Exodus 34:5-7 God’s self proclaimed name and descriptor

Context

Most of us will be familiar with the context of this passage.

Ex 32:9 - Moses has been up on Mount Sinai for forty days and the Lord knows that the people have built the golden calf, and He sends Moses down to deal with them.
Ex 32:16 - God Himself crafted and wrote on the first two tablets (front and back).
Ex 32:18 - Moses breaks the tablets in anger at the people’s sin.
Ex 33:1-6 - God tells the Israelites to go up to the promised land on their own, He will not go with them
Ex 33:7-11 - God speaks to Moses “face-to-face” as to a friend (and Joshua remains with him when he does so)
Ex 33:12-17 - Moses intercedes for Israel, and the Lord relents because Moses has found favour in His sight.

Read Exodus 33:17 - 34:28

Noteworthy Items

Moses asks to see God’s glory
God responds that he will make His goodness pass before Moses, and He will proclaim His name, יהוה
Then God adds “and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy,” before continuing, we’ll come back as to why later on, but it’s worth noting that Paul quotes these words in Romans 9:15 to show that when God shows mercy, it is because He has made a conscious decision to do so.
God then puts a limit in place saying that Moses cannot look upon God’s face, for no man can do so and live.
So even someone to whom God would speak as a friend “face-to-face” cannot look upon God’s face and live.
Then Moses cuts new tablets like the first (however now Moses has to do the work)
<key passage>
Note there is another name here, v14 “for the Lord, who’s name is Jealous”, Heb. El-Kanah.
- Incidentally, up until last year my kids went to Elkanah House for school. And while the Blouberg campus is still largely a “Christian” school, certainly the reports are that the higher you go up the grades, the more God is phased out (largely due to the Advetech buyout. I should contact them to remind them of which name of God they chose, and why God is a Jealous God.
Later Moses has to write the words on the tablet himself, again, unlike the first tablet
Moses is up on mount Sinai for another 40 days and nights, bringing the total to 80 days on the mountain.

Our key passage - verses 5-7

What did the Lord say he would proclaim?
What did the Lord proclaim?
What does that tell us about this descriptor of God?

"’יהוה יהוה…’“

In Hebrew, duplicated words is a way of giving emphasis to the word.

What are the first two words in God’s descriptor?
We’ve already studied this name, יהוה, what did we learn of it?
- It’s called the Tetragrammaton
- The incredible holiness of this name
- Jews (at least practicing ones, and even most secular ones) will never pronounce this Name. In fact the Name’s actual pronunciation has been lost in time because it was never spoken, only written, and Hebrew doesn’t write its vowels (except more recent Hebrew using annotations), but by that point the Name hadn’t been pronounced for so many generations that there was no way to know how to say it.
- Yahweh is one construction of how it may be pronounced.
- Jews, when encountering this name will substitute it with Adonai, meaning “my Lord”, and some will even substitute that with HaShem, meaning “the Name”.
- Jehovah is a deliberate crossover using the Tetragrammaton’s consonants with Adonai’s vowels (arising from the Medieval times), as a reminder never to pronounce the Tetragrammaton, always to substitute Adonai for it.
- Our culture has no idea what reverence is.

‘“…a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.” ‘

This is one of the most profound descriptors of God, firstly it is the most comprehensive, direct revelation from God about Himself and his character. God Himself said He would proclaim His name, and this is what He proclaimed. Just think about how profound that is.

God’s justice and two potential problems

Okay, before we go any further, by my count, there are two key problems with this descriptor (at least according to our tiny human brains). And they are worth addressing, both for our own clarity, but also because you may find yourself challenged on them when talking with an unbeliever or a young believer.
Can anyone see what they are? We don’t need the answer right now, just what they are.

forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty…
- Either there is contradiction backed right into God’s character
- Or there appears to be some injustice.
- Everyone sins, so everyone is in need of forgiveness
- Who are the guilty he forgives, and who are the guilty who God will by no means forgive.
  - Let’s read Joel 2, where the people are deep in sin
    - What does the Lord say through Joel?
    - v12-13 Repent with your heart
    - Then a straight up quote of this descriptor in Exodus 34:6
    - v18 Then the Lord became Jealous for His Land, there’s that tie to God being righteously jealous.
    - So who does Joes say are the people who will be forgiven?
    - Those who return to the Lord with true repentance.
    - Conversely who will not receive forgiveness?
    - Those who refuse to obey the command to repent.
  - Now let’s read Jonah 3:6 - 4:2
    - What does the Lord demonstrate?
    - What is Jonah’s response?
    - What attributes does Jonah describe about the Lord?
    - He quotes Exodus 34:6
- So Joel and Jonah give us a consistent demonstration of who God will forgive and who he will by no means forgive.
  - He forgives those who truly repent, and He does not forgive those who refuse his offer of mercy.
visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.
- Is this not just a straight up injustice?
- Ezekiel 18:20 (someone read) “’The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son.’”
- Is this not a contradiction?
- Let’s look at the context, read Ez 18:19, the preceding verse: In Ezekiel the son does not follow in the footsteps of his father. He turns from his father’s sin.
- Let’s look at the same piece of dialogue that God had with Moses in Exodus 20:5
  - What do we see?
  - Another Jealous God reference
  - And it’s made clear that the sins of the father carry forward specifically of “those who hate Me [God]”.
- God does not hold the children accountable for the sins of their father.
  - What does he do?
  - He simply lets sins effects take their course, corrupting and infecting the children
  - UNLESS they come to repentance, whereupon His mercy is more, and there is healing.
  - We all know that the children of abusers are more likely to become abusers, the children of alcoholics are more likely to become alcoholics, it is a cycle which has to be broken.
  - Personal testimony of this
    - Tash’s parents divorced when she was a child
    - She carries hurt from that experience, which absolutely has at times put strain upon our relationship.
    - And it is only by God’s healing and mercy that that cycle has been broken.
    - Now the effects carry further than one generation, our children have to grow up in a world where Nana and Kulu aren’t married, which raises questions, but where there could have been a perpetuation of sin and pain, should Tash and I not be saved and the hurt been healed, and that have lead to divorce, the effects on our children are minimised, and they can learn from the situation rather than be the next in line for the cycle.

In answering these two questions we have unpacked the last section of God’s Name, ‘“who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation”’

God’s mercy and love within his own name

Okay, so we’ve resolved the potential internal issues within the Name, and in doing so we’ve revealed how He is Justice. Now, let’s look at how within the Name God gives Himself, He is Love and Mercy.

‘“יהוה יהוה a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin…” ‘

There are two extremes of people, on the one extreme we have those who believe that they are too far gone for God to save, and on the other end there are those who take their sin too lightly and believe that forgiveness is straightforward.

We need to be careful of either extreme, because the truth is so much more complex.

If we believe that we have outsinned God, then listen to the poem in this name.

Primer on Hebrew poetry, idea patterns, Mark uses a lot of these, the days of creation are written in two paralleling groups, the ten commandments are also written in two paralleling groups.
Lets put the first five points that God lists in a list with the third being the pivot point.

3. abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness
*2. slow to anger*	*4. keeping steadfast love for thousands*
*1. merciful and gracious*	*5. forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin*

Everything about these five points regarding God’s mercy is covered by the middle one, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. Then 1 and 5 are parallels, and 2 and 4 are parallels.

3. abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness

How is the third point, a covering over the others?
God’s infinite love slows His righteous anger and causes Him to be merciful and gracious, and on the other side it keeps his love steadfast for thousands, and flows down to forgiveness.

Does God need us to be infinitely loving?
Doesn’t love require more than one?

God is triune in His nature, God is the only being who can truly be loving all by Himself!
And yet He chooses to love us with a depth of love which we cannot comprehend.
We don’t fulfil some need of His to be Loving, He condescends to meet our needs!

2. slow to anger 4. keeping steadfast love for thousands

How do you think these two could be related?

He keeps on loving us. His love for us is perpetual.
And because He has perpetual love, His anger toward us is slow.
- That is a mercy, because what we deserve is to be blown away within moments of waking up each morning, because we are just that sinful.
- God has tolerated me for 39 and a half years (today, if we’re counting from birth instead of conception).
- That is slowness of anger because of his Love.

1. merciful and gracious 5. forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin