He chiseled two tablets of stone like the first; then Moses rose up early in the morning, and went up to Mount Sinai, as Yahweh had commanded him, and took in his hand two stone tablets. Yahweh descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed Yahweh’s name. Yahweh passed by before him, and proclaimed, “Yahweh! Yahweh, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness and truth, keeping loving kindness for thousands, forgiving iniquity and disobedience and sin; and who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and on the children’s children, on the third and on the fourth generation.”
Parallel Translations
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He chiseled two tablets of stone like the first; then Moses rose up early in the morning, and went up to Mount Sinai, as Yahweh had commanded him, and took in his hand two stone tablets.
Yahweh descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed Yahweh’s name.
Yahweh passed by before him, and proclaimed, “Yahweh! Yahweh, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness and truth,
keeping loving kindness for thousands, forgiving iniquity and disobedience and sin; and who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and on the children’s children, on the third and on the fourth generation.”
-
And he hewed two tables of stone like unto the first; and Moses rose up early in the morning, and went up unto mount Sinai, as the LORD had commanded him, and took in his hand the two tables of stone.
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.
Show all 3 translations
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And he hewed two tables of stone like unto the first; and Moses rose up early in the morning, and went up unto mount Sinai, as the LORD had commanded him, and took in his hand two tables of stone.
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, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth;
keeping mercy unto the thousandth generation, 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 unto the fourth generation.'
Examined in Scripture Analysis
Contradictions (2)
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Cross-references (72)
- Psalms 86:15 (vv6–7) But you, Lord, are a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness and truth.
- Joel 2:13 (v6) Tear your heart, and not your garments, and turn to Yahweh, your God; for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in…
- Psalms 103:8-13 (v6) Yahweh is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness. He will not always accuse; neither will he stay angry…
- Psalms 145:8 (v6) Yahweh is gracious, merciful, slow to anger, and of great loving kindness.
- Nehemiah 9:17 (v6) and refused to obey. They weren’t mindful of your wonders that you did among them, but hardened their neck, and in their rebellion…
Show all 70 cross-references
- Jonah 4:2 (v6) He prayed to Yahweh, and said, “Please, Yahweh, wasn’t this what I said when I was still in my own country? Therefore I hurried to flee to…
- Numbers 14:17-19 (v6) Now please let the power of the Lord be great, according as you have spoken, saying, ‘Yahweh is slow to anger, and abundant in loving…
- Psalms 86:5 (v6) For you, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, abundant in loving kindness to all those who call on you.
- 2 Chronicles 30:9 (v6) For if you turn again to Yahweh, your brothers and your children will find compassion before those who led them captive, and will come…
- Micah 7:18 (vv6–7) Who is a God like you, who pardons iniquity, and passes over the disobedience of the remnant of his heritage? He doesn’t retain his anger…
- Deuteronomy 5:10 (v6) and showing loving kindness to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
- Ephesians 1:7-8 (v6) in whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he made to…
- Exodus 20:5-6 (v7) you shall not bow yourself down to them, nor serve them, for I, Yahweh your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on…
- Psalms 138:2 (v6) I will bow down toward your holy temple, and give thanks to your Name for your loving kindness and for your truth; for you have exalted…
- Psalms 116:5 (v6) Yahweh is Gracious and righteous. Yes, our God is merciful.
- Psalms 108:4 (v6) For your loving kindness is great above the heavens. Your faithfulness reaches to the skies.
- Romans 2:4 (v6) Or do you despise the riches of his goodness, forbearance, and patience, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?
- Psalms 103:3 (v7) who forgives all your sins, who heals all your diseases,
- Deuteronomy 5:9-10 (v7) You shall not bow yourself down to them, nor serve them; for I, Yahweh your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on…
- Psalms 111:4 (v6) He has caused his wonderful works to be remembered. Yahweh is gracious and merciful.
- Psalms 57:10 (v6) For your great loving kindness reaches to the heavens, and your truth to the skies.
- Exodus 3:13-16 (v6) Moses said to God, “Behold, when I come to the children of Israel, and tell them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they…
- Exodus 22:27 (v6) for that is his only covering, it is his garment for his skin. What would he sleep in? It will happen, when he cries to me, that I will…
- Psalms 112:4 (v6) Light dawns in the darkness for the upright, gracious, merciful, and righteous.
- Micah 7:20 (v6) You will give truth to Jacob, and mercy to Abraham, as you have sworn to our fathers from the days of old.
- Ephesians 1:7 (v7) in whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,
- 1 John 1:9 (v7) If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us the sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
- Numbers 14:18-23 (v7) ‘Yahweh is slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, forgiving iniquity and disobedience; and he will by no means clear the guilty,…
- Lamentations 3:23 (v6) They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness.
- Nahum 1:2-3 (v7) Yahweh is a jealous God and avenges. Yahweh avenges and is full of wrath. Yahweh takes vengeance on his adversaries, and he maintains wrath…
- Jeremiah 32:18 (v7) You show loving kindness to thousands, and repay the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them. The great, the…
- Exodus 33:19 (v5) He said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim Yahweh’s name before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be…
- Psalms 130:4 (v7) But there is forgiveness with you, therefore you are feared.
- John 1:17 (v6) For the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.
- Job 10:14 (v7) if I sin, then you mark me. You will not acquit me from my iniquity.
- Daniel 9:9 (v7) To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgiveness; for we have rebelled against him.
- Exodus 33:9 (v5) When Moses entered into the Tent, the pillar of cloud descended, stood at the door of the Tent, and Yahweh spoke with Moses.
- Numbers 11:25 (v5) Yahweh came down in the cloud, and spoke to him, and took of the Spirit that was on him, and put it on the seventy elders. When the Spirit…
- Luke 9:34-35 (v5) While he said these things, a cloud came and overshadowed them, and they were afraid as they entered into the cloud. A voice came out of…
- Romans 3:19-26 (v7) Now we know that whatever things the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be closed, and all the world…
- Romans 4:7-8 (v7) “Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whom the Lord will by no means charge with sin.”
- Ephesians 4:32 (v7) And be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving each other, just as God also in Christ forgave you.
- Exodus 23:7 (v7) “Keep far from a false charge, and don’t kill the innocent and righteous; for I will not justify the wicked.
- Numbers 11:17 (v5) I will come down and talk with you there. I will take of the Spirit which is on you, and will put it on them; and they shall bear the…
- Psalms 91:4 (v6) He will cover you with his feathers. Under his wings you will take refuge. His faithfulness is your shield and rampart.
- Hebrews 12:29 (v7) for our God is a consuming fire.
- Nehemiah 1:5 (v7) and said, “I beg you, Yahweh, the God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps covenant and loving kindness with those who love him…
- Nehemiah 9:32 (v7) Now therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who keeps covenant and loving kindness, don’t let all the travail seem…
- Psalms 102:21 (v5) that men may declare Yahweh’s name in Zion, and his praise in Jerusalem;
- Proverbs 18:10 (v5) Yahweh’s name is a strong tower: the righteous run to him, and are safe.
- Daniel 9:4 (v7) I prayed to Yahweh my God, and made confession, and said, “Oh, Lord, the great and dreadful God, who keeps covenant and loving kindness…
- Nahum 1:6 (v7) Who can stand before his indignation? Who can endure the fierceness of his anger? His wrath is poured out like fire, and the rocks are…
- Romans 5:20-21 (v6) The law came in that the trespass might abound; but where sin abounded, grace abounded more exceedingly; that as sin reigned in death, even…
- Romans 9:22-23 (v7) What if God, willing to show his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction,…
- Exodus 19:18 (v5) All of Mount Sinai smoked, because Yahweh descended on it in fire; and its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole…
- Deuteronomy 32:3 (v5) For I will proclaim Yahweh’s name. Ascribe greatness to our God!
- Isaiah 1:10 (v5) Hear Yahweh’s word, you rulers of Sodom! Listen to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah!
- Acts 5:31 (v7) God exalted him with his right hand to be a Prince and a Savior, to give repentance to Israel, and remission of sins.
- Acts 13:38 (v7) Be it known to you therefore, brothers, that through this man is proclaimed to you remission of sins,
- Romans 2:4-9 (v7) Or do you despise the riches of his goodness, forbearance, and patience, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? But…
- Numbers 14:17 (v5) Now please let the power of the Lord be great, according as you have spoken, saying,
- Joshua 24:19 (v7) Joshua said to the people, “You can’t serve Yahweh, for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God. He will not forgive your disobedience nor…
- 1 Kings 8:10-12 (v5) It came to pass, when the priests had come out of the holy place, that the cloud filled Yahweh’s house, so that the priests could not stand…
- Exodus 23:21 (v7) Pay attention to him, and listen to his voice. Don’t provoke him, for he will not pardon your disobedience, for my name is in him.
- Deuteronomy 32:35 (v7) Vengeance is mine, and recompense, at the time when their foot slides; for the day of their calamity is at hand. Their doom rushes at them.”
- Psalms 9:16-17 (v7) Yahweh has made himself known. He has executed judgment. The wicked is snared by the work of his own hands. The wicked shall be turned back…
- Psalms 11:5-6 (v7) Yahweh examines the righteous, but his soul hates the wicked and him who loves violence. On the wicked he will rain blazing coals; fire,…
- Psalms 31:19 (v6) Oh how great is your goodness, which you have laid up for those who fear you, which you have worked for those who take refuge in you,…
- Micah 6:11 (v7) Shall I be pure with dishonest scales, and with a bag of deceitful weights?
- Revelation 20:15 (v7) If anyone was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire.
70 distinct cross-references across this passage (72 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (20 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv4, 6, 7 Or, polished.
Or, polished.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv4–7 Exo 34:4 And he hewed two tables of stone…
Exo 34:4 And he hewed two tables of stone like unto the first; and Moses rose up early in the morning, and went up unto mount Sinai, as the LORD had commanded him, and took in his hand the two tables of stone.
Ver. 4. And he hewed two tables.] Moses hewed them. The first tables were hewn out of the sapphire of the throne of God’s glory, say the Jewish doctors.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv5–7 In the cloud; in the cloudy pillar, which ordinarily…
In the cloud; in the cloudy pillar, which ordinarily stood up in the air above the mount, but came down to the top of it when God spake with Moses. See Exo 33:9; Num 11:17,25.
