going to be consequences for the church, but we will not be destroyed.

Judgment issues from the wellness of God's goodness. Because God is good. He punishes sin. Thus God will not let injustice prevail with all of nature at God's behest. No one can withstand God's fierce power.

Nothing can frustrate his divine purpose. Every wall of resistance tumbles before God who is the only true refuge. God's protection in the midst of what's going on is squarely rooted in the assurance of God's judgment and I want to so.

What we know about the enemies of we know that the enemies of God are going to get what they deserve. But what about the people of God what happens to us? I Want to go through Psalm 46, which he referenced in the commentary.

God is our refuge and strength a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea. Though its waters roar and foam though mountains tremble at its swelling.

Right. We talked about mountains. Okay being symbolic of governments. Temples. Governments. All right cast into the heart of the sea. That's chaos. Okay, do you you look at the world right now? Do you think that mountain being cast into the sea?

Is the world not? In chaos right now. What does it say for the people of God? We will not fear though. The earth gives way. We stand in a kingdom. They can't be shaken. We walk by faith not by sight. We must remember who our father is and who's in control.

We have to remember Question Job. Do we want to sit in that seat. Judgment begins with the house of God, right? And when we when we hear statements about God like this, it should cause us to reflect inward.

Where do I stand with God? Am I walking in faithfulness towards him? Am I taking advantage of his grace? Right getting what I don't deserve. Right. Am I am I just being flip flippant about that? Am I just what.

Oh God loves me. I could do whatever I want or my. In Rev. Am I in reverential fear of God and who he truly is? Okay, this psalm is gonna help us and we we get to that word Selah which no one knows exactly what that word means.

But most commentators take it to be a pause or like an amen. So when you're reading through a psalm. You get to that word Selah just pause. Look at the verses that we just read that you just read and then we'll go on to the next.

There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God. The holy habitation of the Most High God is in the midst of her. She shall not be moved. God will help her when morning dawns. The nation's rage.

The kingdom's totter. He utters his voice. The earth melts. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress. In the midst of what they were gonna go through in in in Judah. Okay, God coming in and taking these Syrians out.

They're gonna see Destruction happening before their eyes and they're gonna there's consequences for being in that position. Okay, they're gonna need to cling to God. Look what it says. There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God.

Where do we hear about rivers? In the New Testament. What does Jesus say about? Rivers of living water. Well, if you believe on me as the scriptures has had rivers of living water will flow from your inner parts.

This okay in our context as we see what's going on in the world. The people of God are the ones who had the Spirit of God in us and that should flow out of us. We should not be afraid of what's happening in the world.

This must happen. The fact that this is a purification. Okay, it's it's punishment for these Syrians, but it's purification for Israel. Good point come behold the works of the Lord. How he has brought desolations on the earth.

He makes war cease to the end of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear. He burns the chariots with fire. Be still and know that I am God. I Will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth.

The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress. That is incredibly comforting for Nahum. That should be incredibly comforting for us as we go through this stuff that's going on in the world today.

If you are a Christian God is with you. The Lord of hosts is with us. Lord of hosts, what does that name mean? The Lord of the armies. Right. This is the this is the God who trains our hands for war when we go to worship to warfare when we pray.

It's warfare. The people of God have to get serious and use the weapons that he's given us in order to war. Against the other nations around us. Now we war against them. Okay, but we plead for mercy. That God would save them.

Yes, John. The God of Jacob. He's he's the God who? Jacob, I loved Esau. I hated he's the God who brings forth his his people and his promise for them. Right. It's Abraham Isaac and Jacob. Right, right.

So. Yes, and think about it. You're you're right. Jacob was the deceiver. Okay, Esau was the was a man's man the hunter right. If you evaluated them you'd be like Esau is the more you know, the the better candidate, right?

That's why when we read in Romans 9 Jacob, I loved and Esau I hated everybody concentrates on the fact he hates Esau. What should amaze us is that he loves Jacob. The very fact that he loves Jacob despite his Inadequacies is proof that God is merciful and gracious to his people.

Yes Yes. He wrestled with God, right.

So.

Right. So the the name Israel means wrestles with God. So there are sometimes when when you're reading the scriptures and you're like you're wrestling with what the word says about God. That's a good thing.

Because because in your prior condition you wouldn't have wrestled with it. You would have been like who cares. The very fact that it means something to you means that God is doing something in your heart or has Regenerated you already and you're wrestling with these things.

So that you now be conformed to the image of God not the image of yourself.

Okay.

Psalm 59 but I the church will sing of your strength. I will sing aloud of your steadfast love in the morning for you have been to me a Fortress and a refuge in the day of my distress as the things that are happening in this world continue on.

We have to find our refuge and our strength in God. This is going to draw God's people closer to him not further away. The people who walk further away are people who were not Christians to begin with.

Right. I think pastor said it. He says as judgment comes on the earth right now God's separating the believers from the make-believers. The believers are going to draw closer to God Psalm 94, but the Lord has become my stronghold and my God the rock of my refuge.

Psalm 142. I cry to you. Oh Lord. You are my refuge my portion in the land of the living. This may sound paradoxical. But Nahum would no doubt add to the title of the popular hymn. There is a wilderness in God's mercy the line.

There is a refuge in God's judgment. This is what I was talking about. It is the kind of protection that was at work when the Israelite slaves were shielded from the final plague against Egypt. Though a loud cry of lament was heard throughout Egypt.

Not even a dog growled against the Israelites as they prepared to make their exodus. To take refuge in God is to acknowledge absolute reliance upon the Lord of history particularly amid chaos and crisis.

