Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Exodus 34:6
And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,
6 8 . Description of the theophany promised in Exo 33:19-23. The theophany consists essentially in a proclamation of the glories of Jehovah’s moral nature, developed with special reference to the occasion giving rise to the theophany, and emphasizing the predominance of the Divine attributes of mercy above those of judgement. Echoes of this great declaration of Jehovah’s moral nature occur frequently in the later literature: Num 14:18 (a quotation), Jer 32:18, Nah 1:3 a, Neh 9:17; Neh 9:31, Joe 2:31, Jon 4:2, Psa 86:15; Psa 103:8; Psa 111:4 b, Psa 112:4 b, Psa 145:8, 2Ch 30:9. It is also probably the source of the explanatory comments on the second commandment in Exo 20:5 b, Exo 20:6.
Vv. 6 9 are not really connected with their present context: cf. McNeile, 217, 30 ( a), 36 Vv. 1a, 2 5, 10 28 form one connected whole (p. 364 f.); and Exo 33:1; Exo 33:3-4; Exo 33:12-13, Exodus 17-23, Exo 34:6-9, Exo 33:14-16 (see p. 361) form another.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
This was the second revelation of the name of the God of Israel to Moses. The first revelation was of Yahweh as the self-existent One, who purposed to deliver His people with a mighty hand Exo 3:14; this was of the same Yahweh as a loving Saviour who was now forgiving their sins. The two ideas that mark these revelations are found combined, apart from their historical development, in the second commandment, where the divine unity is shown on its practical side, in its relation to human obligations (compare Exo 34:14; Exo 20:4). Both in the commandment and in this passage, the divine love is associated with the divine justice; but in the former there is a transposition to serve the proper purpose of the commandments, and the justice stands before the love. This is strictly the legal arrangement, brought out in the completed system of the ceremonial law, in which the sin-offering, in acknowledgment of the sentence of justice against sin, was offered before the burnt-offering and the peace-offering. But in this place the truth appears in its essential order; the retributive justice of Yahweh is subordinated to, rather it is made a part of, His forgiving Love (see Exo 32:14 note). The visitation of God, whatever form it may wear, is in all ages the working out purposes of Love toward His children. The diverse aspects of the divine nature, to separate which is the tendency of the unregenerate mind of man and of all paganism, are united in perfect harmony in the Lord Yahweh, of whom the saying is true in all its length and breadth, God is love 1Jo 4:8. It was the sense of this, in the degree to which it was now revealed to him, that caused Moses to bow his head and worship Exo 34:8. But the perfect revelation of the harmony was reserved for the fulness of time when the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world Rev 13:8 was made known to us in the flesh as both our Saviour and our Judge.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Exo 34:6-7
The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious.
The name of the Lord
I. the Lord. There we lay our basis. Unless you are prepared to admit the perfect sovereignty of God, you can go no further–you will see no more.
II. Then we put it in combination–the Lord God. And oh! what a combination! We put all sovereignty with all the mystery of the Godhead–God, that unfathomable word. But amongst all those wondrous attributes which go to make the word God, there is one stands out–that name leads us to it. The root of the word is kindness–God, the good. The Lord the good; the Lord–love; God. We put the infinitude of His sovereignty in combination with the boundlessness of His affection, and we say, The Lord, the Lord God.
III. But now we come to the goings forth of that wonderful mystery of Godhead to man–mercy. You know that the strict meaning of the word mercy is–a heart for misery. Therefore the first thought is–the great Lord God stooping to the wretched, going forth to the miserable.
IV. And why merciful? Because gracious. Grace is the free flowing of undeserved favour.
V. long-suffering! It is the most marvellous part of the character of God–His patience–it is so contrasting with the impetuosity, the haste, the impulsiveness of man. He is provoked every day, but He continues patient.
VI. Now it rises–abundant in goodness and truth. Abundant is enough and something over–a cup so full that it mantles–abundant, abundant in–
VII. goodness, and–
VIII. truth.
IX. keeping mercy for thousands. There are thousands who do not yet see or feel their mercy, for whom God is now keeping it in reserve–say, persons not yet converted.
X. Forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. We are getting all the more now into the work of Christ. And what distinction shall we make between iniquity, transgression, and sin? Is iniquity acts of injustice to a fellow-creature–and transgression acts of injustice towards God–and sin, the deep root of all in the human heart? Or is it thus? Is iniquity that principle of all wrongness, the want of uprightness, the acting unfairly by God or man;–and then transgression the act, whether it be to God or man, to God through man, transgression,–and then sin again the inner nature from which that transgression, which makes that iniquity, springs. I think that is the true intention–iniquity, transgression, sin. But He pardons all.
XI. by no means clear the guilty. The word guilty is not in the original–by no means clear. Whom? He will not clear any one whom He has not pardoned. Guilty means a man still subject to wrath. If a man does not accept Christ, he is still subject to wrath–that man God will never clear.
XII. And then comes that very difficult part–that he visits the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the childrens children, unto the third and to the fourth generation. It seems to me to be an ever-standing visible proof and monument of Gods holiness and justice. He visits sin from generation to generation. There are inherited dispensations, inherited calamities. Is it unjust? It is the principle of the greatest justice that we read of in the history of this world. For the atonement all depends upon that principle. If God does visit the sin of one in the sufferings of another, has not He also laid it down that He visits the righteousness of one in the happiness and the eternal salvation of another? And did we do away with that principle, where would be our hope? (J. Vaughan, M. A.)
