Exodus 34:6-7 is one of the scriptures where God Himself described Himself to us. The Lord described Himself after Israel had been rescued from Egypt and the people had rejected God by creating a golden calf to worship. Yet it was while they were in this depraved and rebellious state that God proclaimed His character to Moses.
Exodus 34:6-7, verse 6: The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,
Verse 7: keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.” (English Standard Version)
Interestingly, God describes Himself as a “God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness”. Obviously, this is an important part of His character which He wants us to remember. And it is a part of His character which He wants to reveal to us when society has rejected Him. It is not wishful thinking that God is these things. It is the Lord Himself who says it. That makes it a factual statement, and a statement we can believe and stand upon.
“We
can take comfort in whom the Lord describes Himself to be.”
We can take comfort in whom the Lord describes Himself to be. When we feel far from God because of our iniquities or our society’s situation, we know that God's character and desire do not change. It is easy to see our society's poor choices and believe that to mean that the Lord is not with us or is far from us. That simply is not true. God is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, despite who we are or what our society is doing.
Let us take comfort in who the Lord has described Himself to be!
Samuel Louwrens