Exodus 34: 5-9, “And the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation. And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped. And he said, If now I have found grace in thy sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee, go among us; for it is a stiffnecked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance.”
The Lord commanded Moses to go up to the mountain and then the Lord came down and met Moses on the mountain. The Lord is unique and is both merciful and gracious. Mercy occurs when God keeps something from us that we have earned, like judgment. Grace, on the other hand, occurs when God gives us something that we don’t deserve, like salvation. The Lord is also longsuffering, which is the same as saying that He always takes His time to judge (Psalm 103: 8, 9, “The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever. Psalm 145: 8, “The LORD is gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy.”) If we are willing to acknowledge and confess our sin, He will forgive us but if we choose to keep our sin then we will suffer the consequences. There are some sins that we commit, particularly sexual sins, and the consequences of those sins will affect our children, grand children and even our great grand children. However, the Lord is gracious and forgiving; Jeremiah talking about a future time, said, “In those days they shall say no more, The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the children’s teeth are set on edge. But every one shall die for his own iniquity: every man that eateth the sour grape, his teeth shall be set on edge.” (Jer 31: 29, 30) Moses knew that his people were stiffnecked and he prayed for the Lord’s grace to be upon them at all times.
(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
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