Gods mercy
I. What the mercy of god is.
1. That perfection whereby He assists His creatures in misery (Lam 3:22).
2. His mercy is infinitely great (Psa 145:8).
3. He is the Fountain and Father of mercy (2Co 1:3).
II. To whom God is generally and especially merciful.
1. To mankind in general (Psa 145:9).
2. He continues life notwithstanding our sins (Psa 86:13).
3. In delivering out of troubles (Psa 107:13).
4. In granting all the necessaries of life (Mat 5:45).
5. Especially is He merciful to His people (Deu 32:43).
6. In pardoning all their sins (Heb 8:12).
7. In quickening them to newness of life (Eph 2:4-5).
8. In assisting us to exercise all true grace (1Co 7:25).
9. Support under spiritual troubles (Psa 94:17-19).
10. Blessing troubles for our good (Heb 12:10).
11. Bringing to heaven at last (Tit 3:8).
III. The uses that are to be made of Gods mercy.
1. Not to abuse it to licentiousness (Rom 6:1-2).
2. We should be merciful to others (Luk 6:36).
3. Pardoning their injuries, pitying their miseries, and relieving their necessities (Gal 6:10).
4. We must attribute all our blessings to the mercy of God towards us (Psa 115:1).
5. This should teach us to love Him (Psa 106:1).
6. Cause us to fear Him (Psa 103:11).
7. And induce us to praise Him (Psa 103:2-4).
8. Gods mercies are greater than our miseries (1Jn 4:4).
9. They are sealed to us by Christs blood (Heb 12:24).
10. His mercy is only known by the influence of the Holy Spirit (Eph 1:13-14). (T. B. Baker.)
The unveiled mystery of God
There is in man a yearning after the unseen. Every one feels, even if he will not confess it, that another world lies, after all, behind this one. But the world of spirits is twofold–the kingdom of the powers of darkness below, and the kingdom of light in heaven. In man there is by nature a secret drawing to that which is below. There is the dark point of sin in us which draws us downward. Whoever follows this drawing goes to destruction. But there is in man another drawing–a drawing to light, a drawing to God. For we were made for Him. But although we have separated ourselves from Him, He has not altogether given up His connection with us. He who would paint God, must paint love–a fire of love which fills heaven and earth. But who can comprehend and describe this boundless and endless love? It has collected itself, and given itself a bodily form, in order to reveal itself to us. The heart of God has opened itself up to us–eternal love has revealed itself to us in Christ Jesus. But it is not in the New Testament that this is revealed for the first time. It is as old as the revelation of Gods eternal counsel of love. Even in the Old Testament Christ is contained, although in type and prophecy. There is darkness round about God, He is veiled in mystery, no mortal man beholds His countenance and lives; the eyes of Moses are holden by Jehovah, whilst He passes by him. But a word falls upon his ear: in this word God pronounces His nature, and this word runs thus–God is love. That is the unveiled mystery of God. Let us then consider this unveiled mystery in the threefold way in which our text sets it before our eyes.
I. In the direction of life. God orders the vast and disposes of the most isolated object. That is just His greatness–attention in what is little. But how often are our ways and Gods direction of our life a mystery to us! That He leads us happily and blessedly, we believe, although what we see often appears to us to be strange. Yet we shall one day stand upon the heights of light and look back upon our dark paths in the valley, and they will be light, and our understanding will give its judgment in the praise of love. That is the unveiled mystery of God in the direction of life.
II. We will consider this unveiled mystery in the forgiveness of sin. For our life is full of sins and guilt. The termination of our life is the seal of the forgiveness of sins. We bear the law of God written on our hearts. But our sin has broken it. We are sorry; we should like to be pious and holy. Hence we come and present ourselves before God with new resolutions: from henceforth it shall be otherwise with us. But how long does it continue till it is as before? It will not come to a really new life. We amend there and then; but our moral life remains at all times a wearying work, and never becomes a free, joyful matter, which is understood of itself–which gushes and streams fresh and gladly out of the heart. Whence is this? The failing is in the foundation. God must make such an impression upon us as to win our hearts, and to make it impossible for us to do other than love Him. By what means does God make such an impression upon us? Not by His infinite greatness and majesty, but by His gracious love. We love Him because He has first loved us (1Jn 4:19). And what love is that? It is Gods pardoning love: not the love manifested in the displays of His goodness, in His anxiety for our earthly life. This humbles us, but it does not yet touch our innermost being. The innermost point in us, where we are connected with God, is the conscience. And just here we feel ourselves separated from God. Here we must experience the love of God: that is His forgiving love. But this is the right foundation of all moral work.
III. We will consider this unveiled mystery in covenant fellowship. The covenant of God with Israel rests on the forgiveness of sins. God dwells in the midst of them, He is their God and they are His people, and He leads them on their way, and He brings them to the goal. He thus reveals Himself to them as a covenant God. But all this is only a prophecy of the covenant of God with us in Christ Jesus. This rests on the true, real forgiveness of sins. But all this is but the commencement of the completion. We wait for the fulfilment of the promise. In hope, the abode yonder is already here. But we are not yet yonder. We are still on our pilgrimage to the hall of blessedness. There for the first time will there be the right celebration of the covenant. (J. C. Luthardt, D. D.)
The moral nature of God
I. The form in which the revelation is made.
1. In the first place, it is given, not in the cold and formal terms of a merely ethical and philosophical system, but in its warm and sympathetic application to the needs of mans life. The profoundest truth is here implied. But the form of the declaration is simple, couched in the every-day speech of men, such as all men, in any and every condition, could easily and readily apprehend.
2. It is not only addressed to man upon the simplest side of his nature, but it sets in the very foreground of the Divine qualities those which have regard to mans sinfulness, and the need in which he stands, of tenderness, pity, and grace. What a recognition is this of the true state of the human heart! Gods revelation is no philosophy of the might have been, of the ought to be–dreamy, vague, hypothetic, and useless. But it is a practical dealing with what is. It takes man just as it finds him.
II. Now, let us inquire, what is the revelation which is thus made in so human and so gracious a form? God declares Himself to be merciful and gracious. By the first quality we understand pitifulness, a tenderness towards the weak and helpless, with an added sense of gentleness and forgiveness towards those that are not only weak but wicked, sinful as well as sad. And while God is this, it is all of favour, free and unmerited. He is gracious as well as merciful. But there are added qualities of mercy and grace beyond the mere broad and general fact of their possession. These might be of the Divine nature, and yet their exercise might be restrained within narrow and brief limits of occasion and duration. But God is longsuffering and abundant in goodness and truth. We must not forget that these qualities of Gods moral being are related, as we have said, to human conditions, especially that of sin, and in respect of that He is longsuffering. For man is not merely a sinner, but he perpetuates the sin, he continues sinning; he is alienated from God, and remains an alien, with hard and ever harder heart, going farther away, being less accessible, increasing his rebellion ever. And yet Gods mercy does not cease. He loses no patience. He waits and watches. And of this mercy and clemency no one need doubt the power or the sufficiency. God is declared further to be abundant in goodness and truth. Goodness is perhaps an attribute of wider reach than mercy, embracing mercy for the sinner and the wretched in the beneficent relation towards all whose welfare and happiness God ever seeks. Truth is that harmony of being upon which we may ever depend. It is order and peace, it is fidelity and changelessness–everything that renders trust in the truthful God a certain thing, not liable to disappointment, change, and decay. The emphasis, perhaps, is to be placed upon the word abundant. God has enough and to spare. Then, these are by no means quiescent, inoperative attributes of the Divine nature. Men often lose themselves and the clearness of their thoughts in mere abstract statements of the qualities of God, but in this declaration of Himself, Jehovah shows how practical is the revelation which He gives. Keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. The phrase keeping mercy for thousands is a striking one. The term thousands is indefinite, signifying a very large number. It may be used in contrast with the third and fourth generation of the following clause, and if so, it indicates that the mercy of God is preserved through all the ages of mankind, and remains perpetual and ceaseless, for the universal race for ever. The forgiveness, too, how full is this! It is not merely the single sin that is pardoned. The continued habit of sin, the formed and indurated character of evil, the strong and defiant wickedness, even these may find mercy and have experience of Gods pardoning grace. It is His prerogative. It is His nature. All this is based upon the most absolute justice and integrity of righteousness. He will by no means clear the guilty. The eternal claim of moral order must be recognized, and until guilt is purged and sin is destroyed, the sinner cannot be cleared. Let us, now, gather up the great truths of this sublime passage, and lay their meaning and their power to our hearts.
1. The revelation which God grants of Himself is in the sphere of moral being.
2. This moral aspect of Deity is in complete harmony with every other side of the Divine nature.
3. The moral being of God, as it is revealed, necessarily provides a satisfaction of its claims of justice and rectitude.
4. In this completeness of revelation there is an abundance of grace and mercy which is offered to all men. This, then, is the final truth which appears in the revelation of God. Let no man despair. (L. D. Bevan, D. D.)
