Celebrating God's Goodness (Exodus 34:1-27) Series

[I jumped the gun here, but the word "even though" is found in Exodus 34:9].

After the flood, God made the decision that He would show grace to humans, and to the ground/earth, from this point forward. He would change How responded to sin, so that the flood was a one-off act of judgment. And God did this, because of Noah. God decides that He will tolerate a great deal of sin in the world, because of people like Noah. God will take the bad with the good.

When we turn back to Exodus, I think we see something similar. Israel is a stiff-necked people. That hasn't changed. But what's different, compared to Exodus 19-23, is the stronger emphasis on forgiveness. Yahweh will be a God who forgives.

We can see this, in part, by comparing Exodus 34:6-7 with Exodus 20:5-6 (ESV no reason):

5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

Now let's reread Exodus 34:6-7:

(6) and Yahweh passed by in front of his face,

and He called (out),

"Yahweh [is?] Yahweh, a God (El) compassionate and gracious, long/slow of anger, and great in loyalty (hesed) and faithfulness, keeping loyalty (hesed) to the thousands, carrying sin/guilt and transgression and sin,

while He surely doesn't leave unpunished/ pardon, visiting/punishing the sin/guilt of the fathers upon the sons and upon the grandsons, upon the third [generation] and upon the fourth [generation],"

What we see here, is that Yahweh has flipped around how he talks about his mercy, and his judgment. Here, on this side of the golden calf, the "emphasis and priority . . . are given to God's magnanimous qualities rather than to His judgmental actions" (Nahum Sarna, Exodus, 216).

So I think God here has made his decision. Earlier, He was still working out how He would respond to Israel. He was still working out what He would do with them (Exodus 33:5).

But what God has decided in these verses, is that He will be slow to anger, and loyal, and faithful, even though his own people will often sin. God will show grace, and make the relationship work.

So when you find yourself on the wrong side of the rail, and you come to your senses, you can come crawling back to God. You can be like the prodigal son, and God will take you back. OT and NT, God's people are in covenant relationship with a loving, forgiving Father.

At the same time, God also says that there can be (?) consequences to sin and rebellion. Sometimes, your sin will lead to God punishing you. God is slow to anger, but if you push the limits of that patience too long, and too far, He will get angry.

So again, when you find yourself on the wrong side of the rail, understand that it's not a truly safe place to live. It might seem like God's grace and patience gives you lots of margin. But that margin erodes (and that's the point of 1 Corinthians 10:13-- a badly misunderstood verse; see my sermon on that).