The Lord said about Himself that He is merciful, gracious, longsuffering, forgiving, and abounding in goodness and truth (Exod. 34:6-7). How does it come to that man questions His goodness repeatedly? May we have trouble seeing God rightly or lacking insight into His fundamental attributes? Some fellow believers often read mostly the New Testament and avoid the Old Testament because Jesus appears friendlier and more approachable than the Old Testament God. But is there an Old Testament God and a New Testament God? I do not think so. In this study, we will look at Moses’ relationship with God and how God revealed Himself to Moses as who He is: a good God.

Moses knew the Lord

Moses’ experience offers a divergent interpretation. God was very close to Moses and cultivated a deep friendship with him. Jesus argued that the Pharisees did not know Him because they did not believe what Moses wrote as he wrote about Jesus (John 5:46). Interestingly, the story of the transfiguration of Jesus on the mountain reported how Jesus met with Elijah and Moses (Matt. 17:3). Moses is bridging the Old Testament, and the New Testament demonstrated how there is only one triune God and not two different Gods. There is no God of the OT and another of the NT. He knew God’s attributes and that Jesus is one with the Father demonstrating God’s attributes. Indeed, Moses knew firsthand about the goodness of God.

Divine Love: God’s infinite love for His people

When we study God’s goodness, we perhaps first consider God’s love, as it is one of His main characteristics. Love is regarded as God’s fundamental attribute, “the very nature or definition of God.”[1] God’s love is the central message of scripture and appears in many places in the Old and New Testaments. Indeed, the greatest precept is to love God, and the second is to love our neighbors (Matt. 22:37-39, New King James Version). The Bible pays much attention to how we love and describes how God loves us. But what is love? Defining human love, we describe it as strong, affectionate emotions toward other people, and it refers to tender and warm feelings. Over the past decades, most books have been sold in romance and love-related themes because the topic interests many. To love and be loved is significant to many and a basic human need. Is our love the same as God’s love? Let us not be mistaken, as God’s affection differs from our ability to love. Our love is, unfortunately, often conditional and sometimes selfish. It is somehow polluted, distorted, and far from pure. God’s love is perfect, and He said He had loved us with an everlasting love and has drawn us with lovingkindness (Jer. 31:3). Here we see that His love never stops as it is everlasting and eternal. The Father loved us so much that He gave Jesus to die for us (Jn. 3:16). This is evidence that He has not held anything back from us.

The Father loved us first and from the beginning when God created us.[2] He made the first redeeming move when we were distant from Him. God is love (1 John 4:16), which means it is His nature to love and a vital personality trait. Before exploring the goodness of God further, we must see God rightly for who He is. That is, God is love. And God’s love is infinite as He is infinitely good. Moses’ experience with the Lord helps us better understand God’s attributes, such as His love, grace, mercy, truthfulness, faithfulness, holiness, righteousness, and justice. God, indeed, was gracious to His people.

His Grace

According to Moses, from God’s perspective, we find grace because He gives it to us (Ex. 33:12). When we find grace, we find undeserved favor.[3] God’s free choice is to be gracious, as we can see in the following passage. He said to Moses, “I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion” (Exod. 33:19). In this passage, God testifies about His goodness and graciousness, describing His character and nature. We can also see God’s free choice to be gracious. He chooses to give grace, and the way he worded it, we can understand that His decision is firm. In other words, His divine grace is a firm foundation we can trust when we find His grace. “Seek, and you will find” (Matt.7:7). I firmly believe it is available for everyone who seeks God’s grace, and I reject the notion that it is only available for certain people. Moses and the people found grace from God, and he stated that though we are stubborn and sinful, God forgives our sins to establish us as His inheritance (Ex 34:9).

Moses had an intimate relationship with God and understood the meaning of God’s grace for us. Even in light of the disobedience and failures of the people, God still demonstrated his grace. When Moses went up the mountain to receive the Ten Commandments, the people committed idolatry and worshipped the golden calf, as we can read in chapter 32 of Exodus. When they repented and recommitted their hearts again to the Lord, He graciously forgave them and forgave their idolatry. We know today that we will also find God’s grace when we repent and return to Him. Some divisions of theology believe that grace is only for the elect or his chosen people.[4] Again, I disagree with the belief that only a few chosen are eligible for grace. When we say that grace is an undeserved favor, the argument that only a few can have it undermines the argument that grace cannot be earned. God is gracious, although we do not deserve His grace, forgiveness, or favor. Let us believe as Moses did that when we ask for God’s grace, He will willingly give it. The grace and mercy of God have their roots in the Divine Goodness.

