Exodus 34

ome points from the message brought by Pastor Tim at SSB on July 25, 2021 with some additional thoughts of my own.

Exodus 34:5-9, Now the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord.  And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.” So Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshiped.  Then he said, “If now I have found grace in Your sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray, go among us, even though we are a stiff-necked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us as Your inheritance.”

1. 34:5, God came to mankind and spoke to mankind.  This reminds me of the Garden of Eden, of God to Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, David, Elijah and of Christmas – God came to man!It also reminds me that God has clearly spoken to mankind in creation, in a man’s soul, through His people and in His Holy Word, the Bible, so that man is without excuse for disobeying and sinning.
2. 34:6, God has revealed to mankind some of His characteristics.  The only way we have some clarity about what marks God is through His revealing of His attributes to us.  Here are some:

He is merciful – He does not instantly give man what he deserves

He is gracious – He gives man many blessings even daily

He is patient – He understands our weaknesses

He is full of good – He is always good

He is full of truth – There is no shadow or ill about Him

Such is who He BE!  The next verse is about what He DO!

BE and DO are critical issues in our culture today.  And they come in that order.  God existed – He BE – long before He DO.  Therefore, BEing must be protected despite DOing.  Infants in the womb, the severely handicapped, and the infirmed or the elderly have BEing and must be protected despite their inability to DO.

3. 34:7, God, BEing holy, is angry toward sin and brings judgment upon sinners and also allows consequences to linger for many years (4 gens).  God DO – He sees, cares, and deals!
4. 34:8, The right response to God’s revelation of Himself is to be humbled, awed, fearful and to fall down in contrite worship.  Grasping both the BE and DO of God should bring forth such a response from every person, including you and me even daily!!
5. 34:9, Man’s response should be to cry out to God agreeing with what He says about us – we are hard headed, rebellious, and stubborn – and cry out for God’s help – His presence going forward.  Men should realize and admit that it is only by God’s grace that he might have any standing before God.  He must ask God to forgive Him of sins and attitudes and receive Him claiming no right requiring God to do so.  Lastly, man, who grasps who God BE and what God DO, must ask God to receive him and make him a member of His family.  He desires to submit to God’s headship and serve God the rest of his days – be His (inheritance).

May the God who BE and DO bring worship and submission to Him from us!