Basking In His Goodness

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"They captured fortified cities and fertile land; they took possession of houses filled with all kinds of good things, wells already dug, vineyards, olive groves and fruit trees in abundance. They ate to the full and were well-nourished; they reveled in your great goodness." Nehemiah 8:10

Main Readings: Hebrews 12 & Nehemiah 9

Supporting Readings: Psalm 103 & Nehemiah 10

If you were around last week, you might remember that the people were so cut to the heart by the reading of the Law that they wept.

But then Nehemiah’s instruction to them was: the festival is not a time for weeping but for rejoicing. And so that’s what they did.

If you remember, we noted that this is the normal pattern of the Christian life. The Word of God convicts. That leads to sorrowful repentance. And then faith in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins restoresrelationship with God. And with that relationship comes real joy!

That’s because, at the heart of Christianity is a relationship - between an individual person and God.

It’s not first and foremost about escaping hell – although that is a beautiful benefit of faith in Jesus - but moreover, it’s that we’ve been reconciled to God.

That is the very heart of the gospel. If we are saved from hell into a Godless heaven, so what?

The thing that makes heaven ‘heaven’ is surely that God is there and we will be with him and enjoy him forever. At his right hand, arepleasures forever more.

Afterall, when was a relationship ever advanced where the individuals only loved the benefits it afforded but never the one from whom the benefits flowed.

So, joy in God is the natural goal that grief over sin is serving.

Therefore, it would be of no use to us at all if somehow, we got into the mindset, that grief over sin was something to be avoided; or something the cross had banished forever from us.

No! This side of heaven, grief over sin will be normal. And it will create in us a closer walk with God.

And that’s very much the movement, if you like, of this passage before us this morning. As, once again, now at the beginning of chapter 9, we find the Israelites cut to the core by their encounter with their sin.

I’m always struck how pleasant the relationship with my children becomes directly after a telling off. When genuine sorrow follows, and there’s forgiveness and reconciliation.

It is as if there has been a reset in our relationship, where all the parties are in the precise places God has designed them to be in a well-functioning family set up.

Well, it’s at the place of genuine sorrow that we find the Israelites at the beginning of chapter 9 now. With sackcloth on their backs and dust on their heads.

And it's in this state that they listen to the Word of God for a quarter of the day. And then spend another quarter in confession and worship.

Now, one of the key things that God wanted his people to be was a pure and set apart people who could be identified as belonging to God.

And this was something the Israelites had persistently failed to do. They had mingled with the nations around about them. They had married into foreign families. They had traded merchandise with other peoples. And so on.

And that had led them to adopt the attitudes of those surrounding people – attitudes that were godless and unbecoming of the people of God.

As a result, they wound up worshipping false gods. Something that had become an acute expression of the influence cross-culture mingling had had on their lives.

The poet William Blake famously said, ‘you become what you behold’. That means you become more and more like the very things you look at. And that had certainly been true of the Israelites.

And it will be true of us too.

Gaze long and hard enough at the current culture and you’ll likely as be made more into the likeness of the culture.

Conversely, stare long and hard enough at God’s culture and you’ll be made more into the likeness of Christ – which is what we’re called to be, of course.

What follows, then, in chapter 9, on surface level, seems a rather routine delivery of the well-known Israelite story.

At least, that’s what I took away from my first reading of it - a reminder that a cursory glance will rarely reveal the jewels hidden beneath the surface.

And that was my mistake.

But on my second reading, I found a whole catalogue of detail here that expresses God’s continued and uninterrupted faithfulness to Israel.

All of which is really summed up in this one phrase found in verse 25: ‘they revelled in your goodness’. If there is one thing we are meant to take away from chapter 9 it is this: that God is very good. God is very good.

In fact, he is so good that he is worthy to be enjoyed in all the facets ofhis goodness.

He is like a diamond that when turned, reveals something new with each twist. But that newness is always good. And who doesn’t enjoya diamond?

That’s what ‘revelling’ means – it means to take joy in something. In this case, in God’s goodness.

Indeed, I myself revelled as I discovered the goodness of God in this chapter, when I read it for the second time.

