Exodus 34
Today's Passage: Exodus 34
In this really intense passage, God reveals more of His character to Moses. I want to focus on verses 5-7, which say: “The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, ‘The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.’”
As I’ve said before in previous Jumpstart posts, the term “Lord” here is in all capital letters in our Bibles and its direct translation is the personal name of God, YHWH, which we pronounce Yahweh. God repeats His name here, possibly to emphasize that what He is about to say has always been true and always will be true.
It is interesting to me that there is a list of what appear to be synonyms: iniquity, transgression, and sin. I think this emphasizes that there is truly no type of sin that God is unable to forgive.
Now you’re probably thinking, “But, Kaitlin, it says God will not clear the guilty.” You’re right. God is everything He has listed here, but these don’t cancel out His righteousness and justice. But because of the work of Jesus, the righteousness of God is satisfied and the grace and mercy are freely given to all who surrender their lives to Christ! Our guilt was transferred to Jesus, and His righteousness transferred to us.
Thank God today for His steadfast love, mercy, graciousness, and other things that stand out to you from this passage!
Written By: Kaitlin White
In this really intense passage, God reveals more of His character to Moses. I want to focus on verses 5-7, which say: “The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, ‘The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.’”
As I’ve said before in previous Jumpstart posts, the term “Lord” here is in all capital letters in our Bibles and its direct translation is the personal name of God, YHWH, which we pronounce Yahweh. God repeats His name here, possibly to emphasize that what He is about to say has always been true and always will be true.
It is interesting to me that there is a list of what appear to be synonyms: iniquity, transgression, and sin. I think this emphasizes that there is truly no type of sin that God is unable to forgive.
Now you’re probably thinking, “But, Kaitlin, it says God will not clear the guilty.” You’re right. God is everything He has listed here, but these don’t cancel out His righteousness and justice. But because of the work of Jesus, the righteousness of God is satisfied and the grace and mercy are freely given to all who surrender their lives to Christ! Our guilt was transferred to Jesus, and His righteousness transferred to us.
Thank God today for His steadfast love, mercy, graciousness, and other things that stand out to you from this passage!
Written By: Kaitlin White
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