It was a terrible sin that had been committed! Father was really angry. He was so angry He even talked about leaving! The children were crying and their parents were weeping while they hugged their little ones. The grandparents were wailing too. There was no doubt. They knew they had done wrong and now the relationship with their Father was broken. How they wished they could have made a better choice. How they longed for an opportunity to undo the wrong they had done. They had heard with their own ears the terrible words he said, "I will not go with you, because you are a stiff-necked people and I might destroy you on the way". With brokenness they bowed low in sorrow and regret. It seemed truly hopeless.
Their leader, Moses, began to plead with Father. Moses knew that the golden calf had been the ultimate insult to God. He also knew they needed to see God for who He really was. You can read the story in Exodus 33 and 34. He asked God to reveal His glory to Him. When sin happens, it keeps us from seeing who God really is.
God told him to come to the mountain with 2 more tablets of stone. And then God placed Moses in a dip in a rock and He began to talk to Moses.
Genesis 34:5 Then the Lord came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name. 6 And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming,
"
The Lord, the Lord, merciful and gracious, compassionate, and abundant in goodness and truth,
God is telling Moses who He is. He starts out by saying his own name. And he says it twice. The ancient Hebrew scholars tell us that this is because God wanted Moses to know that He was the same before sin AND after sin. It wasn't God that had changed. And then he goes on to use words describing exactly who He is.
- Merciful-or full of mercy: We don't need mercy unless we are weak or have done something wrong. God wanted us to know that when we sin and then turn back to Him, He is merciful. He doesn't take joy in punishing us.
- Gracious-God gives us "Just Because" love. He loves us unconditionally.
- Compassionate-In Hebrew this word is the verb form of the root word for womb. In the womb we have done nothing to deserve anything and yet we hold the potential of becoming. As the womb nurtures the embryo so that it can fulfill its potential as a child, youth, and adult, so God is compassionate to us and nurtures our potential so that we can fit the purpose He has for us.
- Abundant in Goodness and Truth-God's goodness is what leads us to repentance. We deny God's goodness when we refuse to turn back to him and repent of the sins we commit. It is important that truth be placed with goodness. It is difficult for us humans to state the truth of our sin. We want to minimize and sweep truth under the carpet when we are responsible for doing something hurtful. But it is only through our willingness to own our truth and move through it with humility and repentance that our relationships can be healed and we can find forgiveness.
God has created this season for Repentance. As we enter the year 5777 on God's Calendar, it is important to start it off with a clean slate. God wants to heal us and our relationships. Because of WHO HE IS we can experience that healing!
