This morning we’re going to take a one-week break from the Gospel of John and look at a passage in Exodus. Exodus 34:5–8. This is one of the most important passages in the entire OT, indeed in the entire Bible. This is a foundational passage that reveals who God is. It reveals God’s nature and character. In fact, this passage is going to bring us full circle back to John’s prologue, as this OT description of the character of God finds ultimate fulfillment in Jesus Christ.
Here’s why I want to look at this together. A right understanding of God is required for right worship of God. If we want to worship God truly, we have to have an accurate understanding of who he is and what he is like.
This passage in Exodus is instructive and clears up popular misconceptions about God, particularly God as revealed in the OT.
We’re all aware of the common popular caricature that the Bible essentially has two different gods. The OT God is mean, angry, and full of wrath; whereas Jesus is “very nice.” Various versions of this is touted by prominent public intellectuals, sometimes even from within the church…(It’s a recycled form of Marcionism, which was an ancient heresy soundly refuted by the church in the second century). Our passage, Exodus 34, soundly refutes this caricature.
The Bible doesn’t allow for this kind of division. If we want to rightly understand who Jesus is, we have to understand the OT.
Let me give you the context of Exodus 34:5–8 and then I will read it.
God’s people, the people of Israel, have just been delivered out of slavery in Egypt as God had promised. God has brought them up out of Egypt with signs and wonders.
They arrive at Mount Sinai where God completely envelops the mountain with fire and smoke and summons Moses to the top of the mountain.
Moses meets with God alone for 40 days and 40 nights and receives the Ten Commandments, inscribed by the finger of God.
Meanwhile, in what has been described as adultery on one’s wedding night, the people at the foot of the mountain convince Aaron to make for themselves an idol, in the image of a golden calf.
It’s a complete rejection of God’s deliverance. The Lord is the one who brought them up out of Egypt–– but they ascribe that saving action to the golden calf: “Israel, these are your gods, who brought you up from the land of Egypt!” (Ex 32:4). This is a deliberate misattribution of God’s activity to their idol.
Then they celebrate with sacrilegious distorted worship and feasting–– which likely includes drunkenness and sexual immorality. Throughout the Bible, idol worship is often associated with sexual immorality.
What happens from here is that Moses intercedes for the people, pleading with God not to utterly destroy the people for the sake of God’s own glory and the promise God made to Abraham.
Moses’ intercession sets up this biblical idea of a mediator. We need a mediator who will stand between God and humanity: who the Bible identifies as Jesus (Jesus is the greater Moses)—the only mediator between God and mankind (1 Tim 2:5).
After a series of conversations that Moses has with God, God tells Moses that he is going to renew the covenant. Moses then asks to see God’s glory.
And God tells Moses that he will cause all of his goodness to pass before him (33:18–19). So we should associate God’s glory with his goodness. God tells Moses that he won’t see the fullness of his glory, he won’t see his face––but he will see God’s back (so to speak) as he passes over him and reveals his glory and goodness.
God commanded Moses to go up the mountain again with two new stone tablets (Moses broke the first set). His glory is going to pass Moses by as he reveals himself to Moses. That’s where we find ourselves at Exodus 34:5–8:
5 The Lord came down in a cloud, stood with him there, and proclaimed his name, “the Lord.” 6 The Lord passed in front of him and proclaimed:
The Lord—the Lord is a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love and truth, 7 maintaining faithful love to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, rebellion, and sin. But he will not leave the guilty unpunished, bringing the consequences of the fathers’ iniquity on the children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generation.
8 Moses immediately knelt low on the ground and worshiped.
Earlier I said that this is one of the most important passages in the entire OT. Why? Well, it reveals to us God’s character, his nature. It is one of the most frequently cited OT texts in the Bible.
The Psalms and Prophets repeatedly cite vv 6–7 in particular. (This passage is cited over 30 times in Scripture). So, you think it’s important?
Psalm 145:8 “The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and great in faithful love.”
