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Sermon Outline: I Will Show You Who I Am (Exodus 34:1-7) I. To See God Is To Know Him II. To Know God Is To Understand His Attributes III. In Understanding God’s Attributes One Must Obey
Our text for tonight's message is taken from Exodus 34:1–7.
In our preceding message, we have learned how Moses wanted to see a complete revelation of God's glory. He said to God, "Shew me thy glory." (Exodus 33:18) But God said to him that ‘no man can see Me and live.’ (Exodus 33:20) Moses was a finite and fallen creature, and like all others, he could not endure the full glory of His majesty, so God made certain arrangements. He told Moses to hide in a cleft of the rock, and He would cover him with His hand. And when He passed by, he would be able to catch a glimpse of His glory. (Exodus 33:18-23)
Tonight, we want to learn what is this glimpse of God's glory. The title of our message is ‘I Will Show You Who I Am’.
But before Moses could see a glimpse of God's glory, the Lord commanded him to do something. Remember, at this point in time, the two tablets of the Ten Commandments were already broken, ground into powder, mixed with water, and Moses made the children of Israel drink it. It was a symbol of them swallowing the bitterness of their idolatry (Exodus 32:19-20).
Look at verse 1 of Exodus 34; “And the Lord said unto Moses, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first: and I will write upon these tables the words that were in the first tables, which thou brakest.” Here was the good news: that God still wanted His people to have His law. Although the people had broken the covenant, God was willing to renew His covenant with them based on a fresh set of the Ten Commandments.
Verse 2; “And be ready in the morning, and come up in the morning unto mount Sinai, and present thyself there to me in the top of the mount.” So once again, Moses was commanded to go up to Mount Sinai, and there God would meet him. But for the rest of the people, they were not allowed to come near, including their animals. Verse 3; “And no man shall come up with thee, neither let any man be seen throughout all the mount; neither let the flocks nor herds feed before that mount.”
They were not allowed anywhere near the mountain—firstly, because it would preserve God's holiness, His transcendence, and His eternal mystery. And secondly, the children of Israel had sinned against God, and they had broken the covenant by worshipping the golden calf. So only their representative, their mediator—Moses, was allowed to go up the mountain.
And only after the Ten Commandments were given and the people had renewed their part of the covenant with God by promising to obey His commandments, then they would be able to come near to Him.
Verse 4; “And he hewed two tables of stone like unto the first; and Moses rose up early in the morning, and went up unto mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, and took in his hand the two tables of stone.”
Was there anything different with this second set?
Now, there are two important things to take note of in regards to this second set of the Ten Commandments. The first time God gave Moses the law, He also provided the tablets. But this time, Moses had to bring his own two tablets. Some theologians believe that it serves as a reminder of Israel's sin. However, the Bible does not tell us the reason why—so it is best not to speculate. The important thing was not the tablets, but what was written on them: the Law of God.
Just as it does not matter how beautiful your leather-bound Bible is, or whether you carry a $3,000 Bible in an Apple MacBook—it is not the physical Bible per se, but the words, the actual words written in it, that are essential.
Secondly, God said in verse 1 that He would write the words upon the tablets. But if you look down to verse 27 of the same chapter, “And the LORD said unto Moses”, you, “Write thou these words”. So was it God or Moses who wrote on the tablets? Was there a contradiction? There’s no contradiction at all. Moses was the human author, and he was divinely inspired by God to write those words.
As 2 Peter 1:21 says, “For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” This is what divine inspiration is all about. Those were the words of God. God was the divine author. So it was not wrong to say that God wrote those words, even though they were written by Moses. He received those commandments directly from God Himself, and he was just an instrument to pen down those words.
If those were just Moses’ words, or the words of men's wisdom, then you and I have the liberty to obey or not to obey. But since those commandments were the words of God, then we must obey. There's no ‘and’, ‘if’, or ‘but’. We must obey—period.
Remember, Moses wanted to see a complete revelation of God's glory. And God was not willing, because it was to protect him—no man could see God and live. However, God would reveal a glimpse of His glory to Moses.
I. To See God Is To Know Him
Our first point is, ‘To See God Is To Know Him’.
Look at verse 5; “And the Lord descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord.”
Moses had expected to see God, but when he went up the mountain, the Lord preached to him His sacred name. He did not expect to hear a sermon. In a sense, God was like saying to Moses, ‘You want to see My glory—but why do you want to see My glory? Is it not to know Me? Well, come up here, and I will show you who I am.’
The name "the LORD" is Jehovah (Exodus 34:5). It is God’s covenant name. He is the I AM THAT I AM—the God who is eternally self-existent and self-sufficient. The God of salvation. The God of creation and redemption. He always has been and always will be. He is the Alpha and the Omega.
Whenever the Bible speaks of a name, it is always something more than just a title. There’s a meaning attached to it. Like for example, Abraham means a father of a multitude. Indeed, he became the father of the Israelites, as well as the spiritual father of all those who believe. Moses means saved from the water. And truly, he was saved from the water. Aaron means the one who brings the light. Indeed, he became the first high priest to light the golden lampstand and offer incense and sacrifices in the tabernacle.
