"who Am I?"

I am going to start you off with a couple of “Who am I?” riddles this morning. “I dig out tiny caves, and store gold and silver in them. I also build bridges of silver and make crowns of gold. Who am I?” A: a dentist.

Here’s another one. “I can shave several times a day but still have a beard. Who am I?” A: a barber.

If you had to write a “Who am I?” riddle with God as the answer, what clues would you include? Descriptions of his power? A hint about his triune nature? In our sermon text this morning, God revealed himself to Moses. As we study this description and unravel God’s identity, we’ll also discover our own identity. (Read text.)

Our sermon text takes place soon after the Israelites made a golden calf and worshipped it while Moses was on top Mt. Sinai receiving the Ten Commandments. Moses pleaded forgiveness for the Israelites, and God agreed. Moses seemed to be feeling pretty good about himself about this—like an employee who has just gotten his boss to agree to a raise. And so Moses pressed further. He said to God: “Now show me your glory!” (Exodus 33:18)

If you’re on a tour of the White House led by the president himself, would you say midway through the tour: “Show us your bedroom, Mr. President”? I don’t think you would. The president’s bedroom is his sanctuary. Not even his advisors get to meet the president there. So when Moses said, “Lord, show me your glory!” how did God handle this bold request? Like he handles every request from his children: he offered Moses something better than what he had asked. God said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence... [But] you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.” (Exodus 33:19-21)

Rather than giving Moses a visible portrait of himself, God was going to offer a verbal portrait (Tom Nass). Don’t dismiss this important point because it means that if you want to understand God better, study him with your ears, not your eyes. Is this perhaps also why we don’t have a physical description of Jesus? We don’t know if he had curly hair or strait. We don’t know if he could have dunked a basketball or was more the size of a horse jockey—short and compact. We don’t know those details because they are not as important as knowing what Jesus said about himself, about us, and about our heavenly Father.

So what exactly did God say about himself to Moses? While Moses was hidden in the cleft of a rock to protect him from the divine glory, God “proclaimed his name.” He said: “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, 7maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin…” (Ex. 34: 6-7)

What God wanted Moses and us to know about him first and foremost is that he is a compassionate and gracious God who is slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, who maintains love to thousands and forgives wickedness, rebellion, and sin. Oh my. This is like sitting down to Thanksgiving dinner at Grandma’s. There are so many delicious things on offer, where does one start?

Let’s start with the word “compassionate.” You may remember from our Bible study on the book of Lamentations that this word is related to the Hebrew word for “womb.” When God says that he has compassion for us, he wants us to know that he thinks of us the way a good mother thinks of her 18-month-old who is running towards her for a hug only to catch the edge of the carpet and does a belly flop a couple of feet short of her intended destination. The mother does not laugh. Instead, she scoops up the child and coos words of encouragement to distract from the pain.

Likewise, the God of the universe is not like an AI-equipped computer that can answer any question it’s given, but does not feel anything for you. No. When you suffer, God suffers. When you rejoice, he rejoices. God feels this way even when we do things that are foolish and sinful. For he is also a “gracious” God who is “slow to anger.”

Tell me, how long do you wait before beeping the horn at the driver in front of you who doesn’t see the green light? Do you politely wait for him to finish the text he’s pounding out? Do you even count “one Mississippi” before laying on the horn? We are usually quick to anger and annoyance. Not God.

Can you think of any instances of God’s long-suffering patience? How about with the Canaanites? Although they were engaged in a putrid form of idol worship at the time of Abraham, God gave them 400 years to repent. That’s why the Israelites did not return to Canaan for 400 years after Jacob and his sons left for Egypt. 400 years! Why, we don’t even usually give our children four chances to behave. Three chances is the usual limit.