Scripture

Then Yahweh passed by in front of him [Moses] and called out, “Yahweh, Yahweh God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth;who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished.

~Exodus 34:6-7, LSB

Quote

Exodus 34:6-7 is an exceedingly important characterization of Yahweh. It is a classic statement to which Israel regularly returned, meriting the label ‘credo’.

~Walter Brueggemann

The fall of man [Genesis 3] gave all the sons of Adam a severe concussion. It messed up the way we think which is often backwards. After Adam and Eve sinned, they felt guilt and shame and this caused them to hid from God. You can’t actually hid from God but they attempted to hid. Since the fall Satan has used sin and guilt to keep us at a distance. He has skewed our thinking to the point that we view God as the enemy, the one who wants to crush and destroy us. The God we imagine is nothing like the true God. I don’t remember how long ago it was that Exodus 34:6-7 caught my attention but I go back to it as a reference over and over. It is the passage that Jonah brought up in his angry prayer. There is absolutely no question that God is holy. Everything stands on His absolute perfection. If we could find fault with God, we would be in serious trouble. With that in mind, God was revealing Himself to Moses. Exodus 34 is a list of His attributes as God reveals to Moses who He is. Whereas He is a God of wrath, His wrath has to be provoked. Of the seven attributes, only one expresses God’s displeasure with our sin. Here are the attributes I see in the text. God is…

• Compassionate
• Gracious
• Slow to anger [Patient]
• Abounding in Lovingkindness {kesed, close to our word for grace}
• Abounding in Truth or Faithfulness
• Forgiving
• Holy

What is the first thing you see in this list? Jesus was all seven! Philip said, “Show us the Father.” Jesus said, “If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father.” Hebrews chapter one states, God, having spoken long ago…in many ways, in these last days spoke to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds, who is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. Jesus could and did get angry; three times that I know of and each time He was angry at sin and what it does to people. But Jesus had to be provoked to anger. Anger was not His natural or normal response. The fall and Satan have entrenched in our minds dark thoughts about God. He uses guilt, fear and lies [darkness] to put distance between ourselves and Christ. As Ortlund said, “The divine mercy of Christ is just waiting for the slightest prick.”  The New Testament reveals how diiferent we are from Christ. We are to provoke one another to love, but Jesus needs no provoking to love. He must be provoked to become angry but His heart is to love and show compassion. I do not need any provoking to get angry, that is my natural response. This is one of the reasons I adore Jesus; He is everything that I am not but want to be.

Extra

Charles Sanders, alias Too Tall, is having eye surgery this morning. This came as a shock to me. I let you know more when I find out more. Practically everyone in the blog family knows Too Tall. Our 49er meeting is today at 11:30. We have having KFC and garden vegetables. I am frying potatoes, hushpuppies and boiling some corn on the cob. Come and join us, we will have plenty.

We had clouds for most of the day and it was pleasant to work outside but we got no rain. I repeat, no rain. I think they got some light rain in Danville but we did not get a drop. I put 500 gallons of water on my corn patch but I don’t think it made much difference.

Have a great Friday and enjoy your weekend. Grace Point family, Josh is preaching Sunday.