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For thy Good

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 4, 1871

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 38, No. 3.

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For thy Good.

By George Ide Butler

These words are contained in the address of Moses to the children of Israel, Deut. 10:12, 13: “And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, to keep the commandments of the Lord and his statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good.” So the prophet Micah says, “He hath showed thee, O man! what is good.” The thought expressed above that all of God’s requirements are really designed to benefit us, sets his dealings with man in a very beautiful light. If we could always realize this great truth, it would be a mighty help to us in rendering obedience to those requirements. The language of the unregenerate heart is, “Lord, I knew thee, that thou art a hard man;” thy yoke is hard; thy burden heavy; while the man of God cries, “All of thy ways are right, they are designed for my good; thy yoke is easy and thy burden light. Here, Lord, are thy five talents, I have gained others beside; they are all thine. It is a pleasure to work for thee.” If we could realize this great truth in times of darkness and trial, what a source of strength it would be to us.
To make this clear, let us consider the commandments of God, and see if we reach the same conclusion that Moses did; viz., That they are designed for our good. “Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.” This short but exceedingly comprehensive precept will certainly benefit the one who keeps it. It gives God the first place in our affections and contemplations. We are beings who must think of something. That which most interests us, which we delight to contemplate most, will naturally be our standard of excellence. Who could contemplate constantly the character of God without being made better by it? We see the importance of this when we consider the character of pagans. The gods they worship, which they take for their ideal, are sensual, sanguinary, and abominable. Their characters approximate the same standard. Those who have kept this commandment best, have been the most noble and exalted of all who have lived on our earth. It was for their good.
So in regard to the second commandment, “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image,” nor worship it. It can but have a fearfully debasing effect, for the human mind to contemplate as an image of wood or stone made by human hands, the Deity who is represented as dwelling in light and glory, ineffable, “whom no man has seen nor can see,” the Creator of the universe, “who humbleth himself to behold the earth.” God desires us to think of him as he is, so far as our limited capacity will allow. The nearer we can come to the truth, the more ennobling and elevating the effect will be upon us. This command, then, is for our good.
“Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.” We should hold in honor and respect that which is truly honorable. We should speak of things as they really are. To take the highest and most sacred name in the universe as a common thing, as a mere trifle, is fearfully debasing, and shows great depravity of heart. To speak of the Deity as many professed Christians do, with no emotions of reverence, shows how little they sense the character of that being before whom angels that excel in strength bow, and cry, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty.” Taking a proper view of this sacred name will always elevate and refine the man who does it. It is for our good.
“Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.” God placed this command with those we have been considering. The only reason he did so, that we can assign, is because it was of the same nature. Shall we find it “for our good”? Many think otherwise. We have kept it for many years, and must agree with the inspired writer. Why should we remember the Sabbath day? Because it is the God-given memorial of one of the most sublime events ever transacted in the universe; an event to which we owe our existence; an event very necessary for poor man to keep in his memory, to keep him from infidelity and atheism; an event that ever keeps the true relation we sustain to God before our minds, the relation of the creature to the Creator. “For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.” God thought it of enough importance to set us the example by resting himself. He set apart that day of his rest, and commands us to keep it holy. We could not properly commemorate that event in any other way than the one he has seen fit to give us. He would choose the proper one; and we could not celebrate his rest without resting the same day of the week on which he rested; We could not have a weekly memorial day without having that day specified. The only day specified in the Bible for this memorial is the seventh day.
The contemplation of the events specified, as directed by the commandment, would necessarily have a most exalting tendency upon every one; and when we come to add to this the important idea of one day in seven being set apart for the worship of God, in which it is a duty to lay aside worldly thoughts, and contemplate the important interests of religion, the calling into exercise the higher and nobler faculties of the mind, raising them up toward God and Heaven, and the difficulty of doing this without special effort, owing to our depraved hearts and the worldly interests around us, with the certainty of our not doing it unless a special day were set apart for the purpose, when we realize that our very physical natures demand such a rest from wearing toil, and that the domestic animals under our care need it, then we can realize that it is a benefit to us. Would God be careless of such a want on our part? Would we be using him with proper respect should we neglect the day he appointed? Should we choose another day not commanded by him, and neglect the one he did command, would it be treating him with reverence? These considerations, and many others which might be advanced, positively prove the Sabbath a necessity for the best development of our nature. Yes, the Sabbath is for “our good.” “It was made for man.”
“Honor thy father and thy mother.” All reasonable persons will admit this is a sacred duty. Our obligations to our parents, who have cared for us in our helpless infancy, and in sickness, and have provided us with the blessings of life, are second only to those we are under to God. A neglect to keep this requirement shows base ingratitude. The keeping of it in all its fullness is evidence of our being actuated by noble principle. It is for “our good.”
We might continue to comment on the remaining five, which all admit are important moral duties and conducive to our well-being in this life and the next. So we are called upon to obey God’s commandments, not only by a solemn duty and obligation to him, but even by enlightened self-interest.
Are we called upon to give of our means freely to aid the cause of God and benefit suffering humanity? How beautiful a benevolent character! How impossible to perfect such an one without habitually exercising the faculty of benevolence by giving! The more we practice upon it the more easy it becomes to do so, and the happier we are.
Does God call upon us to forsake not the assembling of ourselves together, and to take great pains to attend camp-meetings, at quite a serious sacrifice of property, time, and ease? By so doing we gain the blessing of God, greater knowledge of his holy truth, acquaintance with the most pious and devoted people among us, and, what is most important, spiritual strength to resist the evils around us, which results are not obtained by those who stay at home, as observation will certainly show.
Does God require some to make special sacrifices, to leave home and dear friends, and take heavy burdens upon them of perplexity, care, and wearing labor? To such he gives special strength and a special experience, as they are called upon to do special duties. He gives such a sense of the sweetness of suffering with Christ, and of that “peace that passeth all understanding” to rule and reign in their hearts when they do their duty cheerfully. Paul was not an unhappy man. Even in the jail, with his feet fast in the stocks and his back bloody with lashes, he could sing and praise God till the walls rang again. No, the spirit of sacrifice brings its happy results.
Does God permit fearful trials to fall upon us, so that our hold on this world is entirely cut away, and we feel that everything looks dark and no sorrow is like our sorrow? This is not a bad result by any means. It is, that the tendrils of our hearts should cling to Christ, our hopes be centered in a world fairer and better than this, one which is worth living for. We cannot find sufficient capacity in our hearts to love two worlds. “We cannot love God and mammon.” Sometimes a dear one is taken away. Sometimes our property changes hands, and slips from our grasp, disappointment and trial meet us, pain and agony pierce our hearts. What are these for? “Our good,” to draw us near to Christ, cut us loose from the world, and to teach us to love that which is worth loving. “No chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous; nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them who are exercised thereby.” If we ever “see as we are seen,” we shall then realize that those very things which seemed to us, in our dark condition, against us, were perhaps the most efficient agencies toward bringing us to our desired haven. They were for “our good.”
GEO. I. BUTLER.