Seeing the Goodness of God – Matthew 12:24

Matthew 12:24: Now when the Pharisees heard it they said, “This fellow does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons.”

The scene that generated today’s verse is a man is brought before Jesus, and the man is blind and mute due to demon possession. Jesus heals him – the blind man can now see and speak. Shouldn’t such deliverance be obviously a good thing? The Pharisees at least acknowledged the casting out of the demon from this man. However, instead of rejoicing in this poor man’s healing of demon possession, they make the accusation that it must have been done through demonic forces. Why can’t they see the obvious goodness of what Jesus has done?

Pure goodness should be easy to see, but if the eyes aren’t pure, then what they see will be influenced by the condition of one’s heart. There’s an old saying, “The eyes are the window to your soul.” Two people can observe the exact same scene, but their interpretation of the scene will likely differ due to the condition of their hearts, attitudes, and experiences. In this healing scene, there are two parties of observers. There are the Pharisees and there are the “multitudes” – people in the vicinity that witnessed Jesus healing the man. The response of the multitudes is of amazement prompting them to ask, “Could this be the Son of David?” In other words, they’re wondering if this is the Messiah – the promised One to bring deliverance to Israel. Clearly, they observed the obvious goodness of what Jesus had just done.

This contrast of viewpoints in this story is a great study in the condition of the heart. One would think the educated men of the Scriptures – the Scriptures that reveal the goodness of God (Psalm 136:1) should be the first to recognize goodness. Yet, their response to Jesus’ act of goodness is to call into question the motivation behind it. This is not the first time the Pharisees have had a problem with Jesus. Earlier in chapter 12, Jesus healed a man’s withered hand on the Sabbath, and the Pharisees chose to focus on the “unlawfulness” of healing someone on the Sabbath as opposed to rejoicing over the man’s healing. They were so upset over once again another blatant act of goodness; they started to plan how they might destroy Jesus.

How can they not see the obvious goodness of Jesus’ actions? They are jealous because He is challenging their understanding of God’s true character. They’re more focused on the rules and regulations of the Law than they are rejoicing in the presence of a good and loving God. Another popular saying is, “Some things never change.” Our hearts are no less polluted with lies fed to us by the enemy today than they were 2,000 years ago. Today, we have God’s Word promising that God is a God of hope, love, and goodness, and we have the evidence of His Son backing up these promises. We have the benefit of the entire story of Jesus’ time on earth – including the Cross-and His resurrection. Yet the opposition to the obvious goodness of Jesus is greater today than it ever has been. Why?

The last thing Satan wants us to do is to recognize the goodness of God. Romans 2:4 tells us the recognition of God’s goodness leads to repentance. What do we need to repent? Believing and acting on the lies Satan has been feeding us from the moment we are born. An important prayer for every person should be that God will cleanse our hearts and give us His eyes to see things as He sees them. God sees things through His true, good, and loving heart. By the power of His Holy Spirit, we can see the goodness of God because for those who have confessed Jesus as Lord and Savior, their souls are redeemed and washed by the purifying blood of the Lamb.

Are you seeing the goodness of God? He’s with you right now – ask Him to reveal His goodness to you. You will be amazed at what you see.

Isaiah 60:1

Oh, LORD, what darkness surrounds me.
How it oozes and seeps into my pores.
Then it slithers and threatens my mind
With the dread there will be much more.

My heart begins to quake and tremble -
Leaving me paralyzed with fading hope.
How could such a doom break through?
As if I’ve arrived at the end of my rope.

Suddenly a voice from heaven thunders
Tearing a hole in hopelessness’s roof.
Darkness’s lies crumble to their knees
Giving way to the Light and the truth.

“Arise, My child, for your light is here!
Why have you forgotten My presence?
Don’t you recall upon your confession?
That I instilled in you My holy essence.”

“The darkness and its grave were beaten
By My beloved Son’s death at Calvary.
When I resurrected Him with My power.
The Light of the World won the victory!”

“As for My unbelieving and lost creation -
The ones drowning in darkness and tears,
If they could only see what you believe,
My perfect love will cast out their fears.”

“So, don’t forget, My beloved possession.
You can arise and shine for I have come.
My glory will forever rise upon you
With the same power that raised My Son.”

“Shine My Spirit’s light who dwells inside
That will testify that My Word is true.
For light will always defeat the darkness
When they’ll see that it did so for you.”

Why Jesus Was Sent

God takes no pleasure in the death of any.
He wants all of His creation to repent.
To prove the truth of this passionate desire,
His only begotten Son to us was sent.

He looked at each of our worst moments
And our rejection of His holy existence.
From a heart of mercy and compassion,
He chose to take our sin death’s sentence.

Yet we still believe the deceits and the lies.
If He exists, He’s an unfair and angry judge.
When we reject the necessity of the cross.
We’re missing His greatest display of love.

What more powerful proof can we find?
For another to willingly lay down one’s life.
The only way to be reconciled to our Creator,
Was for His Son Jesus to be our sacrifice.

The fear of death was given a mortal blow.
His resurrection proving love never fails.
Imagine the guilt and shame of our past
Are forgiven and left on His cross’ nails.

Why won’t we choose to believe this truth?
Receive the free gift of His amazing grace.
If this is the only life that we have to live,
Does it feel anything like a heavenly place?

If there is more to live after our last breath,
Perhaps the cross makes a lot more sense.
To be given the promise of an eternal peace,
We’ll start to believe why Jesus was sent.

That God loves every life that He creates.
You’re no evolved ape, you’re no accident.
If you’ll take Jesus’ nail-pierced hands,
You’ll become a reason why He was sent.