Gods great goodness
I. The glory of God is His goodness. When Moses said, I beseech Thee, show me Thy glory, the Lord answered, I will make all My goodness pass before thee (Exo 33:18-19; Exo 34:6).
1. We see it in nature (Psa 33:5; Psa 145:9; Psa 65:11).
2. We see it in providence (1Ki 8:66; Psa 31:19; Zec 9:16-17).
3. We see it in grace (Eph 1:7; Psa 23:6; Jer 31:14).
II. The effect of Gods goodness upon the heart of man is meant to be.
1. Sorrow at having offended God (Rom 2:4; Job 42:5-6; Hos 3:5),
2. Delight in praising God (Psa 107:8; Isa 63:7).
3. Desire to receive Gods blessings (Num 6:24; Num 6:26; Mic 7:18-19).
4. A disposition to imitate Gods character (Luk 6:36; Eph 5:2; 1Jn 6:11). (Clergymans Magazine.)
Gods goodness
The late Dr. Samuel Martin, in a letter to a friend after Dr. Davidsons death, thus speaks of that pious and devoted man, whose memory is hallowed in the minds of all who knew him:–He studied divinity at Glasgow College. Thomas and I lived together, companions and fellow-students; and I, being some years older, was considered as a kind of guardian. On looking back to that period, in reviewing fully sixty years intercourse and friendship, I ever found in him, from first to last, genuine and unaffected piety, affection, benevolence, regular, exemplary, amiable deportment. I recollect, with pleasure, the family devotions of our little society. I well remember an exclamation, on one occasion, to me, after rising from prayer–a striking proof of his characteristic humility, gratitude, and tenderness of conscience, Oh, Martin, it is the Divine goodness, of all things, that humbles me most!
Gods forgiving mercy
I once visited the ruins of a noble city that had been built on a desert oasis. Mighty columns of roofless temples still stood in unbroken file. Halls in which kings and satraps had feasted two thousand years ago were represented by solitary walls. Gateways of richly carven stone led to a paradise of bats and owls. All was ruin! But past the dismantled city, brooks, which had once flowed through gorgeous flower-gardens, and at the foot of marble halls, still swept on in undying music and unwasted freshness. The waters were just as sweet as when queens quaffed them two thousand years ago. A few hours before they had been melted from the snows of the distant mountains. And so Gods forgiving love flows in ever-renewed form through the wreck of the past. Past vows and past covenants and noble purposes may be represented by solitary columns and broken arches and scattered foundations that are crumbling into dust, yet through the scene of ruin fresh grace is ever flowing from His great heart on high. (T. G. Selby.)
That will by no means clear the guilty.
God justified in mans salvation
I. Man thinks of God as if God were something like himself: and hence he would make God a changeable and capricious Being; he would make Him connive at sin and make light of transgression, accepting a few tears, or a few resolutions, or a few alms, as satisfaction enough for him to receive pardon. All such ideas of God are base and unwarrantable, and will cover those who entertain them with everlasting confusion. The nature of God makes it impossible for Him to clear the guilty. If the positive be true, that God loves holiness, the negative must be true, that He hates iniquity.
II. And now some will probably say, why, this is contravening the very gospel; it is surely favouring the notion that none can be saved, for who can be saved, when there is no guiltless man? And if God will not clear guilty men, how is any one to meet his Maker in peace? The view I have of it is this–that God does not clear the guilty; no, but I will tell you what He does, which is infinitely more to His glory, and of necessity more for our peace–He makes the guilty guiltless, and He makes the unrighteous perfect in righteousness. He does this in virtue of the life laid down for the guilty, for all who in Him have believed; in Him all have paid the penalty, all have satisfied Gods justice, and all have perfect righteousness. (H. Stowell, M. A.)
The guilty by no means cleared
I. What is to be understood by the Lord not clearing the guilty? When He pronounces the sentence of acquittal, it will be in full accordance with justice. And yet the basis of this worlds religion is nothing more than a belief that God will clear the guilty. What are all the delusions of self-righteous workings? what are all the endeavours to put off till a more convenient season comes? what is all the resting in ordinances, forms, and external things? Just a forgetfulness that God is a heart-searching God.
II. But now observe, why is it true that God will by no means clear the guilty? Everything in God forbids it. His very faithfulness renders it impossible. Now, faithfulness is part of the Divine goodness. What forms the real substance of our hope? that through Gods grace we shall be at last in heaven? God tells me, that he that believeth shall be saved; He tells me, that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses from all sin. What gives us confidence? Simply, Gods faithfulness–I believe it, because God says it. Take that away, and where is His goodness? It is no more. Now bear this in mind, that what gives stability to the promise gives stability to the threatening. The love of God is a holy love. Now the great cause of all misery is sin; and that which forbids sin is a holy love. Yes, and one may even say that the penalty, awful and fearful as it is, is one of the great unfoldings of His love.
Conclusion:
1. The subject has a very awful look, as it regards the sinner hardened in his trespasses. He will by no means clear the guilty ones.
2. The words are full of encouragement to the poor penitent spirit–He will by no mesons clear the guilty. Ah! you are ready to say, how can He clear me? I am all guilt. Thou never hadst any due conception of thine own guiltiness, and of what thy guiltiness is before God. Yet none at all hast thou. Why? Because it has all been transferred to Jesus. Because He has taken it and borne it away. He has endured it. He was not cleared, He endured the penalty.
3. How this truth should lead to–
(1) Confession of sin;
(2) holy service. (J. H. Evans, M. A.)
Union of justice and grace in God
Behold the goodness and severity of God, says the Apostle Paul. In most cases the goodness is illustrated by one kind of events and the severity by another, but in Christs work the same event of His death displayed the two sides of Gods character alike and at once, and thus pardon was never offered to the guilty without a loud protest against sin. Now the pains taken to inculcate both these qualities through the entire Scriptures seem to point at something in man, some conception of character which he needs to have impressed upon him and which he ought to realize in his own life.
I. And in pursuing this subject we remark, first, that among men he who is capable of exercising only hard, unrelenting justice is held to be far from perfection, and cannot be loved; while, on the other hand, a character in which bare kindness or goodness is the only noticeable trait secures no respect. Only where we see the two qualities united can we feel decided confidence and attachment. They do not check each other, as might be supposed, but add to each others power. The indiscriminately kind man is felt to be weak; the harsh rigorous nature may have intellect in abundance, but fails to warm the souls of men. When united they form character, a character in which there is depth, the depth of intellect resting below temper and impulse on a foundation of wisdom and true excellence of heart. There can be no moral government among men without wisdom, for he who makes men good must look not at immediate impressions, but at results: he must take long stretches of time into view, and long series and interactions of causes shaping character. When did instinctive benevolence ever fail to thwart its own wishes and to corrupt its beneficiaries? The union of these opposites, where alone wisdom can be found, ensures the best government, and as every one must be in some way a governor, of a family, or a workshop, if not of a town or state, the whole of the vast interests of mankind depend on this union.
II. If God is to be honoured and loved by human beings, He must present himself to our minds under the same twofold aspect. He must be seen in the light of those qualities which we may call by the name of justice, and of those to which we give the names of goodness, kindness, tenderness, or mercy. Sinners are recovered and reclaimed first by a sense of sin, and then by a perception of Divine love, and without the latter they would not think of their sins, or grow into that filial fear, that holy worship which the Psalmist intends. Only under this twofold aspect of God is true religion, the religion of the soul, possible.
