J.M.G./POW — 4/3/23
“The LORD, the LORD, a God gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in love and fidelity…” (Exodus 34:6 NAB).
“The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abounding in goodness and truth…” (Exodus 34:6 NKJV).
Most versions read pretty much the same. The NIV reads, “… abounding in love and faithfulness…”
Note the word “abounding” (Hebrew, kabad/kabed), a primary root. This word is used in both the good and bad sense: burdensome, sever, dull = bad; numerous, rich, honorable = good. The Eng. Means to be plentiful, be fully supplied.
When a person, place, or thing abounds – that is, is copiously supplied – it usually abounds IN or abounds WITH. Both propositions are frequently used; when the object is a relative pronoun, WITH appears to be more common.
God is LOVE
The Old Testament tells us that He created all people for a unique, loving relationship with Him, even though most humanity turns away from Him. Nevertheless, the Bible tells us that God’s love has pursued the lost, the sinner, the rebel relentlessly.
Did you know that the Bible (Old Testament) speaks of “the nations?” People make up nations.
There has been more poems, songs, genres, etc. written about love than any other subject.
Love comes in many forms. Basically the Love of God and the love of man (humans) are the most common.
Go to a Hebrew/Greek concordance of the Bible, look under the words love, loved, loveth, loving, loving kindness, loving kindnesses. One will quickly realize that love has many definitions/nuances in reference to God’s love/man’s love etc.
The greatest form of love is “agape love” (Greek, agapao/agape) = to love (in a social/moral sense) affection or benevolence, corresponding to (Greek) phileo, sentiment or feeling (of head and heart); the Hebrew agab/egeb, a prim. root = to love sensually, much love, very lovely, from Hebrew agabah = amorousness. These Hebrew/Greek words are but a few found in Scripture. The HIGHEST form of love is “agape,” God’s love.
So, in the beginning God loved His creation, although they (Adam/Eve) brought the entire human race to disgrace, aka the FALL! God continued to love yet there were/are limits to His tolerance and Exodus 34:7 relates to us: “… continuing His love for a thousand generations, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion, and sin, YET not declaring the GUILTY guiltless, BUT bringing PUNISHMENT for their parent’s wickedness on children and children’s children to the third and fourth generation!”
SO
Love carries punishment. I did an extensive Bible study called “The Other Side of Jesus” back in the 1980’s. I showed that “love” and “judgment/punishment” were/are included in His “agape love.”
Because of inbred sin in the whole human race, God chose certain people for His special people: Abraham/Sarah, whom God would raise up His tribe/nation, aka, Israel (consisting of 12 small tribes).
Please read Deuteronomy 7:1-7. The LORD God distinguishes between “many nations,” 7 pagan nations (7:1) and His one nation, Israel. The Lord forbids His people to make any “covenant with them nor show mercy to them” (v.2). Although God created the nations, He would not, did not tolerate their sinfulness (are you listening?). Note v.7: “The Lord did not set His LOVE on you nor choose you because you were more in numbers… BUT because the LORD LOVES you…” (v.8).
Note also how His love (Hebrew chashaq) demands love in return: “Therefore know that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those WHO LOVE HIM AND KEEP HIS COMMANDMENTS; and He repays those who HATE Him… to destroy them… Therefore you shall keep the commandment, the statutes, and the judgments… to observe them…” (Deuteronomy 7:9, 10).
Conditions? Yep! This stuff of “God loves you no matter what in the HELL you do” is a BIG LIE! Both testaments testify to the fact that while we were but sinners Christ died for us, they also have the “if”/”then” clause in effect. (See all my articles on this important clause).
The love mentioned in Deuteronomy 7:7 (chashaq) means to cling, i.e. join (fig.), to love, delight in, desire, long for (in) love, have pleasure in. There are half-a-dozen Hebrew words for love in the Old Testament: the same amount of Greek words in the New Testament.
Back To Exodus 34:6, 7
Some versions use “gracious and merciful” (v.6). This succinct poetic description of the LORD is often-repeated statement of belief (see Numbers 14:18 where He is said to be “long-suffering and abundant in mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression; BUT He by no means CLEARS the GUILTY…”).
This tells us that at God’s core is found love (in all forms), BUT also justice/judgment/punishment. Because He IS LOVE, He is also the Judge between right and wrong. He suffers long with the wicked BUT eventually His mercy/forgiveness runs out if repentance is not forth coming.
Don’t be misled. The same God in the Old Testament is the same in the New Testament. No such thing as “Once saved always saved.” Popular, yes! True? NO!
Heart/Love
I like the way the NAB words Deuteronomy 7:7: “It was not because you (Israel) are more numerous than all the peoples (tribes/nations) that the LORD set His HEART (aka love) on you and chose you…”
YET
The NIV uses the word “yet” (v.7): “… Yet He does not leave the guilty unpunished.”