One of the more interesting examples is found with the prophet Jonah. Jonah’s citation is negative. Jonah despised the Ninevites and did not want God to show them mercy.
Jonah cites Exodus 34 as reason for why he fled Nineveh in disobedience to God. Jonah 4:2 “I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger, abounding in faithful love, and one who relents from sending disaster.”
He didn’t want God to display his mercy toward the Ninevites. That was part of God rebuking Jonah… he needed to learn about God’s compassion.
This is a significant text.
Verse 6 begins with God proclaiming his divine name. What’s the divine name? yhwh. It’s the name God revealed to Moses in the burning bush of Ex 3: I AM WHO I AM.
Your English Bible will render that in small capital letters: the Lord. It’s a stand-in for yhwh.
Verse 6 begins with declaring the divine name twice: The Lord––the Lord. This occurs nowhere else in the Bible. What are we to make of that? Well, I think it emphasizes God’s utter uniqueness. There is only one true and living God, and it is this God. The Lord. There is no one else like him. There is no one else worthy of our worship.
As Nehemiah will say, there is only one great, mighty, awe-inspiring covenant-keeping God (Neh 9:32). His name is the Lord.
I think there are five key aspects of God’s character that we are to learn from this passage:
- God is merciful
- God is gracious
- God is patient (longsuffering)
- God is faithful
- God is righteous
Let’s take these one at a time.
- God is merciful
Verse 6, says the Lord is a compassionate God. The word for compassion is picked up in the NT in Col 3:21 where Paul instructs us to put on compassion (or as old translations say, “bowels of mercy.”) This is a gutsy compassion. We speak this way all the time (“punched in the gut”) … Emotions arise from a deep level inside ourselves, from the heart––the guts. Compassion is a tender, deep love that arises from our hearts.
What does it mean that God is compassionate or merciful? What is mercy?
When we think about God’s attributes, we have to keep in mind that no one attribute is more important than another. For example, God’s justice is not more important than nor opposed to his love. Classically understood, God is simple––which means, his attributes are perfectly one. Think of it like a beautiful diamond. God’s glorious attributes reflect different aspects of the unity of God’s perfection.
So, we would say God’s mercy is the goodness of God applied to those in misery.[1] God’s mercy is God’s goodness in action displayed toward those who are miserable, destitute, lowly. God’s mercy is an expression of God’s love and goodness. This passage teaches us that God is merciful.
- God is gracious
Again verse 6, the Lord is a compassionate and gracious God. Contrary to caricatures of the God of the OT… let’s go to the source ourselves. What do read about how God describes himself in the OT? Compassionate and gracious.
What is grace? What does it mean that God is gracious? Similar to mercy, God’s grace is God’s goodness in action applied to a specific person or situation. God’s grace is the goodness of God applied to those who only deserve evil.[2] God’s grace is God’s unmerited favor applied to those who deserve wrath.
The wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23). We need God’s saving grace applied to sinners (like me and you) to bring us forgiveness, righteousness and new life with Christ. Instead of death, we are granted righteousness and life. That’s saving grace.
Here’s something important to note about God’s grace and mercy. God’s grace and mercy is God’s voluntary free expression of his goodness and love. God is love. God is holy. God is just. But he doesn’t have to show grace or mercy. That’s the whole point. Grace is a lavish undeserved expression of his goodness, which makes it all the more glorious.
God could choose not to show grace and mercy and be completely justified in withholding it. Because he is holy, righteous, and just.
And frankly, this is what should be shocking to us in the narrative. The people of Israel have sinned grievously. And yet, despite this, God reveals himself as merciful and gracious.
Stephen Wellum is a theologian who says, “What is shocking is not that God judges our sin; instead, it is that he chooses to display his grace!”[3]
We live in a culture, even some within the church, who are shocked by just the opposite. They’re shocked at the idea that God judges sin. That reveals how backwards we’re thinking about this.