III. We add thirdly, that it involves a very high degree of wisdom to know when to be just or severe, and when to exercise goodness or grace. It is a great problem to govern a nation; it is a greater to govern a virtuous universe; but a greater still is presented when the element of evil is thrown into the question, and the interests of the many come into conflict with the happiness of the sinful few. Especially when we look on God as training His creatures up for a higher condition; enlarging their powers, helping the strong to grow stronger, pitying the weak and revealing Himself as their forgiving God; then above all does it appear that the balances of the moral universe are exceedingly delicate, and that there is need of a hand, firm and wise beyond our thought, to hold them. No solution of the intricacies of things has been offered to man deserving of notice but that which Christ has made. The reconciliation of holiness and love in His work, its just, well-balanced training of the whole moral nature challenge our respect, our admiration, even if we will stand aloof from Christ. He is made of God unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.
IV. And now, having brought your minds to Christ, I close with the remark that He united the two sides of character which we have spoken of, in their due mixture, in His one person. And it is well worthy of being remarked that their union proves their genuineness and their depth. He who could love so and forgive so, notwithstanding His deep sense of the sin, what strength of character must He have had, what a depth and truth of love, what a power of loving, what an inexhaustible richness of soul! And He who could rebuke so and show such strong displeasure against evil doing, how hard, humanly speaking, must it have been for Him to love objects so far from loveliness; and if He loved them as He did, must not His love have been of another kind than ours, one superior to personal slights and injuries, wholly unlike instinctive kindness of temper, partaking of a quality of lofty wisdom! (T. D. Woolsey.)
Universal redemption subversive of the assurance of salvation
Draw near and contemplate this Christian paradox; come, behold with us, for a time, this Christian mystery, the certainty that the guilty cannot be cleared–that God cannot do it–is the safeguard of redemption, the guarantee of the offered atonement.
I. It is true that this declaration of Gods character–of the impossibility of His clearing the guilty–shuts many large and wide doors of hope. The hearts of sinners are full of devices for salvation. They have many entrance-ways to pardon and favour.
1. There is the placability and compassion of God upon which they largely draw. The Divine anger is thus, in their imagination, a bugbear, well got up to scare transgressors, to keep them in check, but as to any ultimate and eternal condemnation resulting from it, all is set aside by their convenient doctrine of His easy and overwhelming compassion.
2. Again, there is the tempters suggestion of the changeableness of God, ye shall not surely die, opening to many a wide door. It is not that the veracity of God is actually questioned. But then He may take back or change His word. These deceitful hopes are met, and the door they open for ever shut, by the one decisive passage–and I will by no means clear the guilty.
II. Whilst this passage shuts with so decisive a hand every false door of hope, and announces in characters of light, that guilt cannot go unpunished, it yet opens a door of hope that never can be shut, and is an immovable anchor to every soul that has fled for refuge to the great propitiation. He can by no means clear the guilty, therefore am I assured He can by no means punish the innocent. In Christ I am innocent; guilt is no longer attachable to me; my soul is justified; justice, with its sword, has no claim upon me–it is satisfied; the law, with its penalties, has no demand against me; every jot and tittle of it is fulfilled. Who is he that condemneth? it is Christ that died.
III. We observe that the strong consolation drawn from this passage is warranted only on the supposition that, in dying, Christ died as a true and real substitute in the room and stead of His people, and for them alone. (J. Lewis.)
Justice and mercy not antagonistic
Now, there is no greater mistake than to suppose that the Divine Being, as a God of justice, and a God of mercy, stands in antagonism to Himself. Observe, I pray you, that it is not mercy, but injustice, which is irreconcilable with justice, and that it is cruelty, not justice, that stands opposed to mercy. These attributes of Jehovah are not contrary the one to the other, as are light and darkness, fire and water, truth and falsehood, right and wrong. No. Like two separate streams which unite their waters to form a common river, justice and mercy are combined in the covenant of redemption. Like the two cherubims whose out-stretched wings met above the ark, or like the two devout and holy men who drew the nails from Christs body, and bore the sacred burden to the grave, or like the two angels who received it in charge, and, seated like mourners within the sepulchre, the one at the head, the other at the feet, kept silent watch over the precious treasure, justice and mercy are associated in the work of Christ. They are the supporters of the shield on which the cross is emblazoned. They sustain the arms of our heavenly Advocate. They form the two solid, immovable, and eternal pillars of the Mediators throne. On Calvary, mercy and truth meet together, righteousness and peace kiss each other. (T. Guthrie, D. D.)
Visiting the iniquity of the fathers.–
The law of heredity
We are born into a life where we cannot determine the nature of the influences which we exert. We can repress some, modify others, and develop still others; but we cannot determine the effect, nor change it. A certain influence we must exert one upon another.
I. First, we will mention voluntary influence, or the capacity which we have gained of influencing our fellow-men by bringing power, or the causes of power, to bear upon them on purpose. This is the more familiar form of influence. It is the foundation of all instruction. The parent influences the child on purpose. The teacher purposely influences all the minds that are brought under his care. Friends influence friends. We draw men to our way of thinking, and to our way of acting. We persuade; we dissuade; we urge; we enforce our agency; and in a thousand ways we voluntarily draw men to and fro.
II. Then, besides all this, besides what we do on purpose, there is the other element of unconscious influence which men exert–that which our nature throws out without our volition. For I hold that it is with us as it is with the sun. I do not suppose that the sun ever thinks of raising the thermometer; but it does raise it. Wherever the sun shines warmly, the mercury goes up, although the sun and the instrument are both unconscious. And we are incessantly emitting influences good, bad, or negative. We are perpetually, by the force of life, throwing out from ourselves imperceptible influences. And yet the sum of these influences is of the utmost weight and importance in life. A single word spoken, you know not what it falls upon. You know not on what soul it rests. In some moods, words fall off from us, and are of no account. But there are other moods in which a word of hope, a word of cheer, a word of sympathy, is as balm. It changes the sequence of thought, and the whole order and direction of the mind. Single words have often switched men off from bad courses, or off from good ones, as the case may be. A simple example, silent, unspeaking by vocalization, but characterized by purity, by simplicity, crystalline and heavenly, has sweetened whole neighbourhoods. Fidelity, disinterestedness in love, pure peacefulness, love of God, and faith in invisible things, cannot exist in a man without having their effect upon his fellow-men. It is impossible that one should stand up in the midst of a community and simply be good, and not diffuse the influence of that goodness on every side. That which is true of goodness is true also of evil. Men who are under the influence of the malign passions are sowing the seeds of these passions. Sparks fly out from them as from the chimney of a forge. It is the inherent necessity of wickedness to breed wickedness and distribute it. A man is responsible, not only for what he does on purpose, but what he unconsciously does. And the load of responsibility grows as you take in these widening circles. More than this, the greater the nature, and the more ample the endowment, the more influence does a man exert both for good and for evil. The moral tone of our literature in this respect is exceedingly bad. There is almost a maxim that genius has a right to be lawless as to its method of doing right things. Every man is responsible for duty; and duty, and responsibility for it, augment in the proportion of being.
