The Merciful God
Exodus 34:1–8
The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious. Exodus 34:6

After Moses had interceded for the people of Israel so that God would not destroy them because of their having made the golden calf, Moses made three great prayers. His first request was that he might know God (33:13). He had been with God in the mountain twice for forty days at a time but he still yearned to know God better. This is a petition every Christian should make often.

Moses’s second petition had to do with God’s promise to send an angel with the people. Moses judged it impossible that he should lead the people without the Lord’s very own presence (v. 15). The Lord heard this request and granted it. Moses was a remarkable man, and one of his remarkable characteristics emerged now as he added a third petition to the two that had already been granted. “Please show me your glory,” he said (v. 18). As God’s answer makes clear, this was nothing less than a request to see God face-to-face in all his splendor, to see him unobscured by clouds or devices like the burning bush.

God replied that he could not show his face to Moses, because no human being can see the face of God and live. But he would reveal his goodness and proclaim his name to Moses, which he did by placing him in the cleft of a rock, covering the opening with his hand, and then causing his goodness to pass by. The text says, “The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. 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, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin’” (34:5–7). These words unfold the meaning of “the name” of God, expressed in his mercy to all who confess their sin and come to him.

This is one of the greatest revelations of God in the Bible, and it meant a lot to Israel. Exodus 34:6 is one of the most frequently quoted passages in the Old Testament. This is where David learned that God was merciful. He learned it from this great story in the Bible. Moreover, he was wise enough to base his prayer requests on it (see Ps. 86:5). So should we! Indeed, we have even more cause to do it, because we know how merciful God has been to us through the death of Jesus Christ. The mercy of God is seen at the cross of the Savior more than at any other place. It is the ultimate expression of mercy and the means by which God saves.