If we’re shocked at the idea that God judges sin, then we really do have a deficient understanding of who God is; we have a deficient understanding of his holiness and goodness; and a deficient understanding of the nature of sin–– we don’t think sin is as egregious as it is.
Again, none of this is about believing in a God who is angry and mean. This passage says just the opposite. This is about properly understanding God as holy and righteous and good. And from that goodness, flows the reality that this God, the Lord, is also merciful and gracious.
- God is patient (longsuffering)
Verse 6, The Lord is a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger…
“Slow to anger” in the Hebrew is actually a Hebrew idiom meaning “long of nose” or “long in nostrils.”
The precise meaning is unclear, but you can get the gist. We think of nostrils flaring when someone is angry, and maybe they take a deep breath. The idea is if God is “long of nose,” then it takes a long time for him to blow out anger through his nostrils.
In Psalm 18:8, David describes God’s nostrils flaring at injustice: “Smoke rose from his nostrils, and consuming fire came from his mouth; coals were set ablaze by it.”
God is slow to display his wrath. He is slow to anger. He is not a hot head. Why is God slow to anger? Why is God longsuffering? What’s the purpose of his slowness here?
Answer: that we would turn from our sin and trust him. Repent.
Romans 2:4 “Or do you despise the riches of his kindness, restraint, and patience, not recognizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?”
Where do you see God’s patience at work in your life? In your relationships? What would it mean for you not to despise God’s patience?
I think a point of application would be repent. Mess up, fess up, and move on. When you recognize that you’re off track, repent quickly. Don’t continue on with a lack of repentance, presuming on God’s kindness. God is slow to anger, because he wants to see us repent and turn from our sin and turn to him and trust him.
- God is faithful
Vs 6: the Lord is a compassionate and gracious God abounding in faithful love (steadfast love).
The Hebrew word here is hesed. God’s covenant love. It denotes his covenant faithfulness.
God is the promise maker and promise keeper. He is the covenant-keeping God. He is faithful. Even when Israel, his covenant partner is unfaithful, he will remain faithful to his promises because he is the God who abounds in hesed faithful love.
God is rich in love; he abounds in faithful love. This thought is extended into verse 7: “maintaining faithful love to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, rebellion, and sin.”
From generation to generation, God will be faithful to keep his covenant promises. This is the word that is repeated over and over in Psalm 136: “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. His faithful love endures forever.”
2 Tim 2:13 says “if we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself.”
- God is righteous
Verse 6: The Lord is a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love and truth.
The Hebrew word for truth is emet. He abounds in faithful love and truth (some translations like ESV say “steadfast love and faithfulness,” but that’s a bit redundant. I think truth is the better option).
To say that God abounds in steadfast love and truth, is to say that God abounds in righteousness. Righteousness is truthfulness. Trustworthiness. God abounds in truth because he is righteous.
I think we are to recognize that this is not merely describing God’s action. “God acts righteously.” That’s certainly true, but I think it’s revealing something deeper. This verse is speaking about God’s nature. He doesn’t merely act righteous, he is righteous. He acts righteous because he is righteous. God is the ultimate standard for righteousness.
This is teaching us about God’s nature. God is intrinsically righteous or just. God’s justice is not something external to himself; he is just.
Where do I get that idea from this passage?
Verse 7. God abounds in faithful love and truth, “maintaining faithful love to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, rebellion, and sin. But he will not leave the guilty unpunished…”
Why? Why will God not leave the guilty unpunished? Is it because he’s mean? Is it because he can’t let go of grudges? No!
It’s because he is just. He is righteous. He abounds in faithful love and truth. Because he is good and holy and just, he has a zero-tolerance policy on evil.
He will not permit evil and sin to go unpunished. If he simply forgave without actually requiring payment for sin, that would not be justice.
This became so clear to me when I was in Central Asia talking with one of my Muslim friends. He talked about his good deeds and bad deeds measured on a scale. And he said as long as his good deeds outweighed the bad, he would be okay.