Stood with him there, to wit, in the mount, Exo 34:2,4, and the clift of a rock, Exo 33:22, which was in the mount, and near the top of it, as appears by comparing these places together.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v5 No sooner had Moses got to the top of…
No sooner had Moses got to the top of the mount than God gave him the meeting (Exo 34:5): The Lord descended, by some sensible token of his presence, and manifestation of his glory. His descending bespeaks his condescension; he humbles himself to take cognizance of those that humble themselves to walk with him. Psa 113:6, Lord, what is man, that he should be thus visited? He descended in the cloud, probably that pillar of cloud which had hitherto gone before Israel, and had the day before met Moses at the door of the tabernacle. This cloud was to strike an awe upon Moses, that the familiarity he was admitted to might not breed contempt. The disciples feared, when they entered the cloud. His making a cloud his pavilion intimated that, though he made known much of himself, yet there was much more concealed. Now observe,
I. How God proclaimed his name (Exo 33:6, Exo 33:7): he did it in transitu - as he passed by him. Fixed views of God are reserved for the future state; the best we have in this world are transient. God now was performing what he had promised Moses, the day before, that his glory should pass by, Exo 33:22. He proclaimed the name of the Lord, by which he would make himself known. He had made himself known to Moses in the glory of his self-existence and self-sufficiency when he proclaimed that name, I am that I am; now he makes himself known in the glory of his grace, and goodness, and all-sufficiency to us. Now that God is about to publish a second edition of the law he prefaces it with this proclamation; for it is God's grace or goodness that gives the law, especially the remedial law. The pardon of Israel's sin in worshipping the calf was now to pass the seals; and God, by this declaration, would let them know that he pardoned ex mero motu - merely out of his own good pleasure, not for their merits' sake, but from his own inclination to forgive. The proclaiming of it denotes the universal extent of God's mercy. He is not only good to Israel, but good to all; let all take notice of it. He that hath an ear, let him hear, and know, and believe,
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1. That the God with whom we have to do is a great God. He is Jehovah, the Lord, who has his being of himself, and is the fountain of all being, Jehovah-El, the Lord, the strong God, a God of almighty power himself, and the original of all power This is prefixed before the display of his mercy, to teach us to think and to speak even of God's grace and goodness with great seriousness and a holy awe, and to encourage us to depend upon these mercies; they are not the mercies of a man, that is frail and feeble, false and fickle, but the mercies of the Lord, the Lord God; therefore sure mercies, and sovereign mercies, mercies that may be trusted, but not tempted.
2. That he is a good God. His greatness and goodness illustrate and set off each other. That the terror of his greatness may not make us afraid, we are told how good he is; and, that we may not presume upon his goodness, we are told how great he is. Many words are here heaped up, to acquaint us with, and convince us of, God's goodness, and to show how much his goodness is both his glory and his delight, yet without any tautology. (1.) He is merciful. This bespeaks his tender compassion, like that of a father to his children. This is put first, because it is the first wheel in all the instances of God's good-will to fallen man, whose misery makes him an object of pity, Jdg 10:16; Isa 63:9. Let us not then have either hard thoughts of God or hard hearts towards our brethren. (2.) He is gracious. This bespeaks both freeness and kindness; it intimates not only that he has a compassion to his creatures, but a complacency in them and in doing good to them, and this of his own good-will, and not for the sake of any thing in them. His mercy is grace, free grace; this teaches us to be not only pitiful, but courteous, Pe1 3:8. (3.) He is long-suffering. This is a branch of God's goodness which the wickedness of sinners gives occasion for; that of Israel had done so: they had tried his patience, and experienced it. He is long-suffering, that is, he is slow to anger, and delays the execution of his justice; he waits to be gracious, and lengthens out the offers of his mercy. (4.) He is abundant in goodness and truth. This bespeaks plentiful goodness, goodness abounding above our deserts, above our conception and expression. The springs of mercy are always full, the streams of mercy always flowing; there is mercy enough in God, enough for all, enough for each, enough for ever. It bespeaks promised goodness, goodness and truth put together, goodness engaged by promise, and his faithfulness pledged for the security of it. He not only does good, but by his promise he raises our expectation of it, and even binds himself to show mercy. (5.) He keepeth mercy for thousands. This denotes, [1.] Mercy extended to thousands of persons. When he gives to some, still he keeps for others, and is never exhausted; he has mercy enough for all the thousands of Israel, when they shall multiply as the sand. [2.] Mercy entailed upon thousands of generations, even those upon whom the ends of the world have come; nay, the line of it is drawn parallel with that of eternity itself. (6.) He forgiveth iniquity, transgression, and sin. Pardoning mercy is specified, because in this divine grace is most magnified, and because in this divine grace is most magnified, and because it is this which opens the door to all other gifts of his divine grace, and because of this he had lately given a very pregnant proof. He forgives offences of all sorts - iniquity, transgression, and sin, multiplies his pardons; and with him is plenteous redemption.
3. That he is a just and holy God. For, (1.) He will by no means clear the guilty. Some read it so as to express a mitigation of wrath, even when he does punish: When he empties, he will not make quite desolate; that is, "He does not proceed to the greatest extremity, till there be no remedy." As we read it, we must expound it that he will by no means connive at the guilty, as if he took no notice of their sin. Or, he will not clear the impenitently guilty, that go on still in their trespasses: he will not clear the guilty without some satisfaction to his justice, and necessary vindications of the honour of his government. (2.) He visits the iniquity of the fathers upon the children. He may justly do it, for all souls are his, and there is a malignity in sin that taints the blood. He sometimes will do it, especially for the punishment of idolaters. Thus he shows his hatred to sin, and displeasure against it; yet he keepeth not his anger for ever, but visits to the third and fourth generation only, while he keepeth his mercy for thousands. Well, this is God's name for ever, and this is his memorial unto all generations.
II. How Moses received this declaration which God made of himself, and of his grace and mercy. It should seem as if Moses accepted this as a sufficient answer to his request that God would show him his glory; for we read not that he went into the cleft of the rock, whence to gain a sight of God's back parts. Perhaps this satisfied him, and he desired no more; as we read not that Thomas did thrust his hand into Christ's side, though Christ invited him to do it. God having thus proclaimed his name, Moses says, "It is enough, I expect no more till I come to heaven;" at least he did not think fit to relate what he saw. Now we are here told,
1. What impression it made upon him: Moses made haste, and bowed his head, Exo 34:8. Thus he expressed, (1.) His humble reverence and adoration of God's glory, giving him the honour due to that name he had thus proclaimed. Even the goodness of God must be looked upon by us with a profound veneration and holy awe. (2.) His joy in this discovery which God had made of himself, and his thankfulness for it. We have reason gratefully to acknowledge God's goodness to us, not only in the real instances of it, but in the declarations he has made of it by his word; not only that he is, and will be, gracious to us, but that he is pleased to let us know it. (3.) His holy submission to the will of God, made known in this declaration, subscribing to his justice as well as mercy, and putting himself and his people Israel under the government and direction of such a God as Jehovah had now proclaimed himself to be. Let this God be our God for ever and ever.
2. What improvement he made of it. He immediately grounded a prayer upon it (Exo 34:9); and a more earnest affectionate prayer it is, (1.) For the presence of God with his people Israel in the wilderness: "I pray thee, go among us, for thy presence is all in all to our safety and success." (2.) For pardon of sin: "O pardon our iniquity and our sin, else we cannot expect thee to go among us." And, (3.) For the privileges of a peculiar people: "Take us for thy inheritance, which thou wilt have a particular eye to, and concern for, and delight in." These things God had already promised, and given Moses assurances of, and yet he prays for them, not as doubting the sincerity of God's grants, but as one solicitous for the ratification of them. God's promises are intended, not to supersede, but to direct and encourage, prayer. Those who have some good hopes, through grace, that their sins are pardoned, must yet continue to pray for pardon, for the renewing of their pardon, and the clearing of it more and more to their souls. The more we see of God's goodness the more ashamed we should be of our own sins, and the more earnest for an interest in it. God had said, in the close of the proclamation, that he would visit the iniquity upon the children; and Moses here deprecates that. "Lord, do not only pardon it to them, but to their children, and let our covenant-relation to thee be entailed upon our posterity, as an inheritance." Thus Moses, like a man of a truly public spirit, intercedes even for the children that should be born. But it is a strange plea he urges: For it is a stiff-necked people. God had given this as a reason why he would not go along with them, Exo 33:3. "Yea," says Moses, "the rather go along with us; for the worse they are the more need they have of thy presence and grace to make them better." Moses sees them so stiff-necked that, for his part, he has neither patience nor power enough to deal with them. "Therefore, Lord, do thou go among us, else they will never be kept in awe. Thou wilt spare, and bear with them, for thou art God, and not man," Hos 11:9.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv4–7 And he hewed two tables of stone like unto…
And he hewed two tables of stone like unto the first,.... Which may be an emblem of the ministry of men, which God makes use of in hewing of his people, and bringing them to a sense of their sins, the breach of his law, and repentance for them, Hos 6:5,
and Moses rose up early in the morning: which, according to the Jews (g), was the twenty ninth of Ab or July, which showed his ready and cheerful obedience to the divine will, and the quick dispatch he had made in hewing the tables; which whether he did with his own hands only, or made use of others whom he directed, is not very material; though the phrase "hew thee", or "hew unto thee", seems as if he were to do it himself, and not another:
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and went up unto Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him; which was the third time of his going there, and every time he continued forty days and forty nights, as Aben Ezra observes, see Deu 9:18,
and took in his hand the two tables of stone; which could not be very thick and heavy to carry in one hand up a mountain, but must be a sort of marble slab or slate: at this same time an ark was ordered to be made, and was made, to put the tables into, which was a type of Christ, the fulfilling end of the law for righteousness, Deu 10:1.