Most certainly, the name of God would have a far greater meaning. So God went on to explain His sacred name.
II. To Know God Is To Understand His Attributes
Our second point is: ‘To Know God Is To Understand His Attributes’.
Verse 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”.
“Merciful”
The word merciful means compassionate or to show sympathy. Dear friend, God cares for our situation. He is sympathetic toward our weaknesses. His heart is always drawn to help us whenever we are in need. Like Psalm 103:13 says, "Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him."
Most of us who are parents, whenever we hear of our children going through a difficult time, or struggling to pay their bills, or facing some challenges, we will do everything within our means to help them, to assist them. Right? How much our God, whose heart is full of compassion. He is a merciful God.
“Gracious”
The word “gracious” means undeserved favour. Often times people would say, ‘This is not what I deserve, I deserve more than this.’ Indirectly, they are saying God should have given them what they deserve. If God were to do that, all of them would perish in their sins. Instead, God did something better. Rather than giving us what we deserve, He gives us what we don’t deserve, and that is the free gift of His grace. He saved us, not on the basis of any merits of our own—we have none—not of any good works, but solely by His grace. Salvation is always by His grace, and His grace alone.
“Longsuffering”
The word “longsuffering” is a term that describes great patience, sometimes translated as slow to anger. 2 Peter 3:9 says, "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."
Take a moment and consider the number of times we have rejected the gospel before our conversions, and even after our conversions. We are not perfect. How often we return back to our sins again and again—things that we promise not to indulge in—we give in to the temptation. How frequently we have disobeyed the Word of God. If God is a God who says, ‘Strike one, strike two, strike three—you are out’, all of us will be consumed in our sins for all eternity. We would be lost. But the truth is that God is longsuffering, slow to anger.
“Goodness”
The word “goodness” means lovingkindness, and it is connected to the word truth. God's goodness is based on His truth. The best way to look at these two attributes is in the way He forgave our sins. If God were to close an eye to our sins, if He were to say, “Never mind about your sins. I will just close an eye to those things,” He would have kept His goodness but not His truth. He would be a God of goodness but not a God of truth and justice.
The only way for God to be both true and also good at the same time in dealing with our sins is to send His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross of Calvary. Jesus paid the penalty of our sins, and on that basis, you and I are forgiven. So when we look to the cross, we see both God's goodness and truth in abundance.
“Keeping mercy for thousands"
Verse 7; "Keeping mercy for thousands", in other words, His love and mercy spreads far and wide, from one generation to another. “Forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.” Although those three terms may be used interchangeably for sin, here they were used to refer to different things. “Iniquity” means evil or wickedness. “Transgression” means defiant rebellion. And “sin” means a transgression of God's law. The point here is that God is willing to forgive all kinds of sin.
Some of us may feel so heavily burdened with the guilt of our sins—things that we have committed—so much so that we wonder whether there is any way for God to forgive us. We may be tempted to think that what we have done is so evil, so wicked, that we are beyond the reach of God's grace. But again, the truth is that God is willing to forgive our sins—whatever sins: iniquity, transgression, and sin—if we repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Dear friend, like Moses, we want to see God as He actually is. We want to know Him. But God has already revealed Himself to us, the believers. To see Him is to know Him. And to know Him is to understand who He really is—His attributes. All we need to do is to look into our lives, and we see the amazing and wonderful work of Jesus Christ—how He has saved us in the past (our justification), He continues to save us in the present (our sanctification), and He will save us in the future (our glorification).
When we look into our lives, we see God’s mercy, grace, longsuffering, goodness, truth, and forgiveness. If I may put it this way: our lives—including our church, our families, our children, our marriages—they are a testimony of God’s grace, mercy, longsuffering, goodness, truth, and forgiveness. That is the God whom we believe in, whom we know and understand—His attributes—who He really is.
III. In Understanding God’s Attributes, One Must Obey
Our final point is: ‘In Understanding God’s Attributes, One Must Obey.
Knowing God and His attributes is one thing, but to obey Him is another. When we do not obey Him, there are serious consequences. When we obey Him, there are also great blessings. Look at the second part of verse 7: "And that will by no means clear the guilty”, in other words, for the unrepentant, God will not leave them unpunished.
Does God punish children for the sin of their parents?
“Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation."
Now, this verse has caused some people to wonder: ‘how can the children be judged for the sins of their parents?’ ‘How can God do that?’ ‘It is not fair.’ Indeed, every one of us is accountable for our own sins, not the sins of others. Ezekiel 18:20 says, "The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son."
So, to better understand this verse, it is best to look at a similar passage in Exodus 20:5–6, which was about the second commandment: Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image. Now, that passage is closely connected to this verse in Exodus 34. Why? Because the children of Israel had broken the second commandment when they worshipped the golden calf, when they bowed down to the golden calf.
So let me read for you, "Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments."
Those people who struggle with this verse would often think of the children as innocent. But notice carefully: it was not only the fathers who hate, but also the children. The Bible says unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me. So the children were not innocent, and they hated God as much as their fathers did. That is why it is both fair and just for God to punish them for their sins.