III. Our influence is not merely voluntary, or involuntary and unconscious, but it becomes complex, because it is compounded with the lives and the added influence of others. We are are social. We come into relations with men. Our freedom touches theirs. We inspire them. But we do not change their nature. We, as it were, sow germs in their soil. These germs go on and become forces in their hands. So that that which we do to single ones, they propagate. But mens influence is not limited to their voluntary action, nor to the complex social relations which they sustain, and by which their influence is propagated indirectly.
IV. In some respects men hold in their hands the history of the future. The very solemn declaration of our text–Visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children, and upon the childrens children, unto the third and to the fourth generation–this is the mystery of ages. If it were but on the one side; if men, having the power of beneficence, had the power to perpetuate it, we should admire that; but if it is a fact that men have the power of transmitting corruption, and so of influencing after times, who can fail to marvel at that? If that is a law, men may well stand appalled in the presence of such results as must fall out under it. And it is a law, it is a fact. We must learn this great hereditary law, and we must include in our purposes of benevolence the wise selection, the perpetuity and the improvement of the race, by the observance of this great law of hereditary transmission. The malignity of sin is a terrible malignity, as it is revealed by this great law of the transmission of influence to posterity, either directly and voluntarily, or indirectly and unconsciously. There are multitudes of men that are careless of themselves. They are said to be their own worst enemies. They are men that are free and easy; that squander their money; that pervert their disposition. And because they are good-natured and genial, people say of them, They are clever fellows; they are kind men; they do no harm; at any rate they are their own worst enemies. Now, a man that is spending his whole life to destroy himself, cannot stop with himself. And the better fellow he is, the more likely is he to exert an influence. More than that, it is not himself alone that is destroyed. The babe in the cradle is cursed. The daughter unborn is cursed. The heir and sequent children are cursed.
V. I will add but a single consideration more: and that is a caution and a warning to all those who abe consciously bearing in themselves the seed of transmissible disease. I think there is no crime and no misdemeanour, to those that are instructed, greater than that of forming marriage connections under such circumstances. (H. W. Beecher.)
The organic unity of the race
I. Let us, in the first place, observe the natural fact we may almost call it, of the unity and solidarity of the race. The method of the preservation and reproduction of the species, which God has appointed, is that of parentage and offspring. The relations of the different parts of this prolonged species are such, as to involve a certain unity. Birth and nurture, the family relation, the law of similarity, the limits of variation, by which the children cannot diverge from the parental type beyond a certain mark of liberty, all these are what we may call physical and bodily elements of unity in the race. This unity is found, as we rise to the human race, to involve the descendant in the conditions of the parent, to a degree that is much more striking than in lower species. The human infant remains longer in dependence upon the parent; the years of education extend farther; the conditions of life for the offspring, in proportion as civilization and culture make life more complicated, and more deeply affected by the parent. That this unity of the race is taught by Scripture, no one can doubt. It is further illustrated by the Divine treatment of individual cases, and by the development of the Divine purpose throughout the sacred history . . . If there be lessons in history, this lesson at least is clear. God has bound men into the unity of their descent, and deals with man along the lines of his generation.
II. Our text does more than merely reveal the truth which we have stated and illustrated; it further shows us that this organic unity of the race is of a moral quality and involves moral discipline. God declares that He visits the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the childrens children, unto the third and unto the fourth generation. We are not bound by the mere number of the descents to which the visitation will be applied. The very form of the phrase suggests indefiniteness. It may be that, as a matter of fact, only one generation shall suffer, or, on the other hand, the dread judgment may descend beyond the third and fourth line of the posterity. The law is one of the generalities of human life, not to be measured by the accuracies of arithmetic. Man needs not to be exalted to presumption, nor cast down to hopelessness, by the words of this revelation. And, as we interpret the duration of the penalty in the general sense, so we may find, in the words of judgment, something more than the mere formula of doom. If there be a visitation of the fathers sin, there surely must be also a benediction from the fathers virtue. These words therefore reveal to us the moral quality of the races organic unity. That which is involved in the descent of child from parent is not by way of mere natural cause and effect. It is indeed part of the material conditioning of the universe. But it is superintended by the God who governs, and governs not only by physical law, but also with moral and spiritual ends. He reveals Himself as administering it, and we know therefore that if it be a Divine visitation, it is done with wisdom and regulative grace, it is done for the higher purposes of character, for the evolution of good, and for the final extinction of evil, and therefore, it must hold, blended with it, not only the designs of moral law and the vindication of justice, but also the sublime issues of grace and salvation, inasmuch as God is a Father as well as a Ruler, a Saviour as well as a Judge. It is, then, not a doom, but a discipline. It is not to work itself out like some physical mechanical law, catching you as a machine catches the unwary or the blundering operative, and then never letting him go, until it has dragged him through all its terrible course of wheels and rollers, cogs and crushing pistons, to throw him out, at length, a torn and mangled dismembered, slaughtered travesty of life and power. This is your philosophic view of human descent, but this is not the Divine. God visits the sins of the fathers on the children. We know then that He does it to discipline the race. My Father is a husbandman, said Jesus, teaching us the same blessed lesson under a beautiful figure. What, may we now ask, is the practical outcome of all this truth, mans organic relation, this relation divinely regulated and applied to the discipline of the race?
1. In the first place, will it not give us a fresh sense of the responsibility of life? We are links in the chain of human life. We receive the influences of our fathers, we hand these on to our children.
2. Shall we then not deeply consider the tremendous responsibility with which we are freighted? We may involve a long line of descendants in the result of our living.
3. The import of this lesson becomes all the greater when we consider it as it bears upon family life, and the relations which subsist between the parent and the child. What a sanctity has not God given to the family! Nothing must break the bond which binds society into its essential and formative elements–the circles of home.
4. Let us, then, seek to render this Divine law of great potency in the building of our Church and the furtherance of the kingdom of Christ as it is given to us. To you and to your children is the promise.
5. And finally, let me ask you to reflect upon your relation to Jesus Christ in the light of this organic unity of the race. (L. D. Bevan, D. D.)
The iniquity of the fathers visited upon their children
1. That this passage has no reference whatsoever to Gods treatment of mankind in a future state. It does not mean that God will punish children in a future state for the sins of their parents; but the visitation which it threatens is exclusively temporal (see Eze 18:20).
2. That God never visits children even with temporal judgments for the sins of their parents, unless they imitate, and thus justify their parents offences. Hezekiah, Josiah, and many other pious men were the children of exceedingly wicked parents; but as they shunned the sins of their fathers, and were supremely devoted to God, they enjoyed His favour in a very high degree, and were visited with no marks of displeasure on account of their progenitors. There is, however, one apparent exception to these remarks, which must be noticed. It is evident from facts, that even pious children often suffer in consequence of the wicked conduct of their parents. If a father be idle, or extravagant, his children, and perhaps his childrens children, may suffer in consequence; nor will any degree of piety always shield them from such sufferings. It must, however, be added, that the sinful example and conduct of wicked parents has a most powerful tendency to prevent their children from becoming pious, to induce them to pursue vicious courses, and thus to bring upon them Divine judgments.
