Dr. Tom Olbricht, one of my professors when I was in college, had a profound impact on my approach to the Bible. I was reminded of this the other day when reading Nick Gill’s blog. Dr. Olbricht taught me to look for the things that the Bible itself says are most important and that one of the ways the Bible does this is by repetition. Something that appears numerous times in the Bible is probably something that we should take notice of.

In the past year I’ve become aware of a passage that the writers of the Bible seemed to think is very important, even though it’s a passage that I’ve tended to overlook. The passage is Exodus 34, especially verses 5, 6 and 7. In those verses, God describes himself. And the Bible refers back to this description time and again.

“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, 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.” ” (Exodus 34:5-7 ESV)

You may rememeber the scene. It’s “the replacement of the tablets,” when Moses goes up the mountain to receive the law a second time. He asks to see God’s glory, and God has him stand in a hollow in the rock, allowing Moses to see “God’s back.” And as God passes by, He declares His own name.” But He doesn’t just say “Yahweh” or “Jehovah.” He offers this description, a description which is referred to time and again in the Bible (For an idea, look at Numbers 14:18; Nehemiah 9:17; Psalm 86:15; 103:8; 145:8; Joel 2:13; Jonah 4:2; Nahum 1:3).

Who is God? He is a gracious and compassionate God. He is slow to anger and abounds in love and forgiveness. Yet He punishes sin. That’s our God. We need to see His love and mercy, and we need to see His justice.

I want to take time to meditate on the meaning of this description of God. After all, it comes from God Himself.