The Righteous and Loving God

The Grace and Justice of God
Exodus 31-35
“The Lord, The Lord 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, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.”

Actions and attitudes matter.  How we respond to God and how faithful we are to live in obedience and enormous implications for ourselves and our relationship with God and future generations.

Before the dust had settled from God chiseling the law in stone tablets, the people were already breaking the covenant.  When God declared that He was making a covenant with the people of Israel in chapter 20, the people responded with a resounding affirmation that they would obey (19:8).  However, in less than 40 days, the people violated the 1st and 2nd commandments.  Instead of being like God, their desire was to be like the people in the land who worshiped Baal, the god of the Canaanites whose image was that of a calf.  It is always easier to conform to our culture and embrace the views that are popular than it is to stand firm to the words of God, which make us different.  Often, we are more afraid of the opinions of people than we are of the holiness of a righteous God.

In response to their idolatry, God tests Moses’ faith by threatening to destroy the people and make a new nation through Moses.  One of the dangers of leadership is that we can become more concerned about our success and recognition than we are about the needs and conditions of the people we serve.  Thus, God tests the genuineness of Moses’ concern for the people he was called to lead.  A servant is one whose sole desire is to serve others and do the will of the master.  

Moses reveals the character of a godly leader when he rejects God’s offer and instead intercedes on behalf of the people.  Moses recognizes that without the presence of God, their security and success are worthless.  For Moses (and for us), the deepest need we have is for God to be present in our lives.  Moses affirms that without God’s presence, they cannot go forward (33:15).  

In response to Moses’ faith, God does the unthinkable; He allows Moses to glimpse the radiance of God’s glory.  As the glory of God passed before Moses, God pronounced the essence of His character (34:6-7).  In these two verses, we have one of the greatest and most succinct statements of God’s character found in Scripture.  In these two verses, we see both the depth of His love and the perils of His judgment.  Often, in our view of God, we dissect and divide God so that we only affirm those attributes that we find acceptable.  For some, God is only a God of love who accepts all people. For others, God is only a God of justice, one who is to be feared, who will quickly judge us for any wrongdoing.  Instead of seeing His grace, they see him only as an angry God that must be appeased.  However, both views are a distortion of God.  God is both just and righteous as well as loving and forgiving.  He is to be feared and embraced.  He forgives sin but judges the unrepentant.  This serves as a reminder to us that God is to be worshipped for who He is, not what we want Him to be.  We do not conform God to our perspective (which is idolatry); rather, we form our view of God by His self-revelation in Scripture. Only when we understand God’s holiness, justice, and anger towards sin will we fully embrace the depth of His grace, love, and forgiveness of the sinner.  Do you make God into the image that you want Him to be, or accept him in His total being? To love God, we must not only accept the God of the New Testament, but we must affirm the God of the Old Testament==for they are not two different gods, but one God who reveals himself in all His activities. The fear of God leads to repentance and repentance leads us to a God of mercy and grace who forgives our sin.