3. That our text describes Gods method of proceeding with nations, and civil or ecclesiastical communities, rather than with individuals. I do not say that it has no reference to individuals, but that it refers principally to nations, states, and churches. That we may perceive the justice, wisdom, and propriety of this method of proceeding, it is necessary to consider the following things. It is indispensably necessary to the perfection of Gods moral government that it should extend to nations and communities as well as to individuals. This, I conceive, is too evident to require proof; for how could God be considered as the moral governor of the world if nations and communities were exempt from His government? Again, if God is to exercise a moral government over nations and communities by rewarding or punishing them according to their works, the rewards and punishments must evidently be dispensed in this world; for nations and communities will not exist, as such, in the world to come. In that world God must deal with men, considered simply as individuals. Further, it seems evidently proper that communities as well as individuals should have a time of trial and probation allowed them; that if the first generation prove sinful, the community should not be immediately destroyed, but that the punishment should be suspended, till it be seen whether the nation will prove incorrigible, or whether some succeeding generation will not repent of the national sins, and thus avert national judgments. Now it is evident that if God thus waits upon nations, as He does upon individuals, and allows them a season of probation, a space for repentance, He cannot destroy them until many generations of sinners are laid in their graves. Besides, by thus suspending the rod or the sword over a nation, He presents to it powerful inducements to reform. He appeals to parental feelings, to mens affection for their posterity, and endeavours to deter them from sin by the assurance that their posterity will suffer for it. (E. Payson, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 6. And the Lord passed by – and proclaimed, The Lord, c.] It would be much better to read this verse thus: “And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed JEHOVAH,” that is, showed Moses fully what was implied in this august name. Moses had requested God to show him his glory, (see the preceding chapter, Ex 33:18,) and God promised to proclaim or fully declare the name JEHOVAH, (Ex 33:19) by which proclamation or interpretation Moses should see how God would “be gracious to whom he would be gracious,” and how he would “be merciful to those to whom he would show mercy. Here therefore God fulfils that promise by proclaiming this name. It has long been a question, what is the meaning of the word JEHOVAH, Yehovah, Yehue, Yehveh, or Yeve, Jeue, Jao, Iao, Jhueh, and Jove; for it has been as variously pronounced as it has been differently interpreted. Some have maintained that it is utterly inexplicable; these of course have offered no mode of interpretation. Others say that it implies the essence of the Divine nature. Others, that it expresses the doctrine of the Trinity connected with the incarnation; the letter yod standing for the Father, he for the Son, and vau (the connecting particle) for the Holy Spirit: and they add that the he being repeated in the word, signifies the human nature united to the Divine in the incarnation. These speculations are calculated to give very little satisfaction. How strange is it that none of these learned men have discovered that God himself interprets this name in Ex 34:6,! “And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed YEHOVAH the LORD GOD, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty.” These words contain the proper interpretation of the venerable and glorious name JEHOVAH. But it will be necessary to consider them in detail.
The different names in this and the following verse have been considered as so many attributes of the Divine nature. Commentators divide them into eleven, thus: –
1. JEHOVAH.
2. EL, the strong or mighty God.
3. RACHUM, the merciful Being, who is full of tenderness and compassion.
4. CHANNUN, the gracious One; he whose nature is goodness itself; the loving God.
5. ERECH APPAYIM, long-suffering; the Being who, because of his goodness and tenderness, is not easily irritated, but suffers long and is kind.
6. RAB, the great or mighty One.
7. CHESED, the bountiful Being; he who is exuberant in his beneficence.
8. EMETH, the truth or true One; he alone who can neither deceive nor be deceived, who is the fountain of truth, and from whom all wisdom and knowledge must be derived.
9. NOTSER CHESED, the preserver of bountifulness; he whose beneficence never ends, keeping mercy for thousands of generations, showing compassion and mercy while the world endures.
10. NOSE avon vaphesha vechattaah, he who bears away iniquity and transgression and sin: properly, the REDEEMER, the Pardoner, the Forgiver; the Being whose prerogative alone it is to forgive sin and save the soul. () NAKKEH lo yenakkeh, the righteous Judge, who distributes justice with an impartial hand, with whom no innocent person can ever be condemned. And,
11. POKED avon, c. he who visits iniquity, who punishes transgressors, and from whose justice no sinner can escape. The God of retributive and vindictive justice.
These eleven attributes, as they have been termed, are all included in the name JEHOVAH, and are, as we have before seen, the proper interpretation of it; but the meaning of several of these words has been variously understood.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The Lord God: this title shows his glorious being, power, and authority; the following titles note his goodness to men.
Abundant in goodness and truth; in fulfilling all his gracious promises made to Abraham, and to his seed, and to all his people; wherein he is said to be abundant, because he generally is better than his word, and gives more than he promised. There is a truth in Divine threatenings, but here the situation of this word in the midst of the attributes of Divine goodness plainly shows that it is to be restrained to the promises; this being usual and reasonable, that general words have their signification limited by the context. And indeed here seems to be a hendyadis,
goodness and truth, for true, sincere, and hearty goodness, as mercy and truth are oft put for true and real mercy. See Psa 25:10; 57:3, &c.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
6. the Lord passed by before himinthis remarkable scene, God performed what He had promised to Mosesthe day before.
proclaimed, The Lord . . .merciful and graciousAt an earlier period He had announcedHimself to Moses, in the glory of His self-existent and eternalmajesty, as “I am” [Ex3:14]; now He makes Himself known in the glory of His grace andgoodnessattributes that were to be illustriously displayed in thefuture history and experience of the church. Being about to republishHis lawthe sin of the Israelites being forgiven and the deed ofpardon about to be signed and sealed by renewing the terms of theformer covenantit was the most fitting time to proclaim the extentof the divine mercy which was to be displayed, not in the case ofIsrael only, but of all who offend.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And the Lord passed by before him,…. Or caused his Shechinah, his divine Majesty, and the glory of it, to pass before him, as the Targums; his glory and goodness, which he had promised should pass before him, Ex 33:19 and it is but a transient passing view the greatest of men, God’s peculiar favourites, have of him in this life:
and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord God; the Jerusalem Targum wrongly paraphrases the words as a prayer of Moses thus, “and Moses prayed, and said, O Lord, Lord”; and so the Vulgate Latin version; but it is quite clear, and beyond all doubt, from Nu 14:17 that what follow are the words of God, and not of Moses: the sense is, that the Lord, as he passed by Moses, to raise and fix his attention, declared it was Jehovah that passed by; which is repeated the more to excite his attention, and is the name by which he had made himself known to Moses, even when he sent him into Egypt; for “I am that I am” is an explanation of this name, see Ex 3:14 and the word “El”, translated “God”, signifies mighty and powerful, and is true of all the three divine Persons, to whom respect may be had in the use of these three words. What is proclaimed or declared concerning God is, that he is
merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth; first “merciful”, and he is so in the most tender and affectionate manner; he is rich and plenteous in mercy, freely giving it, delights in bestowing it, constantly shows it to his people; it is manifested and displayed in Christ, the mercy seat; and it lays a foundation for faith and hope, and is the spring of all good things in time, and to eternity: and he is also “gracious”, good and kind to men, without any merit or desert of theirs, but bestows good things on them freely, of his own free grace, favour, and good will, as appears by various acts of his; in the eternal choice of them to everlasting happiness; in providing a Saviour for them, and giving all grace and spiritual blessings to them in him; by giving Christ to them, and for them, justifying them freely by his righteousness, pardoning their sins according to the riches of his grace, regenerating, calling, preserving, and saving them by it: likewise “longsuffering”; both towards wicked men, the vessels of wrath, by whom his patience and longsuffering are abused and despised; and towards his elect, on whom he waits to be gracious, not willing that any of them should perish, but all be brought to repentance; and his longsuffering is their salvation: and it follows, “abundant in goodness and truth”; in providential goodness to all men; in special goodness to his chosen people, which he has laid up, and wrought out for them, and shown them in Christ; in his truth and faithfulness, in fulfilling his promises, both with respect to the mission of his Son into the world, to be the Saviour of it, and with respect to all other things promised, whether relating to this life, or that to come, to grace or glory; he never suffers his truth and faithfulness to fail; his promises are all yea and amen in Christ.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(6) The Lord passed by before him.In this brief phrase we have the entire historical narrative of the manifestation to Moses of Gods glory. For details we must refer to the terms of the promise (Exo. 33:21-23), which are also characterised by brevity, but still add something to the bare statements of the present passage. Moses was, no doubt, hidden and protected by Gods hand in a clift of the rock while Gods glory passed by. He was only allowed to look out from his hiding-place after the glory had passed, when he saw the remains of itthe back parts; even this was, however, so brilliant a vision that it left a permanent light upon his countenance, which he was fain ordinarily to conceal from the people by means of a veil (Exo. 34:29-35).