(g) Seder Olam Rabba, c. 6. p. 19.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv5–6 The Lord descended - By some sensible token of…
The Lord descended - By some sensible token of his presence, and manifestation of his glory. He descended in the cloud - Probably that pillar of cloud which had hitherto gone before Israel, and had the day before met Moses at the door of the tabernacle.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv6–7 Verse 6. And the Lord passed by - and…
Verse 6. And the Lord passed by - and proclaimed, The Lord, c.] It would be much better to read this verse thus: "And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed JEHOVAH," that is, showed Moses fully what was implied in this august name. Moses had requested God to show him his glory, (see the preceding chapter, Ex 33:18,) and God promised to proclaim or fully declare the name JEHOVAH, (Ex 33:19) by which proclamation or interpretation Moses should see how God would "be gracious to whom he would be gracious," and how he would "be merciful to those to whom he would show mercy. Here therefore God fulfils that promise by proclaiming this name. It has long been a question, what is the meaning of the word יהוה JEHOVAH, Yehovah, Yehue, Yehveh, or Yeve, Jeue, Jao, Iao, Jhueh, and Jove; for it has been as variously pronounced as it has been differently interpreted. Some have maintained that it is utterly inexplicable; these of course have offered no mode of interpretation. Others say that it implies the essence of the Divine nature. Others, that it expresses the doctrine of the Trinity connected with the incarnation; the letter י yod standing for the Father, ה he for the Son, and ו vau (the connecting particle) for the Holy Spirit: and they add that the ה he being repeated in the word, signifies the human nature united to the Divine in the incarnation. These speculations are calculated to give very little satisfaction. How strange is it that none of these learned men have discovered that God himself interprets this name in Ex 34:6,! "And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed יהוה YEHOVAH the LORD GOD, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, 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." These words contain the proper interpretation of the venerable and glorious name JEHOVAH. But it will be necessary to consider them in detail.
The different names in this and the following verse have been considered as so many attributes of the Divine nature. Commentators divide them into eleven, thus: -
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1. יהוה JEHOVAH.
2. אל EL, the strong or mighty God.
3. רחום RACHUM, the merciful Being, who is full of tenderness and compassion.
4. חנון CHANNUN, the gracious One; he whose nature is goodness itself; the loving God.
5. ארך אפים ERECH APPAYIM, long-suffering; the Being who, because of his goodness and tenderness, is not easily irritated, but suffers long and is kind.
6. רב RAB, the great or mighty One.
7. חסד CHESED, the bountiful Being; he who is exuberant in his beneficence.
8. אמת EMETH, the truth or true One; he alone who can neither deceive nor be deceived, who is the fountain of truth, and from whom all wisdom and knowledge must be derived.
9. נצר חסד NOTSER CHESED, the preserver of bountifulness; he whose beneficence never ends, keeping mercy for thousands of generations, showing compassion and mercy while the world endures.
10. נשא עון ופשע וחטאה NOSE avon vaphesha vechattaah, he who bears away iniquity and transgression and sin: properly, the REDEEMER, the Pardoner, the Forgiver; the Being whose prerogative alone it is to forgive sin and save the soul. ינקה(לו) נקה לא NAKKEH lo yenakkeh, the righteous Judge, who distributes justice with an impartial hand, with whom no innocent person can ever be condemned. And,
11. פקד עון POKED avon, c. he who visits iniquity, who punishes transgressors, and from whose justice no sinner can escape. The God of retributive and vindictive justice.
These eleven attributes, as they have been termed, are all included in the name JEHOVAH, and are, as we have before seen, the proper interpretation of it; but the meaning of several of these words has been variously understood.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv5–6 Exo 34:5. The Lord descended — By some sensible…
Exo 34:5. The Lord descended — By some sensible token of his presence, and manifestation of his glory. He descended in the cloud — Probably that pillar of cloud which had hitherto gone before Israel, and had the day before met Moses at the door of the tabernacle.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On v6 This was the second revelation of the name of…
This was the second revelation of the name of the God of Israel to Moses. The first revelation was of Yahweh as the self-existent One, who purposed to deliver His people with a mighty hand Exo 3:14; this was of the same Yahweh as a loving Saviour who was now forgiving their sins. The two ideas that mark these revelations are found combined, apart from their historical development, in the second commandment, where the divine unity is shown on its practical side, in its relation to human obligations (compare Exo 34:14; Exo 20:4). Both in the commandment and in this passage, the divine love is associated with the divine justice; but in the former there is a transposition to serve the proper purpose of the commandments, and the justice stands before the love. This is strictly the legal arrangement, brought out in the completed system of the ceremonial law, in which the sin-offering, in acknowledgment of the sentence of justice against sin, was offered before the burnt-offering and the peace-offering. But in this place the truth appears in its essential order; the retributive justice of Yahweh is subordinated to, rather it is made a part of, His forgiving Love (see Exo 32:14 note). The visitation of God, whatever form it may wear, is in all ages the working out purposes of Love toward His children. The diverse aspects of the divine nature, to separate which is the tendency of the unregenerate mind of man and of all paganism, are united in perfect harmony in the Lord Yahweh, of whom the saying is true in all its length and breadth, “God is love” 1Jo 4:8. It was the sense of this, in the degree to which it was now revealed to him, that caused Moses to bow his head and worship Exo 34:8. But the perfect revelation of the harmony was reserved for the fulness of time when “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” Rev 13:8 was made known to us in the flesh as both our Saviour and our Judge.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv6–7 He said. Some refer this to Moses; others, more…
He said. Some refer this to Moses; others, more probably, to God, who had promised, by this signal of the name of the Lord, to testify his presence. (Calmet) --- The angel addresses God in this manner, while Moses lies concealed in the rock, covered with the hand or cloud of God’s representative. (Haydock) --- Of the eleven attributes here claimed by God, three regard his essence, six his mercy, and the last two his justice. (Calmet)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv4–6 Moses . . . took in his hand the…
Moses . . . took in his hand the two tables of stone--As Moses had no attendant to divide the labor of carrying them, it is evident that they must have been light, and of no great dimensions--probably flat slabs of shale or slate, such as abound in the mountainous region of Horeb. An additional proof of their comparatively small size appears in the circumstance of their being deposited in the ark of the most holy place (Exo 25:10).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv5–6 5. Descended… stood… proclaimed — There was also, according…
5. Descended… stood… proclaimed — There was also, according to the next verse, a movement of the sublime theophany as of one passing by. This was the fulfilment of the promise recorded in Exo_33:19-23, and was, says Clarke, “the second revelation of the name of the God of Israel to Moses. The first revelation was of Jehovah as the Self-existent One, who purposed to deliver his people with a mighty hand, (Exo_3:14;) this was of the same Jehovah as a living Saviour, who was now forgiving their sins. The two ideas that mark these revelations are found combined, apart from their historical development, in the second commandment, (Exo_20:5-6,) where the divine unity is shown on its practical side, in its relation to human obligations. Both in the commandment and in this passage the divine love is associated with the divine justice; but in the former there is a transposition to serve the proper purpose of the commandments, and the justice stands before the love. This is strictly the legal arrangement, brought out in the completed system of the ceremonial law, in which the sin offering, in acknowledgment of the sentence of justice against sin, was offered before the burnt offering and the peace offering. But in this place the truth appears in its essential order; the retributive justice of Jehovah is subordinated to — rather, it is made a part of — his forgiving love.” — Speaker’s Commentary.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv5–7 5. and he (Moses) took his stand (cf. v.…
5. and he (Moses) took his stand (cf. v. 2) with him there, and called upon the name of Jehovah] i.e. invoked Him in worship. The marg. must be followed: the subject of the verbs is Moses (see Exo_33:21). The sequel follows in v. 10. Called upon is lit. ‘called with,’ i.e. used the name in invocation: so Gen_4:26; Gen_12:8; Gen_13:4; Gen_21:33 al.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv5–6 (5) The Lord descended in the cloud.—When Moses ceased…
(5) The Lord descended in the cloud.—When Moses ceased to commune with God, the cloud removed from the door of the “Tent of Meeting,” and, as it would seem, disappeared. On Moses reaching the summit of Sinai it once more became visible, “descended” on the spot where Moses was, and “stood with him there.”
And proclaimed the name of the Lord.—Comp. Exo_33:19; and for the terms of the proclamation see Exo_34:6-7.
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MOSES ALLOWED TO SEE GOD’S GLORY.
(5-8) The present ascent of Moses to the top of Sinai had two objects:—(1) The repair of the loss occasioned by his breaking the first tables; and (2) the accomplishment of the promise made to him that (under certain restrictions) he should “see God’s glory.” Combined with this promise were two minor ones—that God would make His “goodness” pass before him, and that He would reveal to him afresh His name. The revelation of the name is recorded in Exo_34:6-7, the manifestation of the glory in Exo_34:5. How Moses was enabled to see God’s goodness pass before him is not stated. (Comp. Note on Exo_33:19.)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv4–6 Moses obeys all the directions given him to the…
Moses obeys all the directions given him to the letter hews, or causes to be hewn, the two tables, making them as like as he can to the former ones rises early, and ascends the mountain to the appointed spot and takes with him the tables, for God to perform his promise (ver. 1)of writing the commandments upon them. It has been questioned whether God did actually write the words upon the second tables; but Kurtz"s arguments upon the point are unanswerable. (History of the Old Covenant, vol. 3. p. 186, E. T.)
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On v6 The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious.
Exo_34:6-7
The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious.
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The name of the Lord
I. the Lord. There we lay our basis. Unless you are prepared to admit the perfect sovereignty of God, you can go no further--you will see no more.
II. Then we put it in combination--the Lord God. And oh! what a combination! We put all sovereignty with all the mystery of the Godhead--God, that unfathomable word. But amongst all those wondrous attributes which go to make the word God, there is one stands out--that name leads us to it. The root of the word is kindness--God, the good. The Lord the good; the Lord--love; God. We put the infinitude of His sovereignty in combination with the boundlessness of His affection, and we say, The Lord, the Lord God.
III. But now we come to the goings forth of that wonderful mystery of Godhead to man--mercy. You know that the strict meaning of the word mercy is--a heart for misery. Therefore the first thought is--the great Lord God stooping to the wretched, going forth to the miserable.
IV. And why merciful? Because gracious. Grace is the free flowing of undeserved favour.
V. long-suffering! It is the most marvellous part of the character of God--His patience--it is so contrasting with the impetuosity, the haste, the impulsiveness of man. He is provoked every day, but He continues patient.
VI. Now it rises--abundant in goodness and truth. Abundant is enough and something over--a cup so full that it mantles--abundant, abundant in--
VII. goodness, and--
VIII. truth.
IX. keeping mercy for thousands. There are thousands who do not yet see or feel their mercy, for whom God is now keeping it in reserve--say, persons not yet converted.
X. Forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. We are getting all the more now into the work of Christ. And what distinction shall we make between iniquity, transgression, and sin? Is iniquity acts of injustice to a fellow-creature--and transgression acts of injustice towards God--and sin, the deep root of all in the human heart? Or is it thus? Is iniquity that principle of all wrongness, the want of uprightness, the acting unfairly by God or man;--and then transgression the act, whether it be to God or man, to God through man, transgression,--and then sin again the inner nature from which that transgression, which makes that iniquity, springs. I think that is the true intention--iniquity, transgression, sin. But He pardons all.
