The Lord had acted in power to bring the people of Israel out of slavery in Egypt, the iron furnace (Deut. 4:20). They had crossed through the Red Sea, drank water from the rock, eaten manna from heaven, and eventually made their way to Mount Sinai to receive the commandments of the Lord. The Lord spoke to Israel out of fire, cloud, and thick darkness, and all Israel heard and trembled (Deut. 5:22ff). But when God called Moses up onto the mountain for many days, the people of Israel made a golden calf and worshipped it, breaking the Lord’s commandments even before Moses returned with the tablets of stone (cf. Ex. 20:3–6; 32:15–19). Their idolatry provoked God’s righteous indignation. Moses pleaded with the Lord to show mercy and not consume the people in anger. The Lord listened to Moses’ prayer and spared the nation, although many died for their unfaithfulness (Ex. 32:30–35).
It was at this time that Moses asked the Lord to show him His glory (Ex. 33:18). The Lord answered Moses’ request, but as is so often the case in our lives, not in the way he expected. While God refused to visually show Moses the full extent of His splendor (Ex. 33:20), the Lord did promise to reveal something glorious about Himself that Moses could experience through words and sound. At Sinai, God revealed essential truths about His character and actions that provide the basis for the gospel that would later come through the Messiah, Jesus.
The Ever-Existing, Covenant-Keeping God
“Then the LORD passed by in front of him and proclaimed, ‘The LORD, the LORD God…’” (Ex. 34:6, NASB). The “LORD” (Yahweh) is the name that God revealed to Moses at the burning bush. This name in Hebrew means “I am,” and points to God’s eternality, that He is the self-existing God (cf. Ps. 90:2). The name Yahweh was also a promise to Moses that God would go with him and be His God and not abandon him (Ex. 3:12). The phrase “I am who I am” could also be translated as “I will [always and forever] be who I am [right now]” (Ex. 3:14).
The significance of the Lord’s name as Yahweh, “I am,” is not just His eternality, but it is also a covenantal promise of His personal presence with His people. The great “I am” was also the one who promised Moses and Israel, “I will be with you.” He was and is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God who keeps all His promises to His people. We find this same character in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who “is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Heb. 13:8).
The Incomparable Character of God
“…Compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth…” (Ex. 34:6, NASB). In these next phrases, we have three sets of characteristics about God. The Lord is a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, and abundant in lovingkindness and truth. This was true when Israel sinned with the golden calf and continues to be true today. All sin demands punishment. But God in His compassionate mercy loves all sinners and desires their restoration to Himself while concurrently abhorring their sin. This grace of God is the essence of the gospel of Jesus.
Not only is God gracious, but He is also patient with His people. He is slow to anger. The Hebrew expression for patience here, literally translated, means “long of nostrils.” Think about a raging bull who, right before it gets ready to charge, snorts and flares its nostrils. God takes a long time to flare His nostrils. He is slow to snort, long of nostril, patient with His people. “The Lord is…patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9, NASB).
The Lord abounds in lovingkindness and truth. Our God keeps His covenantal promises toward His people and His promises never fail. Every word of the Lord rings forever true (Prov. 30:5). There is never something He promises that He will not accomplish. We live in a world where people make many promises but often do not have either the persistence or the power to keep them. Not so with our God! His words are solid, firm, immovable, and unchanging. When He makes a promise, He keeps that promise. Always.
Where Love and Justice Meet
“…Who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations” (Ex. 34:7, NASB). These final phrases of God’s self-revelation reveal three actions the Lord undertakes. First, He extends His lovingkindness toward thousands. His goodness does not have a limit in terms of who can receive it. Today, the love of God is available to all people through the cross of Christ, if they will only place their faith in Christ for salvation (Titus 2:11).
Second, the Lord forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin. These same terms for sin occur in Psalm 32:1–2, “How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered! How blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity, And in whose spirit there is no deceit!” (NASB). God delights to extend His love to thousands, freely forgiving sin. In our day, forgiveness is freely available to everyone who believes in the name of Christ (Acts 2:38).
Yet there is a third action God takes in this verse. God is a God not only of love, but also of justice. He does not, indeed cannot, sweep sin under the rug. God will punish the guilty. And for those who do not repent, there can be generational consequences for their descendants. Today, children brought up in an unbelieving home consequently run a greater risk of being lost than those raised in a believing home. The love of God and justice of God are not contradictory to one another, like opposite forces fighting for control. God’s lovingkindness extends to thousands freely, while His justice is enacted upon any who do not repent of their sin.
The Glory of God and the Gospel of Christ
God has always been perfectly consistent in His character. The same God who revealed Himself to Moses at Sinai has now revealed Himself through His Son. The Lord Jesus is the perfect representation of God to humanity (John 1:18; Col. 1:15; Heb. 1:3). Some think that the God of the Old Testament is a God of judgment and wrath, while Jesus in the New Testament is a God of love and peace. But when we look at God’s self-revelation in Exodus 34:6–7, it helps us understand that God has always been loving and just. He wants to forgive, and He extends His love to thousands upon thousands, but He will by no means acquit the guilty.
The self-revelation of God at Sinai explains why Jesus had to die on the cross. Because God is a God of both love and justice, He cannot let sin go unpunished, but He also will not let the sinner go without the opportunity for forgiveness. At Calvary, Jesus took our punishment on Himself so that God’s forgiveness could be freely extended to all who believe. Paul explains in Romans 3:21–26 that at the cross of Jesus, the justice of God which demands punishment for sin is satisfied, while the love of God that graciously offers forgiveness of sins is demonstrated. God shows Himself to be both just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus (Rom. 3:26).
The glorious gospel of Jesus Christ displays the gracious love of God in extending forgiveness to sinners, while never compromising His perfect righteousness in justly judging sin. At Sinai, 1400 years before the birth of Jesus, we see these essential gospel elements. Praise God for the consistency of His character and the wonders of His love!