“God is Good”
The Good and Beautiful God Series
February 5, 2017
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Introduction
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II.
Does God hate me because I’m gay?
Does God hate me for not going to church?
Does God hate me because I had an abortion?
Does God hate me when I sin?
Does God hate me because I’m black?
Does God hate me because I’m fat?
Does God “Hate” People?
Genesis 25:22-23 (NIV) The babies jostled each other within her, and she said, “Why is this
happening to me?” So she went to inquire of the LORD. 23 The LORD said to her, “Two nations are
in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated; one people will be stronger
than the other, and the older will serve the younger.”
Malachi 1:2-3 (NIV) “I have loved you,” says the LORD. “But you ask, ‘How have you loved
us?’ “Was not Esau Jacob's brother?” the LORD says. “Yet I have loved Jacob, 3 but Esau I
have hated, and I have turned his mountains into a wasteland and left his inheritance to
the desert jackals.”
The word choice—hate and love—may be used simply to emphasize HOW MUCH God loved Jacob,
not that he hated Esau.
The Bible could have said, “God loved Abraham, and hated everyone else.”
Romans 9:10-16 (NIV) Not only that, but Rebekah's children had one and the same father, our
father Isaac. 11 Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad--in order that
God's purpose in election might stand: 12 not by works but by him who calls--she was told, “The
older will serve the younger.” 13 Just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” 14 What then
shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! 15 For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have
mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” 16 It does not, therefore, depend
on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy.
Romans 9:8 (NIV) In other words, it is not the natural children who are God's children, but it is the
children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham's offspring.
Maybe God doesn’t ever HATE us, but what about this narrative that God punishes us when we’re
bad, and blesses us when we’re good?
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John 9:1-3 (NIV) As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi,
who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3 “Neither this man nor his parents
sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.”
John 9:41 (NIV) Jesus said, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you
claim you can see, your guilt remains.”
Ask God the questions, but don’t make up your own answers!
Matthew 5:45 (NIV) “[God] causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the
righteous and the unrighteous.”
We do not know why God’s judgment makes a good man poor, and a wicked man rich… Nor why
the wicked man enjoys the best of health, whilst the man of religion wastes away in illness… Even
then it is not consistent… Good men also have good fortune and evil men find fortunes… So
though we do not know by what judgment these things are carried out or permitted by God, in
whom is the highest virtue and the highest wisdom and the highest justice, and in whom there is
no weakness nor rashness nor unfairness, it is none the less beneficial for us to learn not to regard
as important the good or evil fortunes which we see shared by good and evil persons alike.
God loves his creation… all of it.
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