XI. by no means clear the guilty. The word guilty is not in the original--by no means clear. Whom? He will not clear any one whom He has not pardoned. Guilty means a man still subject to wrath. If a man does not accept Christ, he is still subject to wrath--that man God will never clear.
XII. And then comes that very difficult part--that he visits the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the childrens children, unto the third and to the fourth generation. It seems to me to be an ever-standing visible proof and monument of Gods holiness and justice. He visits sin from generation to generation. There are inherited dispensations, inherited calamities. Is it unjust? It is the principle of the greatest justice that we read of in the history of this world. For the atonement all depends upon that principle. If God does visit the sin of one in the sufferings of another, has not He also laid it down that He visits the righteousness of one in the happiness and the eternal salvation of another? And did we do away with that principle, where would be our hope? (J. Vaughan, M. A.)
Gods mercy
I. What the mercy of god is.
1. That perfection whereby He assists His creatures in misery (Lam_3:22).
2. His mercy is infinitely great (Psa_145:8).
3. He is the Fountain and Father of mercy (2Co_1:3).
II. To whom God is generally and especially merciful.
1. To mankind in general (Psa_145:9).
2. He continues life notwithstanding our sins (Psa_86:13).
3. In delivering out of troubles (Psa_107:13).
4. In granting all the necessaries of life (Mat_5:45).
5. Especially is He merciful to His people (Deu_32:43).
6. In pardoning all their sins (Heb_8:12).
7. In quickening them to newness of life (Eph_2:4-5).
8. In assisting us to exercise all true grace (1Co_7:25).
9. Support under spiritual troubles (Psa_94:17-19).
10. Blessing troubles for our good (Heb_12:10).
11. Bringing to heaven at last (Tit_3:8).
III. The uses that are to be made of Gods mercy.
1. Not to abuse it to licentiousness (Rom_6:1-2).
2. We should be merciful to others (Luk_6:36).
3. Pardoning their injuries, pitying their miseries, and relieving their necessities (Gal_6:10).
4. We must attribute all our blessings to the mercy of God towards us (Psa_115:1).
5. This should teach us to love Him (Psa_106:1).
6. Cause us to fear Him (Psa_103:11).
7. And induce us to praise Him (Psa_103:2-4).
8. Gods mercies are greater than our miseries (1Jn_4:4).
9. They are sealed to us by Christs blood (Heb_12:24).
10. His mercy is only known by the influence of the Holy Spirit (Eph_1:13-14). (T. B. Baker.)
The unveiled mystery of God
There is in man a yearning after the unseen. Every one feels, even if he will not confess it, that another world lies, after all, behind this one. But the world of spirits is twofold--the kingdom of the powers of darkness below, and the kingdom of light in heaven. In man there is by nature a secret drawing to that which is below. There is the dark point of sin in us which draws us downward. Whoever follows this drawing goes to destruction. But there is in man another drawing--a drawing to light, a drawing to God. For we were made for Him. But although we have separated ourselves from Him, He has not altogether given up His connection with us. He who would paint God, must paint love--a fire of love which fills heaven and earth. But who can comprehend and describe this boundless and endless love? It has collected itself, and given itself a bodily form, in order to reveal itself to us. The heart of God has opened itself up to us--eternal love has revealed itself to us in Christ Jesus. But it is not in the New Testament that this is revealed for the first time. It is as old as the revelation of Gods eternal counsel of love. Even in the Old Testament Christ is contained, although in type and prophecy. There is darkness round about God, He is veiled in mystery, no mortal man beholds His countenance and lives; the eyes of Moses are holden by Jehovah, whilst He passes by him. But a word falls upon his ear: in this word God pronounces His nature, and this word runs thus--God is love. That is the unveiled mystery of God. Let us then consider this unveiled mystery in the threefold way in which our text sets it before our eyes.
I. In the direction of life. God orders the vast and disposes of the most isolated object. That is just His greatness--attention in what is little. But how often are our ways and Gods direction of our life a mystery to us! That He leads us happily and blessedly, we believe, although what we see often appears to us to be strange. Yet we shall one day stand upon the heights of light and look back upon our dark paths in the valley, and they will be light, and our understanding will give its judgment in the praise of love. That is the unveiled mystery of God in the direction of life.
II. We will consider this unveiled mystery in the forgiveness of sin. For our life is full of sins and guilt. The termination of our life is the seal of the forgiveness of sins. We bear the law of God written on our hearts. But our sin has broken it. We are sorry; we should like to be pious and holy. Hence we come and present ourselves before God with new resolutions: from henceforth it shall be otherwise with us. But how long does it continue till it is as before? It will not come to a really new life. We amend there and then; but our moral life remains at all times a wearying work, and never becomes a free, joyful matter, which is understood of itself--which gushes and streams fresh and gladly out of the heart. Whence is this? The failing is in the foundation. God must make such an impression upon us as to win our hearts, and to make it impossible for us to do other than love Him. By what means does God make such an impression upon us? Not by His infinite greatness and majesty, but by His gracious love. We love Him because He has first loved us (1Jn_4:19). And what love is that? It is Gods pardoning love: not the love manifested in the displays of His goodness, in His anxiety for our earthly life. This humbles us, but it does not yet touch our innermost being. The innermost point in us, where we are connected with God, is the conscience. And just here we feel ourselves separated from God. Here we must experience the love of God: that is His forgiving love. But this is the right foundation of all moral work.
III. We will consider this unveiled mystery in covenant fellowship. The covenant of God with Israel rests on the forgiveness of sins. God dwells in the midst of them, He is their God and they are His people, and He leads them on their way, and He brings them to the goal. He thus reveals Himself to them as a covenant God. But all this is only a prophecy of the covenant of God with us in Christ Jesus. This rests on the true, real forgiveness of sins. But all this is but the commencement of the completion. We wait for the fulfilment of the promise. In hope, the abode yonder is already here. But we are not yet yonder. We are still on our pilgrimage to the hall of blessedness. There for the first time will there be the right celebration of the covenant. (J. C. Luthardt, D. D.)
The moral nature of God
I. The form in which the revelation is made.
1. In the first place, it is given, not in the cold and formal terms of a merely ethical and philosophical system, but in its warm and sympathetic application to the needs of mans life. The profoundest truth is here implied. But the form of the declaration is simple, couched in the every-day speech of men, such as all men, in any and every condition, could easily and readily apprehend.
2. It is not only addressed to man upon the simplest side of his nature, but it sets in the very foreground of the Divine qualities those which have regard to mans sinfulness, and the need in which he stands, of tenderness, pity, and grace. What a recognition is this of the true state of the human heart! Gods revelation is no philosophy of the might have been, of the ought to be--dreamy, vague, hypothetic, and useless. But it is a practical dealing with what is. It takes man just as it finds him.
II. Now, let us inquire, what is the revelation which is thus made in so human and so gracious a form? God declares Himself to be merciful and gracious. By the first quality we understand pitifulness, a tenderness towards the weak and helpless, with an added sense of gentleness and forgiveness towards those that are not only weak but wicked, sinful as well as sad. And while God is this, it is all of favour, free and unmerited. He is gracious as well as merciful. But there are added qualities of mercy and grace beyond the mere broad and general fact of their possession. These might be of the Divine nature, and yet their exercise might be restrained within narrow and brief limits of occasion and duration. But God is longsuffering and abundant in goodness and truth. We must not forget that these qualities of Gods moral being are related, as we have said, to human conditions, especially that of sin, and in respect of that He is longsuffering. For man is not merely a sinner, but he perpetuates the sin, he continues sinning; he is alienated from God, and remains an alien, with hard and ever harder heart, going farther away, being less accessible, increasing his rebellion ever. And yet Gods mercy does not cease. He loses no patience. He waits and watches. And of this mercy and clemency no one need doubt the power or the sufficiency. God is declared further to be abundant in goodness and truth. Goodness is perhaps an attribute of wider reach than mercy, embracing mercy for the sinner and the wretched in the beneficent relation towards all whose welfare and happiness God ever seeks. Truth is that harmony of being upon which we may ever depend. It is order and peace, it is fidelity and changelessness--everything that renders trust in the truthful God a certain thing, not liable to disappointment, change, and decay. The emphasis, perhaps, is to be placed upon the word abundant. God has enough and to spare. Then, these are by no means quiescent, inoperative attributes of the Divine nature. Men often lose themselves and the clearness of their thoughts in mere abstract statements of the qualities of God, but in this declaration of Himself, Jehovah shows how practical is the revelation which He gives. Keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. The phrase keeping mercy for thousands is a striking one. The term thousands is indefinite, signifying a very large number. It may be used in contrast with the third and fourth generation of the following clause, and if so, it indicates that the mercy of God is preserved through all the ages of mankind, and remains perpetual and ceaseless, for the universal race for ever. The forgiveness, too, how full is this! It is not merely the single sin that is pardoned. The continued habit of sin, the formed and indurated character of evil, the strong and defiant wickedness, even these may find mercy and have experience of Gods pardoning grace. It is His prerogative. It is His nature. All this is based upon the most absolute justice and integrity of righteousness. He will by no means clear the guilty. The eternal claim of moral order must be recognized, and until guilt is purged and sin is destroyed, the sinner cannot be cleared. Let us, now, gather up the great truths of this sublime passage, and lay their meaning and their power to our hearts.
1. The revelation which God grants of Himself is in the sphere of moral being.
2. This moral aspect of Deity is in complete harmony with every other side of the Divine nature.
3. The moral being of God, as it is revealed, necessarily provides a satisfaction of its claims of justice and rectitude.
4. In this completeness of revelation there is an abundance of grace and mercy which is offered to all men. This, then, is the final truth which appears in the revelation of God. Let no man despair. (L. D. Bevan, D. D.)
Gods great goodness
I. The glory of God is His goodness. When Moses said, I beseech Thee, show me Thy glory, the Lord answered, I will make all My goodness pass before thee (Exo_33:18-19; Exo_34:6).