Most Bible scholars would explain that the father’s sin can last for generations in the sense it can affect the future generations, because the children would imitate the parents, and the same sin tends to run in the family. One generation will set the spiritual tone for the next. If the father is a worshipper of idols, there's a high possibility that the children will do likewise. As the saying goes, “like father, like son.”
But there's something more important than that, and that is the word covenant. The Israelites were in a covenant relationship with the Almighty God, and He dealt with them in a covenantal way. So whenever the covenant head of the family have sinned against Him, it would affect the whole family.
Now this is a reminder to all of us that, as believers, we are in a covenant relationship with God. And as His covenant people, we must understand that He deals with us in a covenantal way. When a father or mother live in sin and ungodliness and are not worshipping God or are not faithful to Him, it will affect the children, and then affect the following generations to come.
The everlasting promise
Notice in the preceding verse 5 it says, “unto the third and fourth generations of them that hate me” (Exodus 20:5), then in verse 6 it says, ‘unto thousands I will show mercy of them that love me’ (Exodus 20:6). In other words, the word “thousands” is not only a reference to thousands of people, but rather thousands of generations.
So this promise is more powerful than the warning, because the blessing is not just for three or four generations, but for thousands of generations. It will last forever. This was God's promise going back all the way to Abraham in Genesis 17:7, where God said, "And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations”, and what kind of covenant is that? It is “an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee."
So this promise is far more powerful than the warning because the blessings that comes with it will last for a thousand generations. It will last forever.
A warning to parents
But this promise is not some automatic guarantee, because our children may turn away from the Almighty God. Sadly, sometimes it is because of us—our sins, the way we live our lives, the way we dishonour God, the way we regard physical and spiritual things. Our sins will affect our children. That is why this promise is not an automatic guarantee, but it has to be received by faith—through articulating our faith in our lives, that our children will see this love for God and this obedience to His commandments.
Dear friend, if we want God to bless our children, there is this awesome responsibility for us to demonstrate our faith to them—in the way we love God, and in the way we obey His commandments.
Do you think our children do not know what we have done and what we continue to do? They know. God wants us to put Him first in our lives—as the president of our lives. He wants us to live in godliness and righteousness. When we fail to do that, God knows—and our children know too. And then they will imitate our behaviours.
So when you and I put our financial portfolio as the number one focus of our lives, when we allow our careers, our hobbies, our aspirations, our houses, our children's education to take over the place of God in our lives, when we are not worshipping and serving God as we should, when we are living in sin—our sins will surely affect our children. They will accept our value systems, and then they in turn will teach their children to do likewise. And this vicious cycle will go on and on and on for generations. That is what it means.
But on the other hand, if we love God supremely—He is always number one in our lives—everything else pales in comparison to Him. We worship, serve, and honour Him with everything we have—whether it be our strength, our time, or our resources. Our children—they are watching us. And they see that our faith is real, and it will also affect them. And the blessing of God will rest upon our families. Our children will have this godly pattern to follow, and they in turn will teach their children to do likewise. And then this blessed cycle will go on, and on, and on by God’s grace and mercy.
Dear friend, what kind of life are you living? What kind of relationship you have demonstrated to your children in regards to God? What kind of worship and services are you offering? Ultimately, what kind of legacy will you leave behind?
Like Moses, we say to God, ‘Show us your glory’, God says, ‘I have already revealed myself to you. To see me is to know me, and to know me is to understand who I really am—my attributes. And in understanding my attributes, you must obey me. If you obey me, not only you will be blessed, but your children and your children's children will also be blessed. Why? Because I am a covenant-keeping God, and I will keep my promises’
So I pray that all of us will demonstrate this faith—not only for ourselves (of course, we are accountable to God), but also for the sake of our children and the people around us. Because we have a covenant relationship with God, and He deals with us in a covenantal way.
May God use us as an instrument to shower His blessings upon our church, our friends, our children, our colleagues, the people who come in contact with us—all to the glory of His precious name.
Let us pray.
Father in heaven, indeed oftentimes people would desire to see Thee as Thou really art and actually art. But yet the Bible tells us that no man can see the fullness of Thy glory with our naked eyes, because no man can see Thee and live. Thy glory is so great that no man can endure the sight of Thee.
Yet Thou hast revealed Thyself to us through Thy only begotten Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The Spirit of Christ dwells in us. And as we look to Him, we see in our lives the attributes of Thee so amazingly demonstrated: Thy mercy, Thy grace, Thy longsuffering, Thy goodness, Thy truth, and Thy forgiveness. Indeed, it is in abundance.
All we need is to look into our lives. And we who understand Thy attributes—we know who Thou art, and we believe in Thee. We must also obey Thee. Disobeying Thee will come with serious consequences, and obeying Thee will come with great blessings—not only upon ourselves, but upon our families, upon our church—because we are Thy covenant people, and Thou would deal with us in a covenantal way.
We believe in a covenant-keeping God. So help us to live such a life that it will impact the lives of our children. And they in turn will also affect the lives of their children. So that this blessed cycle will go on and on and on for as long as our Lord Jesus will tarry in His return. All to the glory of Thy precious name.
We pray all this in Jesus’ name. Amen.