And this became particularly apparent to me, as I took up a pen and circled every time I came across a verb in the chapter – a doing word.

I found, that before long that I had circled ‘you made the heavens’.

‘You give life to everything’.

‘You chose Abram’.

‘You made a covenant with him’.

‘You kept your promises because you are righteous’. That’s 5 verbs in only 3 verses. And by the end of the chapter, I had sixty circles on the page!

What’s that telling us? It’s telling us that God is a doer – that he isn’t passive.

In reciting what God had done in their own story they were also testifying to the endless goodness that he had shown them.

Don’t ask me how I stumbled upon it this week, but I did.

An article in which the royal biographer Penny Junor shared the stories behind her favourite career and family photos. And they were goodstories.

You see we like to recount the stories of our lives, don’t we? But oh, that we would like to recount the story of God’s goodness in our lives even more!

Because God is a doer. And not only that, but he is a good doer!

Well, we can see that in his goodness here, he is the creator God for example.

That is to say, he made the heavens – the stars. He also made the earth and all that is on it. And he made the seas and all that is in them.

Then there’s his goodness expressed in his choosing. He chose Abram out of all the people on the earth and gave him the name Abraham. In other words, God in his goodness doesn’t stand aloof from people – though he could legitimately do that.

You see there’s nothing especially redeemable about people, that he should have to do with them at all. Especially since they turned their backs on him in the first place.

But no, God in his goodness goes and chooses a man out of all the earth to set his favour on.

And in his overflowing goodness, then, he makes a covenant promiseto him – to give him descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky.

So, he’s a creator God, a chooser God, and covenant-making God so far. What’s next?

Well, he’s a covenant-keeping God also. Because the promise he made to Abraham came true. His offspring did become a nation. That nation was called ‘Israel’. And they became his special interest, if you like.

And so, when they were in slavery in Egypt, in his great goodness God saw their suffering and heard their cries.

As a result, then, he sent signs to Pharoah to let his people go. And then he divided the red sea so his people could escape the Egyptians and pass through on dry ground.

But his goodness didn’t stop there. Because, not only did he rescuehis people, but he provided for his people also. He led them in a column of cloud by day and a column of fire by night.

And he spoke to them from heaven and gave them commands that were good for them. He even baked into their social structure rest days so they wouldn’t wear out.

In their hunger, he gave them bread. In their thirst he gave them water out of a rock. He even gave them land as their very own possession and told them how to go in and take it.

In other words, his goodness was constant. His goodness was progressive. And his goodness was felt.

And yet, in their fallen humanity the people became proud and stubborn, and they refused to obey the good commands he had given them.

But even then, in his great goodness, God forgave them. Even though their rejection of his goodness was a rejection of him ultimately, he persisted with them.

Like that mother who shows up at the prison no matter what her son has done ‘this time’. She’s so completely faithful, even though he wounds her time and again with the shame of having to pass the same prison guard over and over.

You see God was so compassionate. So slow to anger. So, abounding in love, he didn’t abandon them as their sins deserved.

Even when they made false gods for themselves and rejected him wholesale, he didn’t leave them in the wilderness. He continued to be their guide day and night. Until, at last, he brought them into their promised land.

There, he subdued their enemies before them. And they flourished, where normally they wouldn’t have. In his immense goodness, his patience knew no boundary. In his immense love, his mercy knew no horizon.

When was the last time you were even remotely inclined to persistwith someone who repeatedly turned their back on you?

Who returned your good to them with rejection? Yet God in his goodness persisted with them.

And yet, even in his goodness, there’s a kind of goodness we struggle to see – the goodness that disciplines us back to himself.

I say that because their rebellion continued, nonetheless. They rejected the prophets he sent to warn them. And they turned their backs on him again and again, though he had been a shield and wall to them.

And so, in his goodness – and I do mean in his goodness - he delivered them into the hands of their enemies who oppressed them. Now, you say, ‘hang on a minute, how is that good?’

It’s good because, when they felt the whip of their oppressors, they cried out to him again. And in his goodness, he heard them. He gave them liberators who rescued them.