1. We see it in nature (Psa_33:5; Psa_145:9; Psa_65:11).
2. We see it in providence (1Ki_8:66; Psa_31:19; Zec_9:16-17).
3. We see it in grace (Eph_1:7; Psa_23:6; Jer_31:14).
II. The effect of Gods goodness upon the heart of man is meant to be.
1. Sorrow at having offended God (Rom_2:4; Job_42:5-6; Hos_3:5),
2. Delight in praising God (Psa_107:8; Isa_63:7).
3. Desire to receive Gods blessings (Num_6:24; Num_6:26; Mic_7:18-19).
4. A disposition to imitate Gods character (Luk_6:36; Eph_5:2; 1Jn_6:11). (Clergymans Magazine.)
Gods goodness
The late Dr. Samuel Martin, in a letter to a friend after Dr. Davidsons death, thus speaks of that pious and devoted man, whose memory is hallowed in the minds of all who knew him:--He studied divinity at Glasgow College. Thomas and I lived together, companions and fellow-students; and I, being some years older, was considered as a kind of guardian. On looking back to that period, in reviewing fully sixty years intercourse and friendship, I ever found in him, from first to last, genuine and unaffected piety, affection, benevolence, regular, exemplary, amiable deportment. I recollect, with pleasure, the family devotions of our little society. I well remember an exclamation, on one occasion, to me, after rising from prayer--a striking proof of his characteristic humility, gratitude, and tenderness of conscience, Oh, Martin, it is the Divine goodness, of all things, that humbles me most!
Gods forgiving mercy
I once visited the ruins of a noble city that had been built on a desert oasis. Mighty columns of roofless temples still stood in unbroken file. Halls in which kings and satraps had feasted two thousand years ago were represented by solitary walls. Gateways of richly carven stone led to a paradise of bats and owls. All was ruin! But past the dismantled city, brooks, which had once flowed through gorgeous flower-gardens, and at the foot of marble halls, still swept on in undying music and unwasted freshness. The waters were just as sweet as when queens quaffed them two thousand years ago. A few hours before they had been melted from the snows of the distant mountains. And so Gods forgiving love flows in ever-renewed form through the wreck of the past. Past vows and past covenants and noble purposes may be represented by solitary columns and broken arches and scattered foundations that are crumbling into dust, yet through the scene of ruin fresh grace is ever flowing from His great heart on high. (T. G. Selby.)
That will by no means clear the guilty.
God justified in mans salvation
I. Man thinks of God as if God were something like himself: and hence he would make God a changeable and capricious Being; he would make Him connive at sin and make light of transgression, accepting a few tears, or a few resolutions, or a few alms, as satisfaction enough for him to receive pardon. All such ideas of God are base and unwarrantable, and will cover those who entertain them with everlasting confusion. The nature of God makes it impossible for Him to clear the guilty. If the positive be true, that God loves holiness, the negative must be true, that He hates iniquity.
II. And now some will probably say, why, this is contravening the very gospel; it is surely favouring the notion that none can be saved, for who can be saved, when there is no guiltless man? And if God will not clear guilty men, how is any one to meet his Maker in peace? The view I have of it is this--that God does not clear the guilty; no, but I will tell you what He does, which is infinitely more to His glory, and of necessity more for our peace--He makes the guilty guiltless, and He makes the unrighteous perfect in righteousness. He does this in virtue of the life laid down for the guilty, for all who in Him have believed; in Him all have paid the penalty, all have satisfied Gods justice, and all have perfect righteousness. (H. Stowell, M. A.)
The guilty by no means cleared
I. What is to be understood by the Lord not clearing the guilty? When He pronounces the sentence of acquittal, it will be in full accordance with justice. And yet the basis of this worlds religion is nothing more than a belief that God will clear the guilty. What are all the delusions of self-righteous workings? what are all the endeavours to put off till a more convenient season comes? what is all the resting in ordinances, forms, and external things? Just a forgetfulness that God is a heart-searching God.
II. But now observe, why is it true that God will by no means clear the guilty? Everything in God forbids it. His very faithfulness renders it impossible. Now, faithfulness is part of the Divine goodness. What forms the real substance of our hope? that through Gods grace we shall be at last in heaven? God tells me, that he that believeth shall be saved; He tells me, that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses from all sin. What gives us confidence? Simply, Gods faithfulness--I believe it, because God says it. Take that away, and where is His goodness? It is no more. Now bear this in mind, that what gives stability to the promise gives stability to the threatening. The love of God is a holy love. Now the great cause of all misery is sin; and that which forbids sin is a holy love. Yes, and one may even say that the penalty, awful and fearful as it is, is one of the great unfoldings of His love.
Conclusion:
1. The subject has a very awful look, as it regards the sinner hardened in his trespasses. He will by no means clear the guilty ones.
2. The words are full of encouragement to the poor penitent spirit--He will by no mesons clear the guilty. Ah! you are ready to say, how can He clear me? I am all guilt. Thou never hadst any due conception of thine own guiltiness, and of what thy guiltiness is before God. Yet none at all hast thou. Why? Because it has all been transferred to Jesus. Because He has taken it and borne it away. He has endured it. He was not cleared, He endured the penalty.
3. How this truth should lead to--
(1) Confession of sin;
(2) holy service. (J. H. Evans, M. A.)
Union of justice and grace in God
Behold the goodness and severity of God, says the Apostle Paul. In most cases the goodness is illustrated by one kind of events and the severity by another, but in Christs work the same event of His death displayed the two sides of Gods character alike and at once, and thus pardon was never offered to the guilty without a loud protest against sin. Now the pains taken to inculcate both these qualities through the entire Scriptures seem to point at something in man, some conception of character which he needs to have impressed upon him and which he ought to realize in his own life.
I. And in pursuing this subject we remark, first, that among men he who is capable of exercising only hard, unrelenting justice is held to be far from perfection, and cannot be loved; while, on the other hand, a character in which bare kindness or goodness is the only noticeable trait secures no respect. Only where we see the two qualities united can we feel decided confidence and attachment. They do not check each other, as might be supposed, but add to each others power. The indiscriminately kind man is felt to be weak; the harsh rigorous nature may have intellect in abundance, but fails to warm the souls of men. When united they form character, a character in which there is depth, the depth of intellect resting below temper and impulse on a foundation of wisdom and true excellence of heart. There can be no moral government among men without wisdom, for he who makes men good must look not at immediate impressions, but at results: he must take long stretches of time into view, and long series and interactions of causes shaping character. When did instinctive benevolence ever fail to thwart its own wishes and to corrupt its beneficiaries? The union of these opposites, where alone wisdom can be found, ensures the best government, and as every one must be in some way a governor, of a family, or a workshop, if not of a town or state, the whole of the vast interests of mankind depend on this union.
II. If God is to be honoured and loved by human beings, He must present himself to our minds under the same twofold aspect. He must be seen in the light of those qualities which we may call by the name of justice, and of those to which we give the names of goodness, kindness, tenderness, or mercy. Sinners are recovered and reclaimed first by a sense of sin, and then by a perception of Divine love, and without the latter they would not think of their sins, or grow into that filial fear, that holy worship which the Psalmist intends. Only under this twofold aspect of God is true religion, the religion of the soul, possible.
III. We add thirdly, that it involves a very high degree of wisdom to know when to be just or severe, and when to exercise goodness or grace. It is a great problem to govern a nation; it is a greater to govern a virtuous universe; but a greater still is presented when the element of evil is thrown into the question, and the interests of the many come into conflict with the happiness of the sinful few. Especially when we look on God as training His creatures up for a higher condition; enlarging their powers, helping the strong to grow stronger, pitying the weak and revealing Himself as their forgiving God; then above all does it appear that the balances of the moral universe are exceedingly delicate, and that there is need of a hand, firm and wise beyond our thought, to hold them. No solution of the intricacies of things has been offered to man deserving of notice but that which Christ has made. The reconciliation of holiness and love in His work, its just, well-balanced training of the whole moral nature challenge our respect, our admiration, even if we will stand aloof from Christ. He is made of God unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.
IV. And now, having brought your minds to Christ, I close with the remark that He united the two sides of character which we have spoken of, in their due mixture, in His one person. And it is well worthy of being remarked that their union proves their genuineness and their depth. He who could love so and forgive so, notwithstanding His deep sense of the sin, what strength of character must He have had, what a depth and truth of love, what a power of loving, what an inexhaustible richness of soul! And He who could rebuke so and show such strong displeasure against evil doing, how hard, humanly speaking, must it have been for Him to love objects so far from loveliness; and if He loved them as He did, must not His love have been of another kind than ours, one superior to personal slights and injuries, wholly unlike instinctive kindness of temper, partaking of a quality of lofty wisdom! (T. D. Woolsey.)
Universal redemption subversive of the assurance of salvation
Draw near and contemplate this Christian paradox; come, behold with us, for a time, this Christian mystery, the certainty that the guilty cannot be cleared--that God cannot do it--is the safeguard of redemption, the guarantee of the offered atonement.
I. It is true that this declaration of Gods character--of the impossibility of His clearing the guilty--shuts many large and wide doors of hope. The hearts of sinners are full of devices for salvation. They have many entrance-ways to pardon and favour.
1. There is the placability and compassion of God upon which they largely draw. The Divine anger is thus, in their imagination, a bugbear, well got up to scare transgressors, to keep them in check, but as to any ultimate and eternal condemnation resulting from it, all is set aside by their convenient doctrine of His easy and overwhelming compassion.
2. Again, there is the tempters suggestion of the changeableness of God, ye shall not surely die, opening to many a wide door. It is not that the veracity of God is actually questioned. But then He may take back or change His word. These deceitful hopes are met, and the door they open for ever shut, by the one decisive passage--and I will by no means clear the guilty.
II. Whilst this passage shuts with so decisive a hand every false door of hope, and announces in characters of light, that guilt cannot go unpunished, it yet opens a door of hope that never can be shut, and is an immovable anchor to every soul that has fled for refuge to the great propitiation. He can by no means clear the guilty, therefore am I assured He can by no means punish the innocent. In Christ I am innocent; guilt is no longer attachable to me; my soul is justified; justice, with its sword, has no claim upon me--it is satisfied; the law, with its penalties, has no demand against me; every jot and tittle of it is fulfilled. Who is he that condemneth? it is Christ that died.
III. We observe that the strong consolation drawn from this passage is warranted only on the supposition that, in dying, Christ died as a true and real substitute in the room and stead of His people, and for them alone. (J. Lewis.)
