The Story reveals a developing relationship between God and Abraham, a relationship that is tested at times. Abraham has come to have trust in God. Thus, even though this request seemed so strange and cruel, Abraham finds no reason to distrust that God has his best interests at heart. Abraham is willing to present Isaac as an offering to God. This is precisely the kind of trust and faith that God wanted to see. As a result, God tells Abraham to untie his son and Abraham sacrifices an animal instead.
This is one of the stories within the Bible that proves that God is revealed as good, I can see that God is revealed as good, as the story shows that God could have let Abraham sacrifice his son for the sake of God, however God was loving and good enough to stop Abraham from sacrificing his beloved son.
However some people may disagree and argue with this way of thinking of God, as they may feel even today, the story of Abraham is a strange and uncomfortable image of God. As God was trying to see how Abraham would react and see how much Abraham loved and trusted his God. This story does also make people think that God is not shown as ‘good’ in the Bible as God is Omniscient, so God should not test Abraham to see the amount of trust and love Abraham has for God.
In the book of Exodus, the 10 Commandments also reveal God to be ‘good’ as it shows that God has given us guidelines for God’s people. If God did not give us the 10 Commandments people in the world would not have an ultimate purpose or meaning in life, by not having the 10 Commandments, people would not know what their goal is in life and they would go astray. God is revealed as ‘good’ in the Bible, as it shows that God is loving and good to give us guidelines to make us know what path to take and to give us rules to get to heaven, for instance.
In the book of Genesis (6:13), God told Noah “I have decided to put an end to the whole human race. I will destroy them completely, because the world is full of their violent deeds”, this quote from Genesis shows that wrath of God, as the people who lived in the time of Noah were corrupt and full of evil minds that did not change. The story of Noah’s Ark, shows that God commanded Noah to build a boat big enough for every creature to get on and all those who believed Noah that there will be a flood given by God, and his family. The disbelievers mocked Noah for saying there was going to be a flood for 40 days, however it came true.
In the story of Noah’s Ark, this showed that God is ‘good’ in the Bible, as God got rid of all evil characters from the world leaving his beloved creations and Noah and those who believed to live happily in the world. However some may disagree that God was not shown as good in this story, as God is known to be all-loving and all-good, some people may question if God really loved his creations why would he let a flood occur destroying his creations. Others may argue that this shows God to be unloving and full of anger, as God destroyed, his creations and was not willing to change them, instead was ready to destroy them.
Overall God is revealed to be shown as ‘good’ within the Bible, even though people in this generation think of ways to interpret God as not good. However by knowing that God is loving and trustworthy, people should be able to think that God is good. The Bible clearly shows that God is good, through the stories and commandments serve a good way of showing God as being ‘good’.
‘A good God would not make so many rules and regulations’ (10 marks)
The statement; ‘a good God would not make so many rules and regulations’, I do not agree with, as a good God would give rules and regulations, to help us to know what to do in life and how to do it in life, by not having rules and regulation it does not determine a good life in the hereafter.
By leaving the 10 Commandments and the Bible, in the world for people to follow, this gives us guidelines of how to live, not only this but God had sent many messengers to tell the people of the world to follow God and His commandments and to stop idol worshipping as they had went astray and start following the religion; Christianity. This just proves God to be a ‘good’ God as he has left us guidelines of how to be, within the Bible there are ways of how Jesus use to be and other remarkable messengers of their time. This shows how pious they were and these are also guidelines to become like them.
God has given us rules and regulations because we are His creation and He is our creator, imagine a mother who had told her son to make sure he is careful when he goes out and come back before 10 pm, of course the son would question and she would say do as you are told, it can be dangerous. The mother only gave her son rules and regulations because she loves her son and does not want anything to happen to him. This is similarly the same for God, as God loves His creation more than its parents. God wants us to be safe and because He loves us, so he placed these rules and regulations for the sake of safety and love.
God is Omni-potent and omniscient, so we do not know why God has given us these rules and regulations sometimes, if we might think they are quite strange, yet we should always believe that God does it for our best interest. We do not know what may happen in the future, and this is all by God’s will, and we may have to use the rules and regulations to help us get along in life.