But, you know, as soon as they were at rest again, they rejected him again. And so, he delivered them up to their enemies again – something which happened time after time.

In all this, God remained righteous and acted faithfully in the face of their wickedness.

He warned them in order that they might turn back to him. But they refused. And for many years he was patient with them, until finallyhe brought the mightiest empire on earth down upon them. And they went into captivity.

Even then though, he didn’t abandon them, as their sins deserved. In his great goodness he continued to show grace and mercy to them even in exile.

Have you ever come across anyone so good, who was treated so badly? There’s one – and his name is Jesus. God’s goodness – Jesus’goodness - stands alone in all the world.

Even his warnings are gracious. Even his committals into enemy hands are designed to awaken them to their need of their greatest good – namely himself.

In short, everything he does is good. Everything he does either upholds his holiness or else is an expression of his mercy and grace. All of it is good.

In light of all of this goodness, then, and in light of all of our rebellion, what now can we say? Because that is what we either are like or werelike. Or maybe, were like and are to some degree like again.

Verse 32 is just about the measure of what can be said. ‘To the mighty and awesome God. Who keeps his covenant of love. Do not let all this hardship seem small in your eyes. The hardship that has come on us owing to our sins. Because in your great goodness you have brought this hardship about, so that, we, in your mercy, might seek you and find you again’.

The reality is, that sometimes the hardships that have come upon us have been designed to lead us to search our own hearts, to discoversin, and to plead with him that those very hardships have some fruit of renewed faithfulness.

I know how our new covenant senses might be triggered by that. But I haven’t forgotten the new covenant.

Do you know this one?

‘God disciplines us for our good in order that we might share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it’. That’s Hebrews. The Hebrews that spends more time on the new covenant than any other New Testament book.

Look, whether you’re a believer who has lost sight of the goodness of God, or a complete unbeliever who has never seen the goodness of God, we all need the goodness of God!

Do you know that God causes the sun to rise on the godly and the godless alike? You woke up this morning, and the sun was shining, whether you believed in the one who made it rise or not! That’s howgood God is!

None of us deserved the sun to rise this morning. But we got it, regardless. Why? Because God is good.

Just stop and think about the millions upon millions of things that happen every day, that you enjoy, without the slightest inclinationwhere they came from.

The cow that made the milk that you had on your cereal this morning. Who made that cow? The warm woollen jumper you slipped on over your shirt. Who made that sheep? The toothpaste you cleaned your teeth with. Who made that fluoride? The breath you breathe out unconsciously. Where did it come from?

Every one of these things, from the smallest comfort to the greatest joy, is a whisper of God’s goodness to you. He’s patient with us you see. ‘Do you not know that his kindness is meant to lead you to repentance’?

When was the last time you spent 5 minutes recounting to God the goodness, he’s shown you? I’m not talking about toothpaste now! Though that would be fine.

Every way that he directed your path so that you came to faith in Jesus. Every stripe that was laid on him – how it was a stripe he tookfor you. Have we forgotten how especially good God has been to us? Maybe we have. Maybe we haven’t.

We’d do well though, to recite our story to God, like these people did.

To speak to him of his creation and his choosing and his covenant. To speak to him of his redemption and his provision for our souls. To speak back to him all the patience, mercy and grace he has shown us in the face of our ongoing sin.

Well, all that recollection of God’s goodness has to go somewhere. And the place it leads, is to new resolve. Grace always moves to godliness. And we see it unfold in chapter 10, preluded by verse 38 of chapter 9. ‘In view of all this – all this goodness God – we are making a binding agreement’ they say.

A binding agreement to do what?

Well, you have to trace it down to verses 29 and following of chapter 10. And it really comes down to three pledges of obedience to God. Faithfulness in relationships. Faithfulness in Worship. And faithfulness in God’s house.

As God has been faithful to them, so their pledge is to be faithful to him - where before they had been faithless.

You know, the puritans used to talk about ‘practical religion’. And what they had in mind was the kind of religion that was living and active and which flowed out of gospel reality.

