GEN1140 Natural theology, I believe, should link the idea of the good with that of God, for the core insight of monotheism is the recognition that God’s commands speak only in behalf of the good.   We can be sure of this nexus, since the idea of goodness is, for monotheists, constitutive in our idea of the divine.   It is this linkage, I have argued, that is intended when Genesis calls the mountain where Abraham did not sacrifice Isaac “the mountain where the Lord revealed Himself” [this verse].   For Abraham was blessed even though he did not carry through his initial intent to sacrifice his beloved son.   Indeed, he was blessed in that very choice, the choice forced upon him when he had to decide between God’s explicit and unambiguous command that he sacrifice Isaac and the angel’s urgent pleas that he refrain from such a horror and do no harm to his son.  His blessing, shared with all nations, lay in the recognition that divine holiness is found not in the tremendum of violence but in acts of kindness, generosity, and justice.  JHRHV xiv