Security that is self-generated is by contrast finite and fleeting like a house built on sinking sand. When we take our refuge and find our strength in God, it's permanent. He does not move. He does not change.

That is security by the end of this lesson. They're gonna be out with the iPhone 44. Right and a couple hours later 45. It's always gonna change. Everything's gonna be changing. The only thing that doesn't change in this world is God.

Yeah, I think every situation that we look at from one situation from one sense from one perspective. It's bad from another perspective. It's good. God's accomplishing his purpose in the midst of this.

So yes build on grow roots build the church. It's what God's doing here. We have to build a church. We have to transform the community we have to set up a classical Christian school as all these things different things that we have to do and Laying a ground for next generation and the generation after that and the generation after that we got to think think incrementally.

Small small steps we start thinking small steps and start making those small steps and expanding The kingdom here on earth. We're gonna see change. We're gonna see change. Okay, I'm a little quicker. Okay.

God’s Covenant Knowledge of His People

So here we go. And he knows those who take refuge in him. This is important that word to know is yada. In Hebrew and the simple meaning to know is its most common translation out of the 800 or more uses one of the primary uses means to know relationally and experientially.

So when God knows you he knows you. Relationally and experientially it refers to knowing or not knowing persons. The word also refers to knowing a person intimately. Especially signifies knowing what to do or think in general especially with respect to God now.

I used the illustration a couple weeks ago if Derek Jeter walked into the room I say oh look, there's Derek Jeter, but he would not look and say oh, there's Anthony. He doesn't know me. He shouldn't know me.

I'm not on any baseball cards. All right, anyway. One of its most important uses is depicting God's knowledge of people the Lord knows their hearts entirely. God knows the suffering of his people. Very important Genesis chapter 4 now Adam knew Eve and she conceived and bore Cain saying I have gotten a man with the help of.

The Lord.

When it means Adam knew Eve it was he was intimate with her. It's the way God knows us his children. Intimately. Amos 3 2 you only have I known of all the families of the earth. Right now God has knowledge of every single person on the planet yet To Israel.

He says you only have I known. What's he talking about? He's talking about that covenantal love the love that a husband has for his wife. Right love your wife like Christ loved the church and gave himself for her now.

I know many women in the church. I Know my wife in a much different way than I know the women, right? I have a special covenantal love with my wife the same way God has a special covenantal love with his bride.

All right in that verse I you only I have known of all the families of the earth. It finishes and so I'm going to Punish you. All right, because you should know better, but that's a different topic for a different day.

Okay? Deuteronomy 7 6 and 8 for you are people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people. First treasured possessions out of all the peoples are that are on the face of the earth.

It was not because you were more number Than any other people that the Lord has said his love on you and chose you for you were the fewest of all peoples. The Lord loves you and is keeping an oath. He swore to your fathers know therefore that the Lord your God is God the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with Those who love him.

Okay, we are to know God in that way and then know him intimately. The Lord set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them you above all peoples as you are to this Day now again writes everybody likes to quote John 3 16 for God so loved the world.

But here it says he set his love on Israel. It's that covenantal marital love intimate Love. God is a general love for all mankind for sure, but he's got a special covenantal love for his bride Hosea 2 19 and I will betroth you to me forever.

I will betroth you to me in righteousness and injustice in steadfast love and mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness, and you shall know the Lord. Again, there's that intimacy. We're gonna know him in an experiential and relational way as father.

How does this apply in the New Testament? Right. Jesus in John 10 truly truly I say to you he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door. But climbs in another way that man is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep to him.

The gatekeeper opens the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out when he's brought out all his own he goes before them and the sheep follow him for they know his voice a Stranger they will not follow, but they will flee for him for they do not know the voice of strangers.

Okay as members of the New Covenant. We too know the Lord and Jesus knows us and we recognize his voice and we're not gonna follow strangers. So as all different kinds of things are happening in the church today, and there's you hear these different voices and people being pulled it.

Homosexuality is okay, and abortion is okay, and all these things are good. That's not the voice of our Shepherd. We don't follow that.

Right.

We followed the true voice of God we obey his commandments John 10. I'm the Good Shepherd. I know my own and my own know me. Watch this. Just as the father knows me, and I know the father. How well does the father know Jesus?

How well does the father love Jesus, and how well does Jesus love the father?

Perfectly.

That's how he knows us. I know my own. Right my own know me. We're working on that that side of love right we're trying to love him more right. But we're faithful to him right this should be bring great comfort to us now as we see what's going on in the world.

We recognize that it's judgment, but he is our stronghold in the day of trouble. This should push us closer to God not further away from him. My sheep hear my voice. I know them and they follow me. Right what is salvation?

This is eternal life that they know you the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you sent. So when it says he knows those who take refuge in him he knows us intimately. It's his bride. We are his children.

This should bring us great comfort. Doesn't mean we should sit on our hands and not do anything. This should spur us to love and good works all the more. So God is not only a God of judgment. There's another side to his nature.

He's also the God of mercy in the midst of all this language about the vengeance of God upon his enemies. Nahum utters this wonderful statement the Lord is good. It is for this reason that we can have hope we have all been born with a sinful nature.

We live in a corrupt world and we find it difficult to know what pure goodness is however. We can see genuine goodness in God and only in him when you see. What he's done on the cross for his people sending his son to die in this world.

All right, and have the evil come upon him and not us. Like Michael Kruger uses this illustration when you look at Jesus on the cross that is God's certified check. That's money in the bank. He's paid for the sins of his people.

You cling to that you find your your refuge and your strength in that. How many times in the Bible we read the Lord described like this. According to your love remember me for you are good. Oh Lord good and upright as the Lord therefore he instructs sinners in his way.