Exodus 34:4-7
English Standard Version (ESV)
4 So Moses cut two tablets of stone like the first. And he rose early in the morning and went up on Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, and took in his hand two tablets of stone. 5 The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. 6 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, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands,[a] 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.”
Footnotes:
- Exodus 34:7 Or to the thousandth generation
This is a familiar event from the Old Testament scriptures when Moses met the Lord on top of Mount Sinai in order to receive the ten commandments. As the Lord began His meeting with Moses, He made the declaration that He (GOD) is merciful and gracious. We do not deserve anything good from God, but He offers grace to us because He alone is good! The Lord also announced that He is slow to anger. Not only are we undeserving of God's grace, but we are faithless - relearning to trust Him again and again, repeating sin and running in pursuit of our own desires. But God is not quickly angered at our lack of obedience. He is patient, not wanting anyone to perish in their sin, but wishing all people to reach repentance II Pe 3:9. Finally, God said to Moses that He abounds in steadfast love and faithfulness, even unto thousands of thousands of generations! What is His steadfast love? It is the kind of love that never gives up. There is no other love that exists that can top the steadfast love of God. It is a love that is completely faithful regardless of our ability or inability to respond to such a great thing. God's steadfast love remains unchanged though we are constantly tossed to and fro with the winds of change.
In order to appreciate the great mercy, patience, steadfast love and faithfulness of God, we must understand our own condition. We all fall short of God's glorious measure Rom 3:23. Notice in Exodus 34:7 what God forgives. There are three things for which we need grace: iniquity, transgression and sin. We know that everyone has sinned. Simply by being human, after the original disobedience of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, we do not qualify for a relationship with God Almighty. Since God loves us and desires a relationship with His creation, He offers grace. However, we do not understand our own depraved condition before God or our need for His grace until sin is revealed to us through the word of God and the Holy Spirit. In its first revelation to mankind, sin is sin. To those who never had the opportunity to have an awareness of sin, Christ died for sin. Sin is pardoned. For a person who sins and knows he or she is sinning, the sin becomes something more distinct. - transgression. Transgression is not just a part of all human nature, but it is an individual action by choice to commit sin with the full knowledge of disobedience to God.
Psalm 36:1
Transgression speaks to the wicked
deep in his heart;
there is no fear of God
before his eyes.
Transgression, therefore, appears to be a worse offense than sin; but this is not so in the eyes of the Lord. Sin and transgression require the same redemptive power of God. Christ died for our transgression. In the cases of transgression and iniquity, the person made the choice to sin, so also must the person desire and chose forgiveness. If transgression were not disobedient enough, one who knowingly commits a sin and goes further to declare himself or herself "justified" in committing sin is said to have iniquity. This is a matter of the heart, body and mind. One who lives in iniquity has turned aside from the prompting of the Holy Spirit and has given preference to listening to "self". Notice the hardness of the iniquitous heart in
Psalm 41:6
And when one comes to see me, he utters empty words,
while his heart gathers iniquity;
when he goes out, he tells it abroad.
Do you see how someone can even believe that God hears their prayers with iniquity in his/her heart? However, God hears only "utterance and empty words" rather than prayers. To top it all off, he/she goes out from prayer time declaring the iniquity in his or her heart is from God! How far we fall from God's glory! Do you see the iniquity of this nation? Instead of trusting in the truth of God's word and learning how to conquer our sins by the Holy Spirit, we justify our iniquity and declare that we were made to sin! Oh how my heart cries out with pain as I type these words. What great sorrow our nation has brought to the name of God and to His word. But this is not yet the end.
Isaiah 53:5-6
But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned - every one - to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
Christ died for our iniquity. His steadfast love and faithfulness remains available today. If you "confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." Romans 10:8. He did this for me. He did this for you. He did this for our nation! Tell of His forgiveness. Declare His mercy and His steadfast love while He is still patiently waiting for all who willingly receive His grace!
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