Justice and mercy not antagonistic
Now, there is no greater mistake than to suppose that the Divine Being, as a God of justice, and a God of mercy, stands in antagonism to Himself. Observe, I pray you, that it is not mercy, but injustice, which is irreconcilable with justice, and that it is cruelty, not justice, that stands opposed to mercy. These attributes of Jehovah are not contrary the one to the other, as are light and darkness, fire and water, truth and falsehood, right and wrong. No. Like two separate streams which unite their waters to form a common river, justice and mercy are combined in the covenant of redemption. Like the two cherubims whose out-stretched wings met above the ark, or like the two devout and holy men who drew the nails from Christs body, and bore the sacred burden to the grave, or like the two angels who received it in charge, and, seated like mourners within the sepulchre, the one at the head, the other at the feet, kept silent watch over the precious treasure, justice and mercy are associated in the work of Christ. They are the supporters of the shield on which the cross is emblazoned. They sustain the arms of our heavenly Advocate. They form the two solid, immovable, and eternal pillars of the Mediators throne. On Calvary, mercy and truth meet together, righteousness and peace kiss each other. (T. Guthrie, D. D.)
Visiting the iniquity of the fathers.--
The law of heredity
We are born into a life where we cannot determine the nature of the influences which we exert. We can repress some, modify others, and develop still others; but we cannot determine the effect, nor change it. A certain influence we must exert one upon another.
I. First, we will mention voluntary influence, or the capacity which we have gained of influencing our fellow-men by bringing power, or the causes of power, to bear upon them on purpose. This is the more familiar form of influence. It is the foundation of all instruction. The parent influences the child on purpose. The teacher purposely influences all the minds that are brought under his care. Friends influence friends. We draw men to our way of thinking, and to our way of acting. We persuade; we dissuade; we urge; we enforce our agency; and in a thousand ways we voluntarily draw men to and fro.
II. Then, besides all this, besides what we do on purpose, there is the other element of unconscious influence which men exert--that which our nature throws out without our volition. For I hold that it is with us as it is with the sun. I do not suppose that the sun ever thinks of raising the thermometer; but it does raise it. Wherever the sun shines warmly, the mercury goes up, although the sun and the instrument are both unconscious. And we are incessantly emitting influences good, bad, or negative. We are perpetually, by the force of life, throwing out from ourselves imperceptible influences. And yet the sum of these influences is of the utmost weight and importance in life. A single word spoken, you know not what it falls upon. You know not on what soul it rests. In some moods, words fall off from us, and are of no account. But there are other moods in which a word of hope, a word of cheer, a word of sympathy, is as balm. It changes the sequence of thought, and the whole order and direction of the mind. Single words have often switched men off from bad courses, or off from good ones, as the case may be. A simple example, silent, unspeaking by vocalization, but characterized by purity, by simplicity, crystalline and heavenly, has sweetened whole neighbourhoods. Fidelity, disinterestedness in love, pure peacefulness, love of God, and faith in invisible things, cannot exist in a man without having their effect upon his fellow-men. It is impossible that one should stand up in the midst of a community and simply be good, and not diffuse the influence of that goodness on every side. That which is true of goodness is true also of evil. Men who are under the influence of the malign passions are sowing the seeds of these passions. Sparks fly out from them as from the chimney of a forge. It is the inherent necessity of wickedness to breed wickedness and distribute it. A man is responsible, not only for what he does on purpose, but what he unconsciously does. And the load of responsibility grows as you take in these widening circles. More than this, the greater the nature, and the more ample the endowment, the more influence does a man exert both for good and for evil. The moral tone of our literature in this respect is exceedingly bad. There is almost a maxim that genius has a right to be lawless as to its method of doing right things. Every man is responsible for duty; and duty, and responsibility for it, augment in the proportion of being.
III. Our influence is not merely voluntary, or involuntary and unconscious, but it becomes complex, because it is compounded with the lives and the added influence of others. We are are social. We come into relations with men. Our freedom touches theirs. We inspire them. But we do not change their nature. We, as it were, sow germs in their soil. These germs go on and become forces in their hands. So that that which we do to single ones, they propagate. But mens influence is not limited to their voluntary action, nor to the complex social relations which they sustain, and by which their influence is propagated indirectly.
IV. In some respects men hold in their hands the history of the future. The very solemn declaration of our text--Visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children, and upon the childrens children, unto the third and to the fourth generation--this is the mystery of ages. If it were but on the one side; if men, having the power of beneficence, had the power to perpetuate it, we should admire that; but if it is a fact that men have the power of transmitting corruption, and so of influencing after times, who can fail to marvel at that? If that is a law, men may well stand appalled in the presence of such results as must fall out under it. And it is a law, it is a fact. We must learn this great hereditary law, and we must include in our purposes of benevolence the wise selection, the perpetuity and the improvement of the race, by the observance of this great law of hereditary transmission. The malignity of sin is a terrible malignity, as it is revealed by this great law of the transmission of influence to posterity, either directly and voluntarily, or indirectly and unconsciously. There are multitudes of men that are careless of themselves. They are said to be their own worst enemies. They are men that are free and easy; that squander their money; that pervert their disposition. And because they are good-natured and genial, people say of them, They are clever fellows; they are kind men; they do no harm; at any rate they are their own worst enemies. Now, a man that is spending his whole life to destroy himself, cannot stop with himself. And the better fellow he is, the more likely is he to exert an influence. More than that, it is not himself alone that is destroyed. The babe in the cradle is cursed. The daughter unborn is cursed. The heir and sequent children are cursed.
V. I will add but a single consideration more: and that is a caution and a warning to all those who abe consciously bearing in themselves the seed of transmissible disease. I think there is no crime and no misdemeanour, to those that are instructed, greater than that of forming marriage connections under such circumstances. (H. W. Beecher.)
The organic unity of the race
I. Let us, in the first place, observe the natural fact we may almost call it, of the unity and solidarity of the race. The method of the preservation and reproduction of the species, which God has appointed, is that of parentage and offspring. The relations of the different parts of this prolonged species are such, as to involve a certain unity. Birth and nurture, the family relation, the law of similarity, the limits of variation, by which the children cannot diverge from the parental type beyond a certain mark of liberty, all these are what we may call physical and bodily elements of unity in the race. This unity is found, as we rise to the human race, to involve the descendant in the conditions of the parent, to a degree that is much more striking than in lower species. The human infant remains longer in dependence upon the parent; the years of education extend farther; the conditions of life for the offspring, in proportion as civilization and culture make life more complicated, and more deeply affected by the parent. That this unity of the race is taught by Scripture, no one can doubt. It is further illustrated by the Divine treatment of individual cases, and by the development of the Divine purpose throughout the sacred history . . . If there be lessons in history, this lesson at least is clear. God has bound men into the unity of their descent, and deals with man along the lines of his generation.
II. Our text does more than merely reveal the truth which we have stated and illustrated; it further shows us that this organic unity of the race is of a moral quality and involves moral discipline. God declares that He visits the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the childrens children, unto the third and unto the fourth generation. We are not bound by the mere number of the descents to which the visitation will be applied. The very form of the phrase suggests indefiniteness. It may be that, as a matter of fact, only one generation shall suffer, or, on the other hand, the dread judgment may descend beyond the third and fourth line of the posterity. The law is one of the generalities of human life, not to be measured by the accuracies of arithmetic. Man needs not to be exalted to presumption, nor cast down to hopelessness, by the words of this revelation. And, as we interpret the duration of the penalty in the general sense, so we may find, in the words of judgment, something more than the mere formula of doom. If there be a visitation of the fathers sin, there surely must be also a benediction from the fathers virtue. These words therefore reveal to us the moral quality of the races organic unity. That which is involved in the descent of child from parent is not by way of mere natural cause and effect. It is indeed part of the material conditioning of the universe. But it is superintended by the God who governs, and governs not only by physical law, but also with moral and spiritual ends. He reveals Himself as administering it, and we know therefore that if it be a Divine visitation, it is done with wisdom and regulative grace, it is done for the higher purposes of character, for the evolution of good, and for the final extinction of evil, and therefore, it must hold, blended with it, not only the designs of moral law and the vindication of justice, but also the sublime issues of grace and salvation, inasmuch as God is a Father as well as a Ruler, a Saviour as well as a Judge. It is, then, not a doom, but a discipline. It is not to work itself out like some physical mechanical law, catching you as a machine catches the unwary or the blundering operative, and then never letting him go, until it has dragged him through all its terrible course of wheels and rollers, cogs and crushing pistons, to throw him out, at length, a torn and mangled dismembered, slaughtered travesty of life and power. This is your philosophic view of human descent, but this is not the Divine. God visits the sins of the fathers on the children. We know then that He does it to discipline the race. My Father is a husbandman, said Jesus, teaching us the same blessed lesson under a beautiful figure. What, may we now ask, is the practical outcome of all this truth, mans organic relation, this relation divinely regulated and applied to the discipline of the race?
1. In the first place, will it not give us a fresh sense of the responsibility of life? We are links in the chain of human life. We receive the influences of our fathers, we hand these on to our children.
2. Shall we then not deeply consider the tremendous responsibility with which we are freighted? We may involve a long line of descendants in the result of our living.
3. The import of this lesson becomes all the greater when we consider it as it bears upon family life, and the relations which subsist between the parent and the child. What a sanctity has not God given to the family! Nothing must break the bond which binds society into its essential and formative elements--the circles of home.
4. Let us, then, seek to render this Divine law of great potency in the building of our Church and the furtherance of the kingdom of Christ as it is given to us. To you and to your children is the promise.
5. And finally, let me ask you to reflect upon your relation to Jesus Christ in the light of this organic unity of the race. (L. D. Bevan, D. D.)
The iniquity of the fathers visited upon their children
1. That this passage has no reference whatsoever to Gods treatment of mankind in a future state. It does not mean that God will punish children in a future state for the sins of their parents; but the visitation which it threatens is exclusively temporal (see Eze_18:20).
2. That God never visits children even with temporal judgments for the sins of their parents, unless they imitate, and thus justify their parents offences. Hezekiah, Josiah, and many other pious men were the children of exceedingly wicked parents; but as they shunned the sins of their fathers, and were supremely devoted to God, they enjoyed His favour in a very high degree, and were visited with no marks of displeasure on account of their progenitors. There is, however, one apparent exception to these remarks, which must be noticed. It is evident from facts, that even pious children often suffer in consequence of the wicked conduct of their parents. If a father be idle, or extravagant, his children, and perhaps his childrens children, may suffer in consequence; nor will any degree of piety always shield them from such sufferings. It must, however, be added, that the sinful example and conduct of wicked parents has a most powerful tendency to prevent their children from becoming pious, to induce them to pursue vicious courses, and thus to bring upon them Divine judgments.
