Moses requested to see the glory of God and was
told he could not take a direct frontal look at God. Why? God is absolute
perfection and Moses would have to pay for that look with his life. For no one
has and will ever be able to see God and yet live. So, God improvised a way for
Moses to see the aftermath of His glory. He had Moses hid in the cleft of the
rock, and covered his face. He had passed by, then Moses could take a
look at the passing cloud of His glory. As God was passing by in front of
Moses, He proclaimed, “The Lord,
the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and
abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for
thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no
means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity
of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth
generations.”
What God was doing was defining Himself to Moses as well as to us.
Notice He repeated by calling His covenant name, “the Lord” twice. The double mention of
His sacred name was an assertion that He Himself, Yahweh, the covenant making
and keeping God, was the one speaking to Moses and is still speaking to us. This
name was first made known to Moses at the burning bush when he asked whom
should he said has sent him. That was when the Lord in Exodus 13:4 told him saying, “I am who I am.” This name is in the present tense telling us
that He is the ever-present one. God did not call Himself the “I was” nor the
“I will be.” He is the “I Am,” the ever-present, all-sufficient, self-existing
one. “The Lord” is
not just a title, it’s His name. It’s His essential nature. He Is not just the
Almighty Creator but also the Blessed Redeemer. He is not only the One who has
created us but also the One who has redeemed us.
Immediately after He announces His name twice,
the Lord went on to
describe His nature. We see six aspects of His nature. Firstly, He is
compassionate. With that compassion, He notices our needs. Secondly, He is
gracious so that in spite of our shortfall, He could shower His grace and
favour upon us. Thirdly, He is slow to anger, meaning He is patient so that
His mercies can endure despite our constant failing. This must not be taken as
a cue for us to test His patience. If anything at all His patience should lead
us to be more disciplined. Fourthly, He is abounding in loving-kindness. This
is better seen as His faithfulness in showing mercy. While His graciousness
would grant us what we do not deserve, His mercy will hold back His judgement
on what our sin deserves. Fifthly, He is the truth, in God, there is no
falsehood. He says what He means and means what He says. He is trustworthy and
trustable. And sixthly, He is forgiving. He not only forgives our wickedness
but also our rebellion and sin. There had been times when we even find it hard
to forgive ourselves, God is greater than our heart. He forgives us when we are
willing to repent and change. While He is forgiving, He will not condone our
perpetual wrong. He will have to deal with it so that sin will not infect our children
and children’s children, lest they too will have to face the consequence of our
sin.
This is the God whom Moses was given a glimpse of
and the One Israel worshipped. He had shown Himself to them right from the
onset. In compassion, He came down to free them from their slavery. In
graciousness, He showered His favour on them over and over again in the
journey. In patience, He dealt with their repeated mistakes over and over.
In His loving-kindness, He had shown His mercy faithfully and in His forgiving
nature, He forgave them repeatedly. And in Christ Jesus, all these qualities of
God has been working for our transformation. We truly have a great God,
deserving our worship and total adoration. One final point before we leave. His
holy nature demands that sin must be dealt with. There is one thing that we
must never soft-pedal as we lavish in His goodness. In other words, don’t ever
take His goodness for granted!
No comments:
Post a Comment