I remember that conversation was so pivotal for me because it made the concept of God’s intrinsic justice so clear. Okay, let’s grant that you have more good deeds that outweigh the bad (which is ridiculous), is God simply supposed to overlook the bad? If he doesn’t deal with them in some way, if he doesn’t mete out his justice, then he ceases to be just. He denies himself.This is something God will not do, because he is faithful.
God’s justice is different than his grace and mercy. Remember, God doesn’t have to show grace and mercy: they are voluntary expressions of his intrinsic goodness. He can choose not to show grace and mercy and still remain intrinsically good.
God’s justice, however, is not like that. It’s not voluntary. He is just. It’s essential to him. He can’t relax the standard of his justice or righteousness because that would be a denial of himself.
Let me say a brief word about the rest of verse 7: “bringing the consequences of the fathers’ iniquity on the children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generation.”
What’s that about? Is this talking about some sort of generational curse? Are we punished for our parents’ sins?
No. I don’t think that’s what’s being communicated here. I think, rather, this is a statement about the consequences and residual effects of sin. Sin doesn’t just affect one individual or the one sinned against. There are repercussions of sin that can last for generations. I think that’s what’s going on.
But this is said set in contrast to God’s faithful love. The consequences of human sin can have ripple effects that last for generations, but God’s faithful love knows no limits. It endures forever; it extends from generation to generation.
So, this crucial passage, one of the most cited verses in the Bible, teaches us some very important things about who God is, so that we can rightly worship him.
As we think about these attributes of God, think of a beautiful diamond turning in the light, reflecting the diverse beauty and unity in the divine perfections—the beauty and splendor of God’s glory.
Moses saw God’s glory––and it was glorious–– but as we follow the storyline of the Bible we are being pointed to a greater glory.
As I said, this passage that reveals to us God’s glory is ultimately fulfilled in Christ, who as the author of Hebrews says, “is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact expression of his nature.” (Heb 1:3).
Exodus 34 is actually alluded to in the Gospel of John, in the prologue. John 1:14 “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory of the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
That phrase, “full of grace and truth” is an allusion to Ex 34:6’s “faithful love and truth.” Sometimes the word love in Greek will be translated grace. Jesus is the greater glory that Moses got a glimpse of.
Jesus perfectly displays the fullness of the glory of God. So, we can say of Jesus, he is the great, mighty, awe-inspiring covenant-keeping God.
We see those attributes that we’ve looked at this morning on display in the work of Christ on the cross. We see Jesus embody the grace, mercy, patience, steadfast love, and righteousness of God on display. At the cross, God’s justice is displayed alongside his grace and mercy. The cross of Christ is the place where God’s justice and mercy meet.
Jesus dies in our place as our substitute, bearing the penalty of our sin and thereby secures for us forgiveness, adoption, and glory as we are risen with him. Through faith in him, his righteousness is then imputed or credited to us, enabling us to enjoy covenant relationship with him forever.
What is the proper response to these glorious truths? How should we respond as we reflect on God’s glory, and the fullness of God’s glory displayed in Christ?
Let’s look at Moses in verse 8: “Moses immediately knelt low on the ground and worshiped.”
Moses’ response to God’s glory passing over him was to bow in humble worship. This is in contrast to the people at the foot of the mountain earlier, who made a false god according to their own terms. They wanted a god they could control.
This passage has confronted me with a difficult and challenging question that I want to put before you: Am I worshiping God according to my terms or am I worshiping God as he has revealed himself?
We don’t worship a Jesus only according to our terms. If Jesus is Lord, and he is, then we worship him as he is revealed in the Bible. What does the Bible reveal to us?
There is only one true and living God. He is the great, mighty, awe-inspiring, covenant-keeping God who took on human flesh to be our Redeemer, to save us from our sin and win us to new life with him. Let us be like Moses and bow and worship him.
[1] Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics Vol 2 (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2004), 213.
[2] Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics Vol 2, 214.
[3] Stephen J. Wellum, Systematic Theology Vol 1 (Brentwood, TN: B&H Academic, 2024), 665.