3. That our text describes Gods method of proceeding with nations, and civil or ecclesiastical communities, rather than with individuals. I do not say that it has no reference to individuals, but that it refers principally to nations, states, and churches. That we may perceive the justice, wisdom, and propriety of this method of proceeding, it is necessary to consider the following things. It is indispensably necessary to the perfection of Gods moral government that it should extend to nations and communities as well as to individuals. This, I conceive, is too evident to require proof; for how could God be considered as the moral governor of the world if nations and communities were exempt from His government? Again, if God is to exercise a moral government over nations and communities by rewarding or punishing them according to their works, the rewards and punishments must evidently be dispensed in this world; for nations and communities will not exist, as such, in the world to come. In that world God must deal with men, considered simply as individuals. Further, it seems evidently proper that communities as well as individuals should have a time of trial and probation allowed them; that if the first generation prove sinful, the community should not be immediately destroyed, but that the punishment should be suspended, till it be seen whether the nation will prove incorrigible, or whether some succeeding generation will not repent of the national sins, and thus avert national judgments. Now it is evident that if God thus waits upon nations, as He does upon individuals, and allows them a season of probation, a space for repentance, He cannot destroy them until many generations of sinners are laid in their graves. Besides, by thus suspending the rod or the sword over a nation, He presents to it powerful inducements to reform. He appeals to parental feelings, to mens affection for their posterity, and endeavours to deter them from sin by the assurance that their posterity will suffer for it. (E. Payson, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v5 MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Exo_34:5-7
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Exo_34:5-7
THE PROCLAMATION OF THE DIVINE NAME
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This was the second proclamation. The first, Exo_3:4, was delivered to Moses for his instruction and comfort on his special mission. This was delivered for the Jewish nation and the world. Let it be remembered that this God has revealed His law, and was about to take the people into covenant relationship with Him. It was necessary, therefore, that the people should know something definite about the Being to whom they were thus intimately related and whom they professed to serve. This was the first full revelation, the last is “like unto it.” “God is love,” and they are “enough” for faith and hope and work Notice—
I. The proclamation of the Divine name.
1. The Divine name was proclaimed absolutely. What God is in and o Himself is thus defined: “The Lord, the Lord God.” The self-existent, self sufficient, all-powerful One. Connected with the subjoined revelation of His goodness, this teaches—
(1.) That as His goodness is based upon His power man must not presume.
(2.) That as His power supports His goodness man need not despond.
2. The Divine name was proclaimed relatively. This relative proclamation may be viewed as revealing God’s goodness and God’s justice.
(1.) The Divine goodness. Merciful, first because man’s misery makes him first an object of pity (Jdg_10:16; Isa_63:19). Gracious, because unless God’s goodness was tree, spontaneous, and unconstrained, man could never enjoy it, as he has not the wherewith to purchase or deserve or draw it forth (2Co_8:9). Longsuffering, not good by spasm or effort, but patient and unwearied. “Slow to anger,” “Bears long,” even when the wrongs of His saints call for His vengeance (Luk_18:7). Stretches “out His hand all the day long,” and “waits to be gracious.” How forcibly does the history of Israel, and indeed of every individual life, bear witness to this! Abundant; to God’s goodness there is no limit. It is a fountain that ever flows and is never exhausted (Eph_3:16; Eph_3:21; Php_4:19). Certain. “Truth.” It is based upon the Divine immutability; “He cannot deny Himself.” Universal; “keeping mercy for thousands;” universal as regards space, universal as regards time. Active; “forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin.”
(2.) The Divine justice is Inflexible. “That will by no means clear the guilty.” This inspires us with the confidence that right is the order of the universe. The guilty may be spared so that they may repent, but they will not be cleared. They may prosper for the time, but a heavy retribution awaits them. Once more the Divine justice operates through natural laws, “visiting the iniquity of the fathers,” &c. How? By the physical law of heredity. What a motive for parents! Beware how you break God’s laws; you not only entail punishment on yourself, but your poisoned blood will flow in the veins of your degenerate offspring!
II. The method of its proclamation.
1. The Divine name was proclaimed personally. “And the Lord passed by before him and proclaimed.”
(1.) God is not the discovery of the unaided intellect. It was no deduction of philosophy, no imposition of priestcraft, but the revelation of the Lord (Job_11:7; 1Co_1:21).
(2.) Not an inference from the phenomena of nature. If it is contended that it was, how is it that only Jews and Christians have arrived at this knowledge of the Divine name? Others have had the page of nature spread before them, and yet have been either atheists or idolaters. Much of what is boastfully called natural theology, and the revelation of God in the universe, are but facts read into nature from the Bible and by Bible men. True, God is revealed there (Rom_1:20); but the key is wanted to decipher the hieroglyphics, and that key is the “Scriptures which are given by inspiration of God.”
2. The Divine name was proclaimed condescendingly. Although a revelation of the Divine Being was necessary, yet one so full and gracious was surely the result of the beneficent condescension of God. Another revelation has been vouchsafed since, based upon the same condescension (Php_2:5-8).
This proclamation is of value—
i. Apologetically. This is the authorised revelation of the character of God. Unbelievers fight shy of it, and take certain doings or commands wrested from their context, and without examination as to the reason why. All such doings, &c., must be referred to and compared with “the glories” that here “compose God’s name.” This is the God we worship, not the fiction of a disordered fancy or a diseased mind, but “the Lord, the Lord God,” &c.
ii. To the afflicted. Can this God be unkind or unjust? Then trust that what He is now doing is for your good.
iii. To the sinner.
(1) God is good, therefore repent and come to Him; but
(2) just, and therefore cannot connive at sin.—J. W. Burn.
ILLUSTRATIONS
BY
REV. WILLIAM ADAMSON
Law-Lights! Exo_34:1-35. Pressense says, that whatever opinions men may hold as to the integrity of that primitive witness, all must own that it contains pages in which one beholds, as it were, the reflection of the lustre which caused Moses’s face to shine when he held converse with God. It has ever been the pious mind which has through the eyes beheld the chain of revelation and the long series of Divine manifestations gradually unwind themselves. Just as they that watch for the morning gaze out from the height of the tower, longing with inexpressible desire for the approach of dawn; so does religious consciousness cast glances of fire upon the horizon as she looks out for the Divine Sunrise. The whole of the Old Testament pants and throbs with this Divine yearning, and it also shows us the finger of God writing in the heart of man the great preparation for the Gospel. The angels ever
“Draw strength from gazing on its glance,
Though none its meaning fathom may;
The Word’s unwithered countenance
Is bright as at Mount Sinai’s day.”
—Goëthe.
Sun-Splendours! Exo_34:1-7. Countless and ceaseless as are the benefits which are imparted to us by the bright orb of day, the human eye cannot look upon his undimmed noonday face, without being blinded. We cannot look upon him in his full brightness; but when he is passing away, we can, as it were, enjoy and wonder at the beauty he has, or the splendour he leaves behind. A gorgeous canopy of clouds—glowing in every tint of gold, scarlet, and purple over the evening sky, alone remains to bear witness to the passing sun’s magnificence. As we enjoy the vanishing glory of the sun, so did Moses exult in the vision of the Divine glory. He could not look upon the face of God; but when the Lord had passed by then he could behold and delight in the shaded vision of Jehovah’s back parts. And what sweet beauties did his eyes descry—emblems of those invisible beauties which the soul in communion with God beholds—
“The vivid brilliant streaks
Of crimson disappear, but o’er the hills
A flush of orange hovers, softening up
Into harmonious union with the blue
That comes a-sweeping down.”
—Carrington.
Divine Character! Exo_34:6.
(1.) Simonides the philosopher, being requested to describe God, asked a week to think of it. After that, he besought a month; then a year. Even then, being still unable, he declined the task, declaring that the more he thought of God, the less was he able to describe Him.
(2.) Pagan artists depicted Jupiter with thunder in his right hand, and an eagle at his feet. Their highest conceptions were to clothe him with clouds, while the poets robed him in terrors. Woes and wonders were their sublimest ideal of God.
(3.) Revelation alone emblazons God in the full circle of His perfections. The name of the God of the Jews, who is also the God of the Christians, is “The Lord God, merciful and gracious.”
“Most glorious art Thou! when from Thy pavilion
Thou lookest forth at morning; flying wide
Those curtain-clouds of purple and vermilion.
Dispensing life and light on every side.”
—Barton.
Divine Glory! Exo_34:6. Amongst astronomers, remarks Hamilton, it is a favourite speculation that the sun himself is something else than a mere ball of fire, and that inside of his burning atmosphere there may be a mighty globe with cool meadows, seas of glass, rivers of crystal, and every conceivable provision for a vast and rejoicing population—the possible home of even the just made perfect. True or no, the speculation illustrates our thought. God’s glory is His goodness. The holiness of God is as a consuming fire to the guilty conscience; but within this light inaccessible—within this refulgent atmosphere of truth and sanctity, is a glory more intimate and essential still, the inmost perfection and divinest beauty of the Godhead. Coming from within that light inaccessible, the only-begotten Son from the bosom of the Father declared what was there—viz., love. And so on this occasion to the meek and wistful Moses preaching the Gospel, Jehovah expanded that one word of love into the name: “The Lord God, merciful and gracious, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin.”
“The sun has lost his rage; his downward orb
Shoots nothing more but animating warmth
And vital lustre; that, with various ray,
Lights up the clouds, those beauteous robes of heaven.”
—Thomson.
God-Goodness! Exo_34:6.
(1.) The child’s primer on geography is a very different thing from that which the child has in mature school-days. Very simple are the words and expressions; but how detailed. The word continent requires sentence after sentence of explanation to the child-mind; but when the child has become the youthful student, three words suffice to explain the same. Even so, in Exo_34:6, we have the lengthened explanation of the Divine glory; while in 1 John 4 there is the same and substance—the essence of all—in the three words, “God is Love.”
(2.) The savage who has never seen a rose, can only understand its nature when it is presented to him in full bloom; whereas he who knows what a rose is, realises its beauty and perfection when it is wrapped up in the bud. The petals, so to speak, of God’s goodness were set before Moses in full bloom in this verse; but in the New Testament it was sufficient to give the bud, “God is love.”
“I’ll sing it in the sinner’s ear,
I’ll tell it to the worldling,
And ask no other theme;
’Twill flow to soothe the mourner’s wail;
Children will hold the oft-told tale
Dearer than fiction’s dream.”
