Trudi talks about an often misunderstood and difficult part of Yahweh’s description of Himself.
However, Tim didn’t hit the record button soon enough, so we join this, in progress. Here’s the transcription of what Trudi said before the recording began…
[Reading from Exodus 34:6-7] And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “Yahweh, Yahweh, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.”
We’ve been going through these verses in Exodus 34 where God, for the first time, says His name and then describes His character. Here Yahweh is choosing words to best describe Himself In two short verses.
We’ve looked at His compassion and grace. We’ve explored how God does get angry, but He is slow to anger. It’s always for a purpose birthed out of His unfailing love. Last week Tim gave us a deep dive into hesed and emet, His love and faithfulness. I don’t know about you, but I have learned so much in this series, but we aren’t finished.
This week we get to the end part of the verse that can leave people scratching their head, or they just skip it. It’s been all nice up to this point with compassion and grace and love and now He’s punishing kids! What’s up with that? How do both of those things exist? Often we want to ignore what we don’t understand.[END TRANSCRIPT]
Everyone has an opinion about God, whether they believe in Him or not. But what does God have to say about Himself? You might be surprised to find out.
This series draws directly from the fantastic book of the same name, God Has a Name [Amazon link], by John Mark Comer.
Would you like to join the conversation? Send us your questions or comments, and we’ll talk about it After Class (later this week!)