Sat Dec 6

Listen up, little ones

Especially for the littles in your household.

Listen for the words Lord and good.

Reading

Nahum 1:7—The LORD is Good

Keys for kids

Also for the littles. Young households might choose, after Keys for Kids, to go directly to praise and prayer.

Nahum tells us in the middle of judgment that the LORD is good.
The LORD is always good.
The LORD is good to those who take refuge in Him.

Questions

(some read these before notes, then ask them after)

When is the LORD good?
To whom is the LORD good?
How can we take refuge in the LORD?

Notes

(See below for all authors. )

Nahum declares, in the middle of warnings of destruction that the Lord is good. Often when nice things happen to us we exclaim, “God is good!” The danger is that we might think God is good when things are going well, but when things are going pear-shaped, we might not. A family member used to say, including at the death of their twenty-something year-old daughter, “God is good—all the time.” That is a helpful way to remember what Nahum exclaims here. The LORD is good. All the time.

We know this because God, who cannot lie, tells us so. The LORD, who is great in power and full of faithful love, will not leave the guilty unpunished (v.7, see Ex 34:6–7). And that is a good thing. We don’t want human authorities to randomly let some go unpunished. Imagine if your parents (or boss) allowed someone else to get away with the exact same thing that you were punished for. And here in the middle of God’s description through Nahum of his punishment of Assyria, He declares that He, the LORD, is good.

But is He good for everyone? Does God work all things for good for the entire human race? No. The LORD is good to those who are His—those who take refuge in Him—specifically in His Son, Jesus. Are you His? He is good and will care for you

Swedish Method questions

See the Sunday notes for meaning of the symbols.

Praise

Psalm 34a, 57b

Prayer

If you have taken refuge in Jesus, rejoice in the Lord’s goodness.
Pray for the reading and preaching of God’s word tomorrow.
Pray for a member of our church, for your family, and for a non-Christian friend/family member.

Notes this week are drawn in part from commentaries by John Calvin, William Hendriksen, Kent Hughes, Eric Redmond, William Curtis, and Ken Fentress, Stephen R. Miller, Steve Wilmshurst, the Theological Dictionary of the Old and New Testaments (TDOT, TDNT) and notes from the CSB Study Bible, and the Reformation Study Bible (RSB).