They recognised that’s God’s design for our lives is that we be conformed more and more into the image and likeness of Christ. And that’s what’s going on here too.

Their pledge was not to marry their daughters to foreigners anymore. Because when that had happened, the people had become like those foreign nations, and they had forgotten their God.

So, dealing with that kind of infidelity was going to be crucial, if they were going to be a people who walked faithfully with their God.

And purity is exactly where Christ has called us to be like him. Grace teaches us to be pure. It teaches us, according to Titus, to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions. And to live self-controlled, upright lives in this present age. In this way we will be a purified people that are his very own possession, he says.

Christlike relationships aught to be marked by purity too. What happened to loyalty, and integrity? What happened to forgiveness and self-giving love? These are marks of Christian purity too, and they’re meant to look different from the world.

Come out from amongst them and be separate says the Lord. Not like monks but in the attitudes of mind and heart!

It's as we reject that pattern of Christ, and as we follow the pattern of the world around us, that our relationships will be broken, and thin, and not at all loving, as they should be.

The love of Christ keeps no record of the wrong’s others have committed against us.

The love of Christ is patient to the n^th degree. The love of Christ is kind to others. And so on.

Furthermore, their pledge was to maintain the worship of God – specifically in the form of sabbath keeping. Now I don’t believe that the new covenant has sabbath keeping as a key covenant componentlike the old covenant did.

The sabbath was the sign and seal of the old covenant. The Holy Spirit, though, is the sign and seal of the new covenant. I think 2 Corinthians 1 teaches that.

But that’s not to say that the pattern of rest, 1 in 7, isn’t a good one. There are marked benefits to resting from our labours one day a week. And that is surely a good gift from God.

The sabbath rather, finds it’s fulfilment in Christ who is, himself, the ultimate rest-giver. And we find this clearly in Hebrews 4 – ‘there is then a sabbath rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his’. And he implores us: ‘make every effort to enter that rest so that no one will perish’. In other words, work hard at faith.

Sabbath for the Christian is all about restful dependence (faith) on God not ourselves. To be Christ-like is to rest in his finished work, and therefore to be first and foremost worshippers, not workers.

Indeed, any works must be of the sort that rise up out of a worshipful heart that is fully dependent on his completed work.

There is no room in the faithful Christian life for pride in works. There is no place for justifying oneself based on performance. That’s notrestful dependence on God. Rather faithfulness to God looks like full-square dependence on him to work in us by his Spirit to will and to act according to his good pleasure.

And then finally, they pledged faithfulness in God’s house. In the final verse of chapter 10 they say, ‘we will not neglect the house of our God’. To be conformed to the likeness of Christ is to share his heart for his church.

The church is God’s new covenant house. Peter says, ‘we are that house’. Christ’s heart for his church is displayed in his care for her, his service to her, and his giving of himself to her so that she might flourish.

He gave himself up for her. And we’re called to do the same.

‘As I have loved you, so love one another’.

‘This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters’.

‘In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus’.

The church has her aims, and we support them. The church has her needs, and we attend to them. The church has its collective worship, and we participate in it. The church is to be holy, and we strive for it. The church has its leaders, and we submit to their shepherd care.

In short, we do not neglect the house of the Lord.

The goodness of God then, as it is remembered and reflected upon causes us to renew our commitment to him. Well-might we as a church re-commit ourselves to him. Well-might we renew our covenant promises that we will maintain faithful relationships with his people; that we will rest squarely on our God who is our sabbath rest; that we will not neglect his household which is the church of Christ.

Paul exhorts us in this way: offer your bodies as living sacrifices holy and pleasing to God as a spiritual act of worship. And do not to conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of our minds.

John says, if we confess our sin, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

In the early church – and this holds true as a pattern for us too – they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

So, the pattern of rededication to God in light of his ever-present goodness is certainly not an exclusively Old Testament one. It’s New Testament and it’s good for us to consider God’s goodness, and to pledge ourselves to Christ-like faithfulness again and again.

Remember, then, his goodness. Rejoice in his mercy. And let that move us to faithfulness in our relationships, in our worship, and in our service. For the glory of God and for the joy of his people.