CYPRESSWOOD CHURCH OF CHRIST

October 2, 2005

 

LIFT THE FOLLOWING UP IN PRAYER:

Our congregation                                                                 Our nation, military and leaders

 

Various friends, relatives and co-workers                        David and James in the military

 

Our students                                                                         Restoring order after the hurricane

 

Mel having oral surgery Wednesday                               Ben has been sick

 

BIRTHDAYS:  Jaycee Mearns (4th)

 

 

HOW GOD DESCRIBES HIMSELF

 

“And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, ‘The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.  Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation” (Exodus 34:6-7).

 

Moses had gone up Mt. Sinai again, chiseled out two stone tablets and presented himself before God.  God came down and proclaimed Exodus 34:6-7.  God is speaking and describing who He is to Moses, Israel, and all people.  The first part of the quote would be repeated in various forms several times, and in part many times throughout scripture.

 

First, let’s look briefly at the second part of the quote, the part about punishing children.  We know that God claims that each person is responsible for his own actions, not the father for the child or the child for the father (see Ezekiel 18).  So what does God mean here?  We must keep in mind that sin will be dealt with one way or another.  God is love, so John tells us in 1 John, but that isn’t a wishy-washy type of love.  God will also judge, and that we must keep in mind, even when looking at the first part of the description above.  The word “punishes” in “punishes the children” means visiting.  He visit’s the children for the sins of the parents.  The idea is that of consequences.  There are consequences to the sins of the parents that are visited on the innocent.  No sin goes unpunished in that many face the consequences of sinful actions.  David sinned and an innocent baby died, a nation rebelled, and people died in that rebellion.  The nation of Israel sinned and was carried into captivity, both the innocent and guilty.  I think that is the idea presented in the second part of the quote.

 

That also helps explain the first part.  Yahweh, the Lord, is compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, and forgiving.  When we think of God, this is the primary we need to see God.  God is compassionate, He understands and shares in our suffering and struggle.  He is gracious, giving us what we need not what we deserve.  He is slow to anger, putting up with Israel and us for years.  He abounds in love, seeking what is best for us.  And He is forgiving, something He delights in (see  Micah 7:18-19), a connected quote following this text. 

 

Hezekiah quotes it in part in 2 Chronicles 30:9.  Keep in mind that the Chronicles were written to a nation that has returned to Israel from Babylon and that the author is encouraging them to seek God.  Hezekiah, in a letter to Israel and Judah reminds them that “God is gracious and compassionate.  He will not turn his face from you if you return to him.”  Hezekiah reminds the people that God is forgiving.  We see that when some were not ceremonially prepared to participate in the Passover and Hezekiah asks God to forgive them, and He does.

 

Nehemiah nine is a prayer of national repentance after Israel has returned from Babylon.  Written around 430 B.C., Nehemiah rebuilds the walls of Jerusalem.  Then he prays for the nation.  He reminds them of their rebellion and God’s judgment, then recalls who God is.  “They became stiff-necked and in their rebellion appointed a leader in order to return to their slavery.  But you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love.  Therefore you did not desert them” (vs. 17).  That is who God is!

 

Several Psalmists use the identity of God in a variety of ways.  David, in a prayer of lament, quotes Exodus 34:6, and pleas that God would have mercy on him, God’s servant.  David praises God for who He is (103:8) as well as in 111:4, Yahweh being “gracious and compassionate.”  In another Psalm of praise, David again praises God: “The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love.  The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made” (145:8-9). 

 

Two prophets use the Exodus text.  Joel, in a chapter on judgment and calling for repentance, asks Israel to “return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity” (2:13).  Repentance brings forgiveness, in this case, the forgoing of calamity or judgment.  Jonah too quotes Exodus 34.  Jonah had fled from fulfilling the message of the Lord to go to the Assyrian city of Nineveh because of several factors.  One, he probably wanted them destroyed.  After a storm, a great fish, and convinced by God to go, Nineveh repents.  Jonah becomes angry at the situation.  Why?  “I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity” (4:2).  Even to the enemies of Israel, or Gentiles, God is this way, because that is who Yahweh is.

 

There are many more texts in which a small portion of Exodus 34 is referred to because the prophets remind the nation who there God is.  The ultimate idea is seen in Jesus.  Philip had asked Jesus to show him the Father, to which Jesus responded that if you have seen Me you have seen the Father (John 14:8-9).  We see in Jesus all those qualities from Exodus 34 that God proclaims as to who He is as God.  Jesus was often moved with compassion, for a people without a shepherd or a individual suffering.  He was gracious, especially to outcast such as the Samaritan women at the well (John 4).  He was slow to anger; even on the cross seeking to forgive those who had crucified Him.  He abounded in love by seeking their, and our, best and died for us showing the full extent of His love in service.  Then He asked that we love one another, our neighbors, our enemies (have you been praying for Iraq, Islamic terrorists?), and most importantly, God, who we are to love with all of our hearts, minds, strength, and souls.  And of course, He is forgiving.  He told a man on a mat that his sins were forgiven, which invoked a response; only God can do that.  Then he told the man to get up and walk.  He challenges us to forgive as we have been forgiven (Matthew 6:9-14) and to forgive from the heart (18:35), something He Himself does.

 

What is God like?  Exodus 34:6 describes Him by His own words.  Yes, there will be judgment, but before judgment, God is willing to be gracious and forgiving to all who would seek Him.  In lament, in judgment, in praise, we can tell people who God is by showing them Exodus 34:6 and then how that description is seen through scripture and in Jesus Christ.  And we can remind ourselves, especially around the Lord’s Table, who God really is as we are reminded of the death and resurrection of Jesus.

 

                                                                                                                                                George B. Mearns