The Lord, The Lord God . . .The new name of God is not a name, as we understand the expression; it is rather a description of His nature by means of a series of epithets. At the bush He had revealed His eternal, self-existent character; in the descent on Sinai (Exo. 19:16-19; Exo. 20:18-21) He had shown His terribleness; now, in the act of pardoning His people and taking them once more into favour, He made known His attribute of mercy. The more to impress this feature of His character on Israel, He accumulated epithet on epithet, calling Himself Rakhum, the tender or pitiful one; Khannun, the kind or gracious one, who bestows His benefits out of mere favour; Erek appayim, the long-suffering one; Rab khesed, the great in mercy; Notser khesed, the keeper of mercy; and Nose avon, the forgiver of iniquity. Still, to prevent the fatal misapprehension that He is a Being of pure and mero benevolence (Butler, Analogy, Part I., Exodus 2, p. 41). He added, to complete the description, a reference to His justice. He will by no means clear the guilty (comp. Nah. 1:3), and will visit iniquity to the third and fourth generation. (Comp. Exo. 20:5.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
6, 7. Proclaimed This appears to have been a supernatural communication, in an audible voice, proceeding out of the theophany, as the ten commandments had been spoken out of the midst of the fires of Sinai . Deu 5:4. As a declaration of divine perfections it is conspicuously complete, but especially emphatic on mercy’s side . Its impressiveness is abiding, and is felt by every devout reader .
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Exo 34:6 And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,
Ver. 6. The Lord, The Lord God. &c. ] These glorious titles and attributes are those back parts of God. Exo 33:23 None can see more than these and live: and we need see no more than these that we may live.
Longsuffering.
In goodness and truth.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Exodus
GOD PROCLAIMING HIS OWN NAME
Exo 34:6
This great event derives additional significance and grandeur from the place in which it stands. It follows the hideous act of idolatry in which the levity and sinfulness of Israel reached their climax. The trumpet of Sinai had hardly ceased to peal, and there in the rocky solitudes, in full view of the mount ‘that burned with fire,’ while the echoes of the thunder and the Voice still lingered, one might say, among the cliffs, that mob of abject cowards were bold enough to shake off their allegiance to God, and, forgetful of all the past, plunged into idolatry, and wallowed in sensuous delights. What a contrast between Moses on the mount and Aaron and the people in the plain! Then comes the wonderful story of the plague and of Moses’ intercession, followed by the high request of Moses, so strange and yet so natural at such a time, for the vision of God’s ‘glory.’ Into all the depths of that I do not need to plunge. Enough that he is told that his desire is beyond the possibilities of creatural life. The mediator and lawgiver cannot rise beyond the bounds of human limitations. But what can be shall be. God’s ‘goodness’ will pass before him. Then comes this wonderful advance in the progress of divine revelation. If we remember the breach of the Covenant, and then turn to these words, considered as evoked by the people’s sin, they become very remarkable. If we consider them as the answer to Moses’ desire, they are no less so. Taking these two thoughts with us, let us consider them in-
I. The answer to the request for a sensuous manifestation.
But this is not the highest form. Words and propositions can never reveal so fully, nor with such certitude, as a personal revelation. But we have Christ’s life, ‘God manifest’: not words about God, but the manifestation of the very divine nature itself in action. ‘Merciful’:-and we see Jesus going about ‘doing good.’ ‘Gracious,’ and we see Him welcoming to Himself all the weary, and ever bestowing of the treasures of His love. ‘Longsuffering’:-’Father! forgive them!’ God is ‘plenteous in mercy and in truth,’ forgiving transgression and sin:-’Thy sins be forgiven thee.’
How different it all is when we have deeds, a human life, on which to base our belief! How much more certain, as well as coming closer to our hearts! Merely verbal statements need proof, they need warming. In Christ’s showing us the Father they are changed as from a painting to a living being; they are brought out of the region of abstractions into the concrete.
‘And so the word had breath, and wrought
With human hands the creed of creeds.’
Is there any other form of manifestation possible? Yes; in heaven there will be a closer vision of Christ-not of God. Our knowledge of Christ will there be expanded, deepened, made more direct. We know not how. There will be bodily changes: ‘Like unto the body of His glory.’ etc. ‘We shall be like Him.’ ‘Changed from glory to glory.’
II. The answer to the desire to see God’s glory.
The true ‘glory of God’ is His pardoning Love. That is the glowing heart of the divine brightness. If so, then the very heart of that heart of brightness, the very glory of the ‘Glory of God,’ is the Christ, in whom we behold that which was at once ‘the glory as of the only begotten of the Father’ and the ‘Glory of the Father.’
In Jesus these two elements, pardoning love and retributive justice, wondrously meet, and the mystery of the possibility of their harmonious co-operation in the divine government is solved, and becomes the occasion for the rapturous gratitude of man and the wondering adoration of principalities and powers in heavenly places. Jesus has manifested the divine mercifulness; Jesus has borne the burden of sin and the weight of the divine Justice. The lips that said ‘Be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee,’ also cried, ‘Why hast Thou forsaken Me?’ The tenderest manifestation of the God ‘plenteous in mercy . . .forgiving iniquity,’ and the most awe-kindling manifestation of the God ‘that will by no means clear the guilty,’ are fused into one, when we ‘behold that Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.’
III. The answer to a great sin.
Sin evokes His pardoning mercy. This insignificant speck in Creation has been the scene of the wonder of the Incarnation, not because its magnitude was great, but because its need was desperate. Men, because they are sinners, have been subjects of an experience more precious than the ‘angels which excel in strength’ and hearken ‘to the voice of His word’ have known or can know. The wilder the storm of human evil roars and rages, the deeper and louder is the voice that peals across the storm. So for us all Christ is the full and final revelation of God’s grace. The last, because the perfect embodiment of it; the sole, because the sufficient manifestation of it. ‘See that ye refuse not Him that speaketh.’