His Mercy

“The Lord your God is a merciful God, and He will not forsake you nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which He swore to them”(Deut. 4:31). God remembered the covenant He made with Abraham, Jacob, and Isaac. Therefore, He promised to be merciful and not to forget about us when we obey Him and walk in His ways. Chapter four of Deuteronomy is an instruction by Moses to the people to obey God and refrain from idolatry. While instructing, Moses also reminded the people of their need for God’s mercy for their personal journey with the Lord. We are needy people that depend on God’s mercy for us.[5] Then, when God instructed Moses to build the tabernacle and arch of the covenant, he told him to “make a mercy seat of pure gold”(Exod.25:17) and place it on top of the arch. It is a beautiful picture of how the mercy of God is in the center of the arch of the testimony as a symbol of the covenant God made with people. The mercy seat is pure gold and the center point of our relationship with God.

His mercy paved the way for us to be in His presence and let Him speak to us. Nevertheless, before we can receive God’s mercy and grace, we must believe that what He says about Himself is genuine and trustworthy. How do we know that His grace is available for me, too? Is God really who He says He is?

Divine Sincerity: God is who He says He is

Moses’ first real encounter with God was when God revealed Himself to Moses through the burning bush. God introduced Himself as the God of Moses’ forefathers, who saw the people’s agony and torment and who wanted to free them from slavery and tyranny to offer them a fitter life in a splendid country (Exod. 3:1-10). Now, Moses did not know God’s name and was unsure how to introduce God to the people. God answered, “I am who I am”(Exod. 3:14). This compelling statement describes God’s nature briefly but accurately. It means that God is absolutely truthful and has the highest level of integrity. What He says about Himself is unquestionably authentic, valid, and honest, confirming God’s integer and honest character. According to recent findings in psychology, self-proclaimed integrity is rooted in self-representation, presents an identification with high integrity, and includes strategically chosen behavior (Hart et al. 2024, 50).[6] When we apply this supposition on God’s self-proclaimed integrity, we can grasp that God identifies with high integrity and will act accordingly. Millard categorized levels of truthfulness concerning integrity into three dimensions. First is genuineness, which describes the condition of being true. Second is truthfulness, which refers to telling the truth. The third is faithfulness, which means one is proving true.[7] What else is God saying about His truthfulness?

His Truthfulness

A recent study observed how our psychological personality type influences scripture interpretation. We must be aware of how the sensing, intuitive, feeling, and thinking functions may bias our hermeneutic interpretation skills.[8] For example, when we read passages in scripture about God punishing people with death, the feeling type may conclude that He is harsh and not as good as He says He is. We must get our bias out of the way and understand that God is truthful to His character and always good. Millard explained that God’s truthfulness, or veracity, implies that God exemplifies things as they rightly are.[9] He will not say one thing and act in another. Moreover, He will confirm His words with His actions. God disclosed to Moses that He is “abounding in goodness and truth”(Ex. 34:6). Abundance of truth means that God is plentiful, overflowing, and boundless truthfulness. Moses wrote a song to worship God, saying that the Lord is “a God of truth and without injustice; righteous and upright is He”(Deut. 32:4). If God is truthful by nature, we must conclude that He cannot lie.[10] Moses knew that he could trust the Lord to be truthful.

His Faithfulness

If God is always truthful, we can also trust that He will be consistent and faithful. The attributes of God are not isolated facets, but in His truthfulness, God is a unitary person. His attributes do not contradict each other, but we must see them as one.[11] Moses confidently said, “Know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments”(Deut. 7:9). Moses saw how God kept His word and promises when He delivered the people from Egypt with many miracles, signs, and wonders. God provided direction, protection, and food for the people on their journey through the wilderness. He faithfully provided daily manna, bread from heaven, for the people (Deut. 8:16), and it ceased falling from heaven on the day they entered the promised land (Josh. 5:12). When God says He would do something, He will do it, as He is committed to be faithful. Even when we go astray and become unfaithful, God will be consistent and not act contrary to His nature. He must be faithful because that is who He is (2 Tim. 2:13). Grudem suggested that God’s truthfulness and faithfulness is interchangeable with God’s reliability, and He is the “final standard of truth.”[12] Furthermore, Grudem combines God’s truthfulness and Faithfulness in one section, having them go hand-in-hand.[13] For truthfulness and Faithfulness to be reliable, it must be pure and holy. Do we believe that God’s motives and intentions are holy and pure?

