Blog In Audio:
Greetings,
Today is Memorial Day. I pray a special peace and blessing to all of you who have suffered loss at the sacrifice made for our nation by someone you know. May those who have experienced that kind of pain be comforted by God’s presence. I thank and honor all who have given such a sacrifice.
Last week I presented that God’s presence in our lives is more important than the fulfillment of His promises in our lives. Moses understood that the presence of God would grant him a knowledge of the ways of God. Knowing God’s works will not necessarily enable us to know God’s ways, but knowing God’s ways will also give us access to the authority and power of God’s works. The glory of God is revealed in His ways not merely the power of His works.
When Moses asked for God to see His glory, God put Moses in a rock to keep Him safe for the ways of men cannot comprehend the ways of God in His glory. God’s presence kept Moses safe as Moses found a place by God where he could stand.
Exodus 33:21 And the LORD said, “Here is a place by Me, and you shall stand on the rock. 22 So it shall be, while My glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and will cover you with My hand while I pass by. 23 Then I will take away My hand, and you shall see My back; but My face shall not be seen.”
We cannot see the glory of God from a distance. We must find our place by God where He empowers us to stand in the rock of Christ as a member of the body of Christ. God’s glory will change us to become a testimony of God’s character, nature, way, power, and authority. It was in the glory of God that God wrote upon the tables of stone the values of a love for God and a love for others. It was in the manifest presence of God that the glory of God came as a mystery to change the way of Moses.
Exodus 34:5-7 Now the LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. And the LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.”
Here we find the introduction to the name of God is “the Lord, the Lord God”. In the Stone’s edition of the Hebrew Torah, the rabbinical commentators address this double “Lord” as implying to the love and goodness of God. They state that when the Lord is put in this double context it implies two things. It means that God is the one who forgives us before we sin knowing the full extent of everything we are ever going to do, and He forgives us after we sin knowing the full extent of everything we have ever done. The very first experience, atmosphere, ambiance, and reality received when we experience God’s presence in our lives is one of forgiveness. What a wonderful thing! The verses go on to read that God is merciful, gracious, longsuffering, abounding in goodness, and abounding in truth. These are all wonderful experiences that flood our lives when God comes to us. These things are the essence of God’s glory. Jesus made a way for us to come near to God and experience these things! We have been reconciled to God in Him. The final verse of this passage reads that God keeps His mercy for thousands. The term “thousands” is an interesting symbolic and prophetic number in Scripture. It implies an aspect of eternity. God owns the cattle on a thousand hills (Ps. 50:10), meaning He owns all the cattle. God is God to a thousand generations (1 Chr. 16:15; Ps. 105:8), meaning He is God forever. A day with the Lord is as a thousand years, meaning His day has no end. Here we see that God wants to show mercy for thousands. He wants to show mercy to everyone, and He wants to show mercy forever!
God forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin. These three things are often confused, but they are different. They are progressively linked, but it is the testimony of sin that leads to death. Iniquity is the weakness that leads to transgression. Transgression is a rebellion in the human heart that leads to sin. The wage of sin is death. God does not kill sinners; sin kills them. Being disconnected from life results in the consequence of death. Where there is iniquity there will be transgression, and where there is transgression there will be sin. God in His amazing character, nature, way, power, and authority comes to forgive us fully. This is even to the root of our sin, the weakness of our hearts.
The next phrase in this verse is not out of context with the preceding descriptions. It says that God does not clear but rather visits the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and fourth generation. The words “the guilty” are not in the original but are meant to clarify what He does not clear. It is somewhat accurate, but it must be taken into consideration in the context of the previous descriptions. It can only be understood in the context of forgiveness, mercy, grace, longsuffering, abundant goodness, abundant truth, and eternal pardon. It is not a judgment to destroy the person, but a judgment to destroy the root of iniquity that leads to sin. It is simply what happens to the iniquity when God visits it. God’s presence eradicates the flaws and heals the heart and mind.
If your Bible translation uses the word “sin” for “iniquity” here it is in error to the original. It is the Hebrew word “avon” (iniquity) and not the word “chattaah” (sin). It is the flaw within us that causes us to come to sin. It is the weakness, or the propensity to transgress that leads to sin. Think of it as a characteristic that has the potential of becoming your character. You may have inherited a negative characteristic, but it doesn’t have to become your character. God wants to visit the place of weakness and transform it to become a place of His strength and testimony. The weakness is your place of dependency upon God that can lead to greater life when you depend upon Him. It doesn’t have to become your character. You can be a scribe in the kingdom of God that unlocks the door to new things in your family line that have never been seen, heard, or thought before. You can restore things antique and lost before your time in your family destiny (Mt. 13:52). Experiencing the presence of God will change our character. This is the glory of God!
Blessings,
Ted J. Hanson
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