Never Forsaken: Who is God?

 

And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.” Exodus 34:6-7

 Who is God? What is He like? There are thousands of different references in the Bible and we could compound them and break them down, but how much more accurate, more exact would it be to look at who God, Himself, says He is?

 God starts out by introducing Himself as “The Lord, the Lord.” In other versions, this is represented as “Yahweh, Yahweh God.” He gives His Name, that by which He is to be known to all mankind for all generations. This is the name God gave to Moses at the burning bush when he asked for it. It literally means, “the existing one” (Strong’s). God is the One who is, was and always will be, the self-existing One. He is eternal, never having a beginning or ending. Our limited human minds can’t begin to comprehend this, but our awareness of His ever-existence can inform our faith, can help us trust that He is all-knowing and all-capable.

 Next, God enumerates His mercies. He is compassionate and gracious. Keep in mind that God is saying this to Moses right after Moses had seen the Israelites completely break their end of a brand-new covenant, making a golden calf and worshiping it while Moses was on the mountain with God. God isn’t just compassionate and gracious in theory, but in practical reality. He had every right, by the covenant He and the people had just made, to wipe them out or to leave them to their fate alone. But, instead, He showed them mercy. He maintained love to thousands, forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. This is translated both as thousands and thousands of generations, which basically reads to me that God’s beautiful, merciful love ripples out to all of us.

 That said, how loving would we feel that God is if He allowed evil to continue unabated? When we are wronged, do we not want Him to avenge us? When we see the wicked prosper, do we not want them to experience the consequences of their choices? And so, I don’t think we can fully appreciate God’s loving kindness if we can not also trust in His justice. The text says that, “he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.” In my understanding, this is the root of generational sin. Today we can actually see it hard-coded into our DNA. Addiction, abuse, it’s all there. If a father smokes cigarettes, his new-born child has that show up in its DNA. Look at cycles of abuse. Children that grow up in abusive homes are far more likely to become abusers themselves. Can the cycle be broken? Certainly! And that is further evidence of God’s grace. When we turn to Him and fall upon His mercy, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). And the joy in it is that while sin is visited upon the third and fourth generation, when we turn to Him and embrace His mercy, His love is visited upon a thousand generations to come.

Here’s the Thing: People often talk about the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament as if they were two different beings, but God is God. He is Yahweh. Eternal, forever the same. Here we see God, Himself, introduce Himself as loving, compassionate and full of grace. Yes, punishment for evil is mentioned in it, but that too is an expression of His grace and goodness. Friends, we can trust Him for He is unchanging and true. He is, was, and always will be our good and faithful God.