Divine Authenticity: God is pure and holy

I wonder if we are fully capable of grasping what holiness is. Can we understand holiness? Man is fallen and sinful and has a nature in discrepancy with God’s nature. Even as newborn creatures, we struggle with the old man in us, but Paul instructs us to “put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness” (Eph. 4:22-24). God’s holiness is morally pure.[14] God’s moral qualities contain His moral purity and the absence of sin.[15]

His Holiness

When Moses first encountered God, God commanded him to take off his shoes because the place he was standing on was holy (Exod. 3:5). Typically, a piece of land or a place is not holy itself. What made the ground holy? God’s presence did. God’s presence made an ordinary piece of land distinct, and His holiness changed a natural place into a holy place. When God’s presence is in a place, it affects the ground and the people in that place. God is indisputably separate from sin and evil and devoted to His own glory.[16] God is free from any evil or sinfulness.[17] When Moses removed his shoes, he understood that a holy God could not be treated casually, and that God’s holiness requires a proper response. Because of His holiness and our unholiness, He had to put a veil between man and the holiest place so that man may not die (Exod. 26:33). Praise God, the veil was torn through Jesus (Matt. 25:51). “Who is like You, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like You, glorious in holiness, Fearful in praises, doing wonders?” (Exod. 15:11) is how Moses worshipped God after He delivered His people. God is “glorious in holiness.”

His Righteousness and Justice

God spoke many times to Moses about righteousness and repeatedly said that He did not do signs and wonders because of man’s righteousness but because of God’s righteousness. Moses proclaimed, “He is the Rock, His work is perfect; For all His ways are justice, A God of truth and without injustice; Righteous and upright is He” (Deut. 32:4). This passage confirms that righteousness is a form of uprightness or being morally right. Grudem proposed that the terms righteousness and justice are rooted in the same Greek term and refer to the same attribute of God.[18] God established a law, and his keeping of the law and acting accordingly is equal to His righteousness.[19] Because God is pure and holy, He is the only one qualified to establish righteous laws. Some of the laws that we established for our society may sound good on the surface but contradict the biblical standard. For example, the right of women over their bodies, which was meant to ensure freedom of choice, murdered countless babies through abortion. Man creates faulty and unbiblical laws when scripture is not considered, but God’s laws are just and righteous. In His justice, God is faithful to himself and keeps His laws. Moses said, “All His ways are justice” (Deut. 32:4).

Citations

[1] Millard J. Erickson Christian Theology, 3rd ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic 2013), 262

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid., 264

[4] Arthur W. Pink the Attributes of God. (Baker Books 2006), 74.

[5] Millard J. Erickson Christian Theology, 3rd ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic 2013), 266

[6] Hart, William et al. “Integrity and Moral Flexibility: Self-Proclaimed Integrity Relates to Adapting Moral Judgments to Appear Principled.” Journal of Individual Differences 45, no. 1 (2024): 46-52.

[7] Millard J. Erickson, Christian Theology, 3rd ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2013): 260.

[8] Francis, Jones, and Ross. “Is God really Good to the Upright? Theological Educators Exploring Psalm 73 through the Jungian Lenses of Sensing, Intuition, Feeling and Thinking.” Hervormde Teologiese Studies 76, no. 1 (2020): 6-9.

[9] Millard J. Erickson, Christian Theology, 3rd ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2013): 261.

[10] Ibid.

[11] Arthur W. Pink the Attributes of God. (Baker Books 2006), 91.

[12] Wayne A. Grudem Systematic Theology, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Academic 2020), 233-235.

[13] Ibid., 233-235

[14] Arthur W. Tozer and David Fessenden, The Attributes of God Volume 1 a Journey into the Father’s Heart. (Chicago Moody Publishers, 2007): 126.

[15] Millard J. Erickson, Christian Theology, 3rd ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2013): 255.

[16] Wayne A. Grudem Systematic Theology, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Academic 2020), 240

[17] Millard J. Erickson, Christian Theology, 3rd ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2013): 256.

[18] Wayne A. Grudem Systematic Theology, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Academic 2020), 243

[19] Millard J. Erickson, Christian Theology, 3rd ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2013): 258.

[20] Wayne A. Grudem Systematic Theology, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Academic 2020), 236

Bibliography

Erickson, Millard J. Christian Theology, 3rd ed. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2013

Francis, Leslie J., Susan H. Jones, and Christopher F. Ross. “Is God really Good to the Upright? Theological Educators Exploring Psalm 73 through the Jungian Lenses of Sensing, Intuition, Feeling and Thinking.” Hervormde Teologiese Studies 76, no. 1 (2020): e1-e10.

Grudem, Wayne A. Systematic Theology, 2nd ed. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Academic, 2020

Hart, William, Charlotte K. Cease, Joshua T. Lambert, and Danielle E. Witt. “Integrity and Moral Flexibility: Self-Proclaimed Integrity Relates to Adapting Moral Judgments to Appear Principled.” Journal of Individual Differences 45, no. 1 (2024): 46-52.

Pink, Arthur W. The Attributes of God. Baker Books. 2006.

Tozer, A W, and David Fessenden. 2007. The Attributes of God Volume 1 a Journey into the Father’s Heart. Chicago Moody Publishers.