What we might think of as a challenge to the belief that God is good is sometimes just the result of people not loving Him as they should. Here is scripture from Hosea 8 (Living Bible)
"Sound the alarm! They are coming! Like a vulture, the enemy descends upon the people of God because they have broken my treaty and revolted against my laws. Now Israel pleads with me and says, ‘Help us, for you are our God!’ But it is too late! Israel has thrown away her chance with contempt, and now her enemies will chase her. She has appointed kings and princes, but not with my consent. They have cut themselves off from my help by worshiping the idols that they made from their silver and gold."
We can choose to love God as individuals so we have the promises of Jesus - love Him with a pure heart and keep away from idols like manmade objects of obsession and worship and ritual and then we will see God and see for ourselves that He is good. We can also love God as a people so He makes us His people and then as a people turn from idols and put God first and involve God in chosing our leaders and again we will find He is good and recieve grace from Him. Putting God alongside idols as either individuals in folly or as people all fools together and we find God is not just good but jealous and idols hide the goodness and reveal God as a jealous God and as we forget God in chosing leaders He shows us what it is like when He turns away and we see the evils come near as leaders are attacked in the streets with weapons and plagues come. Choose. Love God and turn from idols and see the goodness of God.
I didn't know how real the prophecies were such as those in the Hebrew scripture book of Hosea except that I had an experience of almost identical prophecy coming to me once as I meditated about what to say that day at church. It was like a announcement in a TV News program, unexpected and out of the blue. I didn't even realise it was so much like Hosea 8 at the time because I didn't have any familiarity with that scripture. God is really the same God who spoke those prophecies and evidently can say the same sort of thing today: He has not changed at all.
"Sound the alarm! They are coming! Like a vulture, the enemy descends upon the people of God because they have broken my treaty and revolted against my laws. Now Israel pleads with me and says, ‘Help us, for you are our God!’ But it is too late! Israel has thrown away her chance with contempt, and now her enemies will chase her. She has appointed kings and princes, but not with my consent. They have cut themselves off from my help by worshiping the idols that they made from their silver and gold."
We can choose to love God as individuals so we have the promises of Jesus - love Him with a pure heart and keep away from idols like manmade objects of obsession and worship and ritual and then we will see God and see for ourselves that He is good. We can also love God as a people so He makes us His people and then as a people turn from idols and put God first and involve God in chosing our leaders and again we will find He is good and recieve grace from Him. Putting God alongside idols as either individuals in folly or as people all fools together and we find God is not just good but jealous and idols hide the goodness and reveal God as a jealous God and as we forget God in chosing leaders He shows us what it is like when He turns away and we see the evils come near as leaders are attacked in the streets with weapons and plagues come. Choose. Love God and turn from idols and see the goodness of God.
I didn't know how real the prophecies were such as those in the Hebrew scripture book of Hosea except that I had an experience of almost identical prophecy coming to me once as I meditated about what to say that day at church. It was like a announcement in a TV News program, unexpected and out of the blue. I didn't even realise it was so much like Hosea 8 at the time because I didn't have any familiarity with that scripture. God is really the same God who spoke those prophecies and evidently can say the same sort of thing today: He has not changed at all.