After we read about God’s long-suffering mercy, graciousness, goodness, truth and love, Exodus gives us the other half of God’s character; He will not clear the guilty, but hold them responsible for their actions or lack thereof. God loves to forgive but he also loves for the sinner to repent so as forgiveness can have effect.
Today’s mentality is, “God loves me no matter how in the HELL I live!” But is this true? It is true that God accepts us as we are – sinners – no conditions to this. BUT He does require the sinner to ask forgiveness, repent and live upright.
John, Jesus, and Jesus’ disciples taught REPENTANCE (see Matthew 3:2/4:17/Acts 2:38 etc:).
Pt. 2
The Word “Yet”
The word “yet” is either implied or stated in various Bible translations. Exodus 34:6 states that God is compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love, forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin (New American Bible), YET He does not leave the guilty unpunished! (v.7).
We also looked at Numbers 14:18 (NAB): “The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in kindness, forgiving iniquity and rebellion, YET certainly not declaring the guilty guiltless, BUT punishing children to the third and fourth generation for their parent’s iniquity.”
So, how do we reconcile God’s love with punishment? (See Exodus 20:5 in the NAB for the precursor to Numbers 14:18). Exodus 20:5 (NAB) says that God is a jealous God (not the human sense, but in the divine sense) who INFLICTS PUNISHMENT on the guilty. The intended emphasis is on God’s mercy/love by the contrast between punishment and mercy. There are other Old Testament texts that repudiate the idea of punishment devolving on later generations (see Deuteronomy 24:16; Jeremiah 31:29, 30; Ezekiel 18:2-4 etc.). Scholars recognize that later generations may suffer the punishing effects of sins of earlier generations, but not the guilt.
What About the New Testament?
While God’s wrath, fury, and indignation are in the forefront in the Old Testament, and His love, mercy, and forgiveness are in the forefront of the New Testament, this does not mean the Old Testament = the “bully God” (as liberal believers claim) and the New Testament = the “Tolerant-of-sin God” shows an entirely different God. No! He is the SAME yesterday, today, and forever. The New Testament is replete with warnings/admonitions against sinning (willful, deliberate, unrepentant).
God is love BUT He demands His people to be a consecrated, dedicated, and separated people. Peter warns His readers that because of UNGODLINESS He turned Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes… “making them an example to those who afterward would live UNGODLY” (2 Peter 2:6). He was warning New Testament believers not to do what the ungodly did in ancient times (mainly forbidden sex-sins, e.g. LGBTQ plus sins as well as straight sex-sins such as adultery/fornication et al). “God is love” wrote John (1 John 4:7), repeated in v. 8, 9, 10, 11, 16, 19 etc. YET we find judgment/punishment alongside God’s agape love (see Acts 5 for God’s severe punishment placed upon New Testament believers Ananias and Sapphira – both were struck DEAD by the Spirit of God!). “But,” Peter said “… why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men BUT to God” (Acts 5:4).
Are We Too Guilty?
Have we too lied to the Holy Spirit at times – saying we’ll do such-and-such and we have no intention of doing it? The Old Testament/New Testament warns against making vows/promises/covenants with God and fail to keep them. God is LIGHT and LOVE. He is also JUST, but His justice is His loving response to injustice. God is forgiving but He also requires repentance. Love, mercy, forgiveness are intrinsic to God. Just as God is Light, He also makes His secret place darkness (Psalms 18:11); “And thick clouds of the skies, from the brightness before Him, His thick clouds passed with hailstones and coals of fire,” (v.11, 12). Hailstones of fire together, both opposites, YET as ONE!!! Lion and Lamb = ONE (Revelations 5:5, 6).
Jesus speaks words of love, compassion, mercy etc., yet His words are like a sharp 2-edged sword (Revelations 1:16)… CUTTING! The same Jesus who used the word “blessed” 9 times (Matthew 5:3-11) is the same Jesus who uttered the words “… Depart from Me, you CURSED, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels (messengers)” (Matthew 25:41). He is the same Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world that tongue lashed the religious hypocrites in Matthew 23.
Jesus was/is Action-to-Revolution, the Redeemer and Judge of All.
Conclusion
I want to end with 1 Chronicles 28:9: “The LORD searches every heart and understands every desire and every thought. If you seek Him, He will be found by you.”
God is LOVE, the “I AM” – Exodus 3:14; He is JAH, “man of war,” Exodus 15:3.
If we listen to the heart of God conveyed thru the Old Testament prophets, He uses every relational metaphor we understand that we will see just how much He loves us. (Read Jeremiah 3:19-20 in different translations). He pleads for those who have strayed from Him (read Jeremiah 3:12-13, 20 in various translations).