- [Jon] The Bible is a collection
of many ancient Israelite scrolls,
and together they're telling one unified story.
- [Tim] Now, if you look at the second scroll, Exodus,
you'll find two important sentences.
They're actually so important that they're referenced
and re-quoted over 20 more times within the Bible itself.
- [Jon] It must be important.
What does it say?
- [Tim] "Yahweh, Yahweh," that's God's name,
"a God compassionate and gracious, slow to anger,
"overflowing with loyal love and faithfulness."
- [Jon] I can see why it's repeated so often.
These attributes of God are really lovely.
- [Tim] And the statement goes on.
"He maintains loyal love for thousands, forgiving iniquity,
"transgression, and sin,
"yet he won't declare innocent the guilty,
"he will bring the iniquities
"of the fathers upon the children
"and grandchildren to the third and the fourth."
- [Jon] Okay.
Hold on.
This last part takes a bit of a turn.
We're first talking about God's love,
and suddenly it's about his judgment on grandkids.
So is God merciful or vengeful?
- [Tim] Yeah, great question.
Let's see these words in a larger context
by looking at something important in Genesis,
the first scroll of the Bible.
There God chooses one family,
the Israelites, from among the nations,
and he promises that he's going to rescue the whole world
through this family somehow.
- [Jon] And Genesis ends with the family of Abraham
in Egypt.
- [Tim] Then the book of Exodus begins,
and this book has two large movements.
- [Jon] Right,
okay, so this first movement of Exodus,
God rescues Israel from slavery in Egypt.
- [Tim] And in the second movement,
God leads them to Mount Sinai
where they camp out for a year.
And God invites this whole nation
into a partnership called a covenant
so that they can be shaped by his values and character.
- [Jon] And represent God to all the other nations.
- [Tim] Exactly.
Now this whole Mount Sinai movement in Exodus
can be broken up into four literary units.
First, there's the actual ceremony
where the Israelites agree to be God's partners,
and God sets up the terms of the relationship
starting with the ten commandments.
The first two are ...
- [Jon] Don't give your allegiance to other gods
and don't make any idol images of God.
Seem simple enough.
- [Tim] After that, God shows Moses detailed blueprints
for building this sacred home
so that God can come and live among them.
- [Jon] Oh, right.
And then comes a really long narrative
about the building of that sacred home.
- [Tim] But you missed something.
Right in between these sections
is the story that has our description about God's character.
The story begins with Moses going up on the mountain,
writing down the partner agreement
as the Israelites are at the base of the mountain
violating the first two commands.
- [Jon] That's ridiculous.
They're breaking the covenant vows
while the ceremony is still going on.
- [Tim] Yes.
And so God is hurt and angry, and he warns Moses
that this betrayal will keep on happening.
God is ready to call it quits.
- [Jon] But what about his promise
to rescue the world through them?
- [Tim] Yeah, exactly.
This is what Moses brings up.
And so what is God gonna do?
Should he end the partnership, which would be fair?
- [Jon] Or will he be faithful to his promise to Abraham
and show them mercy?
- [Tim] Yeah, exactly.
Now look back at the words that we began with,
and you'll see
they are about this very tension between God's mercy
and his justice.
- [Jon] Okay, so the statement opens like this,
"a God compassionate and gracious."
- [Tim] In Hebrew,
this line has three words that rhyme, "el rahum hannun."
And the line "overflowing with loyal love
and faithfulness" matches the first,
as it also has three Hebrew words,
"rab hesed emet."
- [Jon] Each of those lines have two attributes of God,
and they surround a fifth attribute
that God is slow to anger.
- [Tim] Right.
Now, that's the first half of this description of God,
then comes the second half.
"God maintains loyal love for thousands."
And how is he going to remain loyal
to people who keep rebelling against him?
By forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin.
- [Jon] But God's forgiveness
doesn't mean people can just do whatever they want.
- [Tim] Right.
God's mercy is balanced in what follows.
"Yet he won't declare innocent the guilty,
"he'll bring the iniquities of the fathers upon the children
"and grandchildren to the third and the fourth."
- [Jon] The third and the fourth what?
- [Tim] Well, it's referring to generations of people
who repeat their ancestors' rebellion against God.
They'll get what they deserve.
But notice, this small number of generations
contrasts that massive number up above.
- [Jon] God's loyal love to thousands.
- [Tim] Right.
And then check this out.
God's forgiveness of iniquity in this line
is contrasted with his justice on iniquity in this line.
- [Jon] Okay.
And all those lines are surrounding a central line here
about God's justice.
"He will not declare innocent the guilty."
So while God is slow to anger, he is also just.
- [Tim] Right.
This is the tension that these two sentences are exploring.
How does a faithful and loyal God
deal with such a rebellious people?
This is the challenge God faces in this story,
and it's the same challenge
he faces in the whole biblical story
as he works to rescue the world through this family.
- [Jon] With that in mind,
we can take a closer look at these five attributes
that God declares about himself to Moses.
A God compassionate and gracious, slow to anger,
overflowing with loyal love and faithfulness.
- [Tim] And we'll see how each one leads us deeper
into the character of God and into the story of the Bible.
(soft music)