Grace-Revelations! Exo_34:6-7.
(1.) These verses, as Stock says, show that the revelation of God was not merely to the outward sight, but chiefly to the heart and mind of Moses. All the previous dealings of God with Israel had been successive revelations of His attributes, embraced in the name JEHOVAH. But Moses had never had a full and wonderful view of the “Mercy and Truth” therein; therefore he here obtains a glimpse into the Divine treasury, with its boundless, inexhaustible stores of mercy—mercy ready to meet and satisfy the demands of justice.
(2.) Filled with joyful boldness, he turns the very fact of Israel’s stiff-neckedness into a plea for the presence and favour of God. As Law says, this heart is mercy. As the sun abounds in sparkling rays, the sea in drops, the sky in glittering orbs; so God is one vast treasure-house of mercy. This is the brightest jewel of His crown—overtopping the heavens, outliving all times, outshining all perfections. It is the riches of His riches.
“God’s boundless mercy is to sinful man
Like to the ever wealthy ocean;
Which, though it sends forth thousand streams, ’tis ne’er
Known, or else seen, to be the emptier.”
—Herrick.
Boundless Mercy! Exo_34:7.
(1.) Hearken, says Law, to the melody of this sweet note. The thought may sometimes rise, that mercy visits but a favoured few, that the rare gift enriches but rare souls. Nay, mercy’s arms are very wide; mercy’s heart is very large; mercy’s mansions are very many. It has brought saving joy to countless multitudes. It has saving joy for countless yet. The doors stand open. Thousands have found mercy; but there are stores for thousands yet.
(2.) The atmosphere is sometimes terrible with thunder, and riven with lightning—impregnated with pestilence, and charged with destruction. But it is generally and chiefly a means of health, filled with beautiful sounds, fragrant with sweetest odours, the pathway of sunbeams, the source of sparkling dew, the parent of harvests and fountain of earthly life. Ay, God is indeed full of mercy’s flowers and fruits.
“O God, how beautiful the thought,
How merciful the bless’d decree,
That grace can e’er be found when sought,
And naught shut out the soul from Thee!”
—Cook.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On vv6–7
Exodus
GOD PROCLAIMING HIS OWN NAME
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Exo 34:6.
This great event derives additional significance and grandeur from the place in which it stands. It follows the hideous act of idolatry in which the levity and sinfulness of Israel reached their climax. The trumpet of Sinai had hardly ceased to peal, and there in the rocky solitudes, in full view of the mount ‘that burned with fire,’ while the echoes of the thunder and the Voice still lingered, one might say, among the cliffs, that mob of abject cowards were bold enough to shake off their allegiance to God, and, forgetful of all the past, plunged into idolatry, and wallowed in sensuous delights. What a contrast between Moses on the mount and Aaron and the people in the plain! Then comes the wonderful story of the plague and of Moses’ intercession, followed by the high request of Moses, so strange and yet so natural at such a time, for the vision of God’s ‘glory.’ Into all the depths of that I do not need to plunge. Enough that he is told that his desire is beyond the possibilities of creatural life. The mediator and lawgiver cannot rise beyond the bounds of human limitations. But what can be shall be. God’s ‘goodness’ will pass before him. Then comes this wonderful advance in the progress of divine revelation. If we remember the breach of the Covenant, and then turn to these words, considered as evoked by the people’s sin, they become very remarkable. If we consider them as the answer to Moses’ desire, they are no less so. Taking these two thoughts with us, let us consider them in-
I. The answer to the request for a sensuous manifestation.
The request is ‘show me,’ as if some visible manifestation were desired and expected, or, if not a visible, at least a direct perception of Jehovah’s glory.’ Moses desires that he, as mediator and lawgiver, may have some closer knowledge. The answer to his request is a word, the articulate proclamation of the ‘Name’ of the Lord. It is higher than all manifestation to sense, which was what Moses had asked. Here there is no symbol as of the Lord in the ‘cloud.’ The divine manifestation is impossible to sense, and that, too, not by reason of man’s limitations, but by reason of God’s nature. The manifestation to spirit in full immediate perception is impossible also. It has to be maintained that we know God only ‘in part’; but it does not follow that our knowledge is only representative, or is not of Him ‘as He is.’ Though not whole it is real, so far as it goes.
But this is not the highest form. Words and propositions can never reveal so fully, nor with such certitude, as a personal revelation. But we have Christ’s life, ‘God manifest’: not words about God, but the manifestation of the very divine nature itself in action. ‘Merciful’:-and we see Jesus going about ‘doing good.’ ‘Gracious,’ and we see Him welcoming to Himself all the weary, and ever bestowing of the treasures of His love. ‘Longsuffering’:-’Father! forgive them!’ God is ‘plenteous in mercy and in truth,’ forgiving transgression and sin:-’Thy sins be forgiven thee.’
How different it all is when we have deeds, a human life, on which to base our belief! How much more certain, as well as coming closer to our hearts! Merely verbal statements need proof, they need warming. In Christ’s showing us the Father they are changed as from a painting to a living being; they are brought out of the region of abstractions into the concrete.
‘And so the word had breath, and wrought
With human hands the creed of creeds.’
‘Show us the Father and it sufficeth us.’ ‘He that hath seen Me, hath seen the Father.’
Is there any other form of manifestation possible? Yes; in heaven there will be a closer vision of Christ-not of God. Our knowledge of Christ will there be expanded, deepened, made more direct. We know not how. There will be bodily changes: ‘Like unto the body of His glory.’ etc. ‘We shall be like Him.’ ‘Changed from glory to glory.’
II. The answer to the desire to see God’s glory.
The ‘Glory’ was the technical name for the lustrous cloud that hung over the Mercy-seat, but here it probably means more generally some visible manifestation of the divine presence. What Moses craved to see with his eyes was the essential divine light. That vision he did not receive, but what he did receive was partly a visible manifestation, though not of the dazzling radiance which no human eye can see and live, and still more instructive and encouraging, the communication in words of that shining galaxy of attributes, ‘the glories that compose Thy name.’ In the name specially so-called, the name Jehovah, was revealed absolute eternal Being, and in the accompanying declaration of so-called ‘attributes’ were thrown into high relief the two qualities of merciful forgiveness and retributive justice. The ‘attributes’ which separate God from us, and in which vulgar thought finds the marks of divinity, are conspicuous by their absence. Nothing is said of omniscience, omnipresence, and the like, but forgiveness and justice, of both of which men carry analogues in themselves, are proclaimed by the very voice of God as those by which He desires that He should be chiefly conceived of by us.
The true ‘glory of God’ is His pardoning Love. That is the glowing heart of the divine brightness. If so, then the very heart of that heart of brightness, the very glory of the ‘Glory of God,’ is the Christ, in whom we behold that which was at once ‘the glory as of the only begotten of the Father’ and the ‘Glory of the Father.’
In Jesus these two elements, pardoning love and retributive justice, wondrously meet, and the mystery of the possibility of their harmonious co-operation in the divine government is solved, and becomes the occasion for the rapturous gratitude of man and the wondering adoration of principalities and powers in heavenly places. Jesus has manifested the divine mercifulness; Jesus has borne the burden of sin and the weight of the divine Justice. The lips that said ‘Be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee,’ also cried, ‘Why hast Thou forsaken Me?’ The tenderest manifestation of the God ‘plenteous in mercy . . .forgiving iniquity,’ and the most awe-kindling manifestation of the God ‘that will by no means clear the guilty,’ are fused into one, when we ‘behold that Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.’
III. The answer to a great sin.
This Revelation is the immediate issue of Israel’s great apostasy.
Sin evokes His pardoning mercy. This insignificant speck in Creation has been the scene of the wonder of the Incarnation, not because its magnitude was great, but because its need was desperate. Men, because they are sinners, have been subjects of an experience more precious than the ‘angels which excel in strength’ and hearken ‘to the voice of His word’ have known or can know. The wilder the storm of human evil roars and rages, the deeper and louder is the voice that peals across the storm. So for us all Christ is the full and final revelation of God’s grace. The last, because the perfect embodiment of it; the sole, because the sufficient manifestation of it. ‘See that ye refuse not Him that speaketh.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v5 stood with Moses there
stood with Moses there
"stood with Moses on the mountain"
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he pronounced the name "Yahweh."
Possible meanings are 1) "he spoke the name 'Yahweh.'" or 2) "he proclaimed who Yahweh is." For the second meaning, "name" would represent who God is. (See: Metonymy)
Yahweh, Yahweh, God is merciful and gracious
God is speaking about himself. AT: "I, Yahweh, am God, and I am merciful and gracious" (See: First, Second, or Third Person)
abounding in covenant faithfulness and trustworthiness
"always showing covenant faithfulness and trustworthiness"
abounding in covenant faithfulness and trustworthiness
The abstract nouns "faithfulness" and "trustworthiness" can be stated as "faithful" and "trustworthy." AT: "always being faithful to my covenant and always being trustworthy" (See: Abstract Nouns)
keeping covenant faithfulness for thousands of generations
The abstract noun "faithfulness" can be stated as "faithfully" or "faithful." See how you translated a similar phrase in Exodus 20:6. AT: "faithfully loving thousands of generations" or "faithful to his covenant with thousands of generation" (See: Abstract Nouns)
But he will
Yahweh is speaking about himself. AT: "But I will" (See: First, Second, or Third Person)
he will by no means clear the guilty
Yahweh is speaking about himself. AT: "I will by no means clear the guilty" (See: First, Second, or Third Person)
will by no means clear the guilty
"will certainly not clear the guilty" or "will certainly not say that the guilty are innocent" or "will certainly not free guilty people"
He will bring the punishment for the fathers' sin on their children
Punishing people is spoken of as if punishment were an object that someone could bring on people. AT: "He will punish the children for their fathers' sin" (See: Metaphor)
their children
The word "children" represents descendants. AT: "their descendants" (See: Metonymy)
translationWords
Yahweh
Moses
name
preach
God
mercy
grace
anger
covenant faithfulness
trust
generation
forgive
iniquity
transgress
sin
guilt
punish
children
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv5–7 34:5-9 Moses experienced God’s presence in a revelation of…
34:5-9 Moses experienced God’s presence in a revelation of the name, or character, of God. As God had promised (33:19), he showed Moses the glory of his goodness.
34:5-6 Yahweh: Here God is emphasizing his personal name.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.