Exodus 34:6-7 — And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.

Today is the Lord’s day and when I read this passage, which has been a favorite ever since I first read it, it seemed a good day to write about who The Lord says He is.
A first thing to note is that this passage contains the name of The Lord. He has many titles, and has said other things to describe Himself (“Tell them ‘I am’ hath sent thee.”) — but in this passage we read in Exodus 33:19 that He says to Moses “I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee;” This passage, then, must be one of the high points of the Bible. Almighty holy God descends and doesn’t just share His name, but explains the meaning that is contained in it. Did you just catch your breath in amazement? — if not, go back and reread that sentence.
Many attributes of God are declared in these two wonderful verses:
— He is strong and mighty.
— He is merciful, full of tenderness and compassion.
— He is gracious, goodness itself; the loving God.
— He is long-suffering and kind.
— He is great.
— He is overflowing with generosity.
— He is true, the source of truth and knowledge and wisdom.
— He is merciful forever.
— He is the merciful judge whom no innocent person need ever fear.
— He is the righteous judge whom no sinner can ever escape.
For sure God has other attributes — He is all knowing, all powerful, ever present and ever lasting, to mention but a few. But what I notice about The Lord’s naming of Himself is that it is focused on the personal and relational characteristics. It’s as if He says “Listen, this is who I am — this is how I will deal with you.” I can hardly imagine such kindness. Moses, it is said, was God’s friend and they spoke face to face. Those words are so ordinary, and tell of something so amazing …
Some of the details are worth looking at a little more closely —
“Keeping mercy to thousands”. The Hebrew words here define a covenant relationship. God says “I have taken responsibility for you, forever.”
“forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty;” A seeming contradiction — but a contradiction that the rest of the a Bible resolves. A Savior is appointed to provide forgiveness for those who will take receive it. For those who will not, punishment remains.
“visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.” Does this mean that if the father sins, the child is punished directly? It does not. Consider, for example Deuteronomy 24:16 — “The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers: every man shall be put to death for his own sin.” There are, however, things in our own experience that show the force of this warning. All too often, the same sinful tendencies show up from generation to generation, and all to often children with parents who sin simply have lives that are not as happy, to say the least, as those of their more fortunate peers.
I see this piece is becoming long … and I think I could write so much more and not come near excavating its depths. I’ll leave off, and leave you to meditate on the wonderful name of God!