God's Work with Planet Earth

During the time period where Moses was up on Mount Sinai receiving instruction from God, he made a personal request of Him.

So the Lord said to Moses, “I will also do this thing that you have spoken; for you have found grace in My sight, and I know you by name.”

And he said, “Please, show me Your glory.” Exodus 33:17-18

We should probably back up to verses 12-16 leading up to the quote above, because this wasn’t Moses’ only request of God. He was asking for God’s continued guidance for the whole nation of Israel. Moses also stated that the rest of the world would not know that God was leading them unless He went with them and led them in His ways. Because of Moses’ acknowledgement of their need for God, and his trust in Him, God also granted his more personal request to see God’s glory.

Here’s the interesting part: The prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel, and the apostle John all had fantastic and supernatural visions of God on His throne which are remarkably similar in their descriptions. But God didn’t give Moses a vision, He showed up in person.

He basically told Moses, I’m going to accommodate you the best I can. But a fallen, sinful human can’t see My face and survive. So you stand in a crevice between two rocks, I’ll come walking by, put My hand over you, and after I pass I’ll take My hand away, and you’ll see My back. (verse 19-23)

After this close physical encounter with God, the skin of Moses’ face was shining, to the point where the Israelites were afraid to come close to him (Exodus 34:29-35).

God tells Moses Who He is

But it’s what God said as He walked past Moses hiding between the rocks that I want to focus on. Because God could have talked about His majesty, power, visual glory, and there are times in the Bible where He does. But Moses asked to see (know?) God’s glory, and this is what God said:

“Now the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.” Exodus 34:5-7

Instead of boasting about physical and supernatural attributes, God described elements of His character. In the same way, Jesus lived the life of a humble carpenter while showing God’s character to humans. I want to take a closer look at these characteristics, because this is literally God telling us in the scriptures Who He is.

Merciful, Gracious, Longsuffering

“…be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful.” Luke 6:36

“Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.” Lamentations 3:22-23

“But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),” Ephesians 2:4-5

“The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, Slow to anger and great in mercy. The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works.” Psalms 145:8-9

Have you ever thought, or heard someone say, “If God is so good, why is there so much suffering and evil in the world?” This is why – because of God’s mercy. If He instantly destroyed all evil, no humans would make it to Heaven, or even have a chance to observe and consider and choose Him. There will come a time when God destroys sin and mercy is removed (Revelation 14:10), but in the meantime He is showing mercy to the whole world.

And really, “gracious” and “longsuffering” fall into the same scenario, where God is being patient with a stubborn, sinful world.

Abounding in Goodness

“Oh, how great is Your goodness, which You have laid up for those who fear You, which You have prepared for those who trust in You, in the presence of the sons of men!” Psalms 31:19

“So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God.” Mark 10:18

“The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; And He knows those who trust in Him.” Nahum 1:7

“God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.” Acts 10:38

Truth

“Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” John 14:6

“And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.” 1 John 5:20

“God is not a man, so he does not lie. He is not human, so he does not change his mind. Has he ever spoken and failed to act Has he ever promised and not carried it through?” Numbers 23:19, NLT

“Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.” John 17:17

That last verse is Jesus praying to God the Father for those who followed Him.

Forgiving

“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9

“Who is a God like You, pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in mercy.” Micah 7:18

“In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.” Ephesians 1:7

“Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; Let him return to the Lord, and He will have mercy on him; And to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.” Isaiah 55:7

There are many more verses describing these characteristics about God, but I am intentionally selecting from different writers across the Old Testament and New Testament to show the consistency of the Bible, and that the OT God is the same God as the NT God.

God’s Justice

After God described to Moses His mercy and grace and goodness, and His desire to forgive, He then described His justice. Because God is love and mercy, but He is also obsessed with justice and fairness.

“Yet you have not listened to Me,” says the Lord, “that you might provoke Me to anger with the works of your hands to your own hurt.” Jeremiah 25:7

“But if you turn away and forsake My statutes and My commandments which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods, and worship them, then I will uproot them from My land which I have given them; and this house which I have sanctified for My name I will cast out of My sight, and will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples.” 2 Chronicles 7:19-20

Through Jeremiah, God was telling us that when we ignore His commandments, we end up with an unjust and unsafe society, and that hurts all of us.

In the second quote, God was answering Solomon’s prayer of dedication after the Temple was built. The Bible tells us that Solomon was later corrupted to worship false gods through his pagan wives. Down through the generations of Israel, Solomon’s temple was destroyed by Babylon after repeated warnings to stop the practices that were destroying their society both spiritually and physically. Then the second temple was destroyed by Rome after the Jews rejected Jesus. God ensured that the “houses” dedicated to Him were literally “cast out of My sight”.

“For I, the LORD, love justice. I hate robbery and wrongdoing.” Isaiah 61:8

“Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.” Galatians 6:7-8

Third and Fourth Generations

Going back to the understanding that God gave His law to humans for their own good, and if they reject His guidance, He allows the consequences to hit them.

Sometimes, as in the case of an alcoholic, the children and grandchildren may have a tendency toward addiction. Or a mother doing recreational drugs can have deformed or mentally disabled child. Men or women who have children with various partners result in those children being raised without a father or a mother in the home. These are just examples of how sins can affect future generations in a devastating way. God allows this to happen, just as He allows people to suffer the consequences of their own actions.

Both Mercy & Justice

Notice that in this last verse below, God describes the things He “exercises” in the world, including both “lovingkindness” and “judgement”. Both mercy and justice.

Thus says the Lord:

“Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom,
Let not the mighty man glory in his might,
Nor let the rich man glory in his riches;
But let him who glories glory in this,
That he understands and knows Me,
That I am the Lord, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth.
For in these I delight,” says the Lord.” Jeremiah 9:23-24