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
GOD. Hebrew. EL See App-4.
longsuffering = slow to anger.
goodness = lovingkindness, or grace.
truth = faithfulness.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
passed: Exo 33:20-23, 1Ki 19:11
proclaimed: Num 14:17-19, Isa 12:4
The Lord: Exo 3:13-16
merciful: Deu 5:10, 2Ch 30:9, Neh 9:17, Psa 86:5, Psa 86:15, Psa 103:8-13, Psa 111:4, Psa 112:4, Psa 116:5, Psa 145:8, Joe 2:13, Jon 4:2, Rom 2:4
abundant: Psa 31:19, Mic 7:18, Rom 2:4, Rom 5:20, Rom 5:21, Eph 1:7, Eph 1:8
truth: Psa 57:10, Psa 91:4, Psa 108:4, Psa 111:8, Psa 138:2, Psa 146:6, Lam 3:23, Mic 7:20, Joh 1:17
Reciprocal: Gen 18:32 – I will not Gen 19:16 – the Lord Exo 22:27 – for I am gracious Num 14:18 – longsuffering Deu 4:31 – the Lord Deu 7:9 – the faithful Deu 32:4 – a God 2Sa 24:14 – for his 1Ki 19:12 – a still 2Ki 13:23 – the Lord 1Ch 17:26 – thou art God 1Ch 21:13 – great 2Ch 30:18 – The good Ezr 10:2 – yet now there is hope Neh 9:31 – gracious Job 33:24 – Then Psa 4:1 – have mercy upon me Psa 25:6 – for they Psa 36:7 – How Psa 51:1 – O God Psa 62:12 – mercy Psa 75:1 – for that Psa 78:38 – But he Psa 85:10 – Mercy Psa 100:5 – and his truth Psa 119:68 – good Isa 30:18 – therefore Isa 55:7 – for Isa 63:7 – according to his Jer 33:6 – and will Eze 18:23 – not that Dan 9:4 – the great Dan 9:9 – To the Lord Nah 1:3 – slow Mat 7:11 – how Luk 1:50 – General Luk 5:21 – Who can Luk 7:47 – Her Rom 9:15 – I will have Rom 15:5 – the God Eph 2:4 – who Eph 3:20 – exceeding 1Ti 1:14 – exceeding Jam 5:11 – the Lord is 1Pe 1:3 – which 1Pe 5:10 – the God 2Pe 3:9 – but is 1Jo 4:8 – God is
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Exo 34:6-7. And the Lord passed by before him Fixed views of God are reserved for the future state; the best we have in this world are transient. And proclaimed the name of the Lord By which he would make himself known. He had made himself known to Moses, in the glory of his self- existence and self-sufficiency, when he proclaimed that name, I am that I am; now he makes himself known in the glory of his grace and goodness, and all-sufficiency to us. The proclaiming of it denotes the universal extent of Gods mercy; he is not only good to Israel, but good to all. The God with whom we have to do is a great God. He is Jehovah, the Lord, that hath his being of himself, and is the fountain of all being; Jehovah-El, the Lord, the strong God, a God of almighty power himself, and the original of all power. This is prefixed before the display of his mercy, to teach us to think and to speak even of Gods goodness with a holy awe, and to encourage us to depend upon these mercies. He is a good God. His greatness and goodness illustrate each other. That his greatness may not make us afraid, we are told how good he is; and that we may not presume upon his goodness, we are told how great he is. Many words are here heaped up to acquaint us with, and convince us of, Gods goodness. 1st, He is merciful This speaks his pity and tender compassion, like that of a father to his children. This is put first, because it is the first wheel in all the instances of Gods good-will to fallen Man 1:2 d, He is gracious This signifies both freeness and kindness: it speaks him not only to have compassion for his creatures, but a complacency in them, and in doing good to them; and this of his own good-will, not for the sake of any thing in them. 3d, He is long-suffering This is a branch of Gods goodness which our wickedness gives occasion for. He is long-suffering, that is, he is slow to anger, and delays the executions of his justice; he waits to be gracious, and lengthens out the offers of his mercy. 4th, He is abundant in goodness and truth This imports plentiful goodness; it abounds above our deserts, above our conceptions. The springs of mercy are always full, the streams of mercy always flowing; there is mercy enough in God, enough for all, enough for each, enough for ever. It speaks promised goodness, goodness and truth put together, goodness engaged by promise. 5th. He keepeth mercy for thousands This speaks, (1,) Mercy extended to thousands of persons. When he gives to some, still he keeps for others, and is never exhausted: (2,) Mercy entailed upon thousands of generations, even to those upon whom the ends of the world are come: nay, the line of it is drawn parallel with that of eternity itself. 6th, He forgiveth iniquity, transgression, and sin Pardoning mercy is instanced in, because in that divine grace is most magnified, and because it is that which opens the door to all other gifts of grace. He forgives offences of all sorts, iniquity, transgression, and sin, multiplies his pardons, and with him is plenteous redemption. Nevertheless, 7th, He is just and holy, for he will by no means clear the guilty The word guilty, indeed, is not in the original; but the sense requires this, or some such word, to be supplied, as it is in the Septuagint. The expression intimates, that however merciful and forgiving God is toward the penitent, yet he will not suffer his honour and authority to be trampled upon by those who wantonly abuse his lenity and forbearance. Therefore the passage is thus rendered by the Chaldee: Sparing those who are converted to his laws, and not justifying those who are not converted. It is true, Maimonides, and others after him, take these words to be a further amplification of the goodness of God, signifying, that in punishing offenders he will not utterly destroy them. For he translates, , nakkeh lo jenakkeh, extirpating he will not extirpate, in visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children: that is, Though he chastise the guilty, yet he will not destroy them. But there appears to be no authority for translating the passage thus, unless Isa 3:26 be an instance in which the word nakkeh requires to have such a sense affixed to it. Certainly the other is the common meaning of it, and is perfectly consistent with the account of Gods other perfections and the delineation of his character here given. For his justice is in perfect harmony with his mercy, and is equally a branch of his love and goodness, to curb and restrain sin, being as much an act of divine goodness as to pardon the penitent and reward the obedient. (1,) He will by no means clear the impenitently guilty, those that go on still in their trespasses. For none are pardoned but those that repent and forsake all known sin. (2,) He will not clear even the penitent without satisfaction to his justice, His pardoning mercy is never exercised but through the atonement of Christ, and by faith in him. For without shedding of blood there is no remission. (3,) The sin which is even pardoned is generally chastised, and the people of God themselves are corrected for the failures and imperfections of their obedience. Nay, in many cases, the children suffer for the follies and vices of their parents, and the parents may read their own sins in the disorders and miseries of their offspring. Thus, at least, does God visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children: yet he keepeth not his anger for ever, but visits to the third and fourth generation only, while he keeps mercy for thousands. This is Gods name for ever, and this is his memorial to all generations.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
34:6 And the LORD passed by before him, and {a} proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,
(a) This refers to the Lord, and not to Moses proclaiming: as Exo 33:19.