And Jehovah came down in the cloud, and stood beside him there, and proclaimed the name of Jehovah.
Israel had wrecked itself, and Moses had pleaded for the people. Now he climbs Sinai again, and God comes down to stand beside one man and speak His own name.
Moses is about to see God's glory. But what does grace do when a nation has ruined itself?
The sovereignty of God in grace is an essential part of His glory. Israel had destroyed itself, and their only resource remained in Jehovah Himself. When all is lost, then is the time for grace to show itself. But we must see the glory of this grace from the right standpoint. God was to put Moses in the cleft of the rock so that he could see the glory. For this purpose Moses cut two stone tablets like the first two, which were broken, and went up Mount Sinai a second time.
Notice the direction of travel. Moses climbs, but God has to come down.
What Moses saw is not stated. The Lord had come down to him and the descended Lord made known the name of the Lord. It is a most blessed hint of the incarnation of Jehovah and the making known of the name of Jehovah through Him, who is Jehovah. "For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ" (John 1:17).
God proclaims a name. That is more than a label — and it does not tell everything.
The Lord, faithful to His promise, descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. Name in Scripture, in connection at least with God, expresses nature; and so here it means what God was as JEHOVAH. It is essential to remember that it is not the Father, but Jehovah in His relationship with Israel, who is revealed here. It is therefore not a complete revelation of God. That could not be until after the cross… The difference is between what God was as Jehovah to Israel, and what God is as the Father to His children.
Moses had pleaded for the people. This is God's answer — and it has a limit.
To this plea God answers in grace, and gives a partial revelation of Himself in His goodness, and grace, and mercy. This is a glimpse of His glory: not the law demanding what man should be, but the glory revealing what God is. … Clearly this is not pure law; neither is it pure grace — the sovereign grace of God revealed in Christ. It is rather the goodness of God in government. Under that government God will by no means clear the guilty, while under grace God can justify the ungodly.
God did not speak and then leave. So what filled Moses' next forty days on the mountain?
And what do you think Moses was doing during that second forty days? I believe that he downright enjoyed God. He enjoyed the Lord's company those forty days and forty nights… He was in the enjoyment of His grace, as well as the deep sense of the mercy of the Lord. He had the sense that God would spare His people, guilty though they were. That was a wonderful forty days for Moses.
What God proclaimed to Moses did not stop with Moses.
In Deuteronomy we find Moses himself proclaiming Jehovah's name. He was made the vessel of God's testimony for that day, and he is enabled to publish it just as purely as he received it. The instruction surely is that we cannot truly preach what we have not received from the Lord. And we can only faithfully proclaim what we have received by the power of the Holy Spirit.
- Descended — God came down. Moses did not climb high enough to find Him; the Lord who came down made His own name known.
- Named — In Scripture a name expresses nature. So God is telling Moses what He is.
- Partial — This is Jehovah in relationship with Israel. It is a real glimpse, not the whole; the full revelation waited for the cross.
- Governmental — God spares a guilty nation, yet He will by no means clear the guilty. The grace that justifies the ungodly comes later.
- Passed on — Moses received the name and enjoyed the Lord's company for forty days. Then he passed it on. No one can preach what he has not first received.
And Jehovah passed by before his face, and proclaimed, Jehovah, Jehovah God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abundant in goodness and truth,
Israel worshipped the golden calf, Moses broke the tablets, and now God gives the law again — this time speaking His own name over it. How much of God does that name reveal: the gospel arriving early, or something short of it?
In Scripture a name tells you what someone is. Here God defines Himself. One writer weighs what this name shows and what it leaves for later. ("Jehovah" below is the name the ESV prints as "the LORD.")
Name in Scripture, at least in connection with God, expresses nature; and so here it means what God was as JEHOVAH. Remember: this is not the Father revealing Himself, but Jehovah in His relationship with Israel. So it is not a complete revelation of God. That could not come until after the cross. The difference is between what God was as Jehovah to Israel, and what God is as the Father to His children.
The first giving of the law carried no such words. When the tablets are replaced, something new is spoken over them.
But now, if He gives the law a second time, He gives it with other declarations alongside it, unlike anything that had gone before. He now couples His mercy with it... It was still law — they were still under responsibility to keep it. But now He was going to exercise patience. He would forgive iniquity, transgression, and sin. And yet, at the same time, He could not clear the guilty.
One writer traces the word for "slow to anger" through the Greek Old Testament.
From Exodus 34:6 onward, the Greek Old Testament uses makrothumos again and again of God... In Proverbs 15:18 and 16:32 it answers to our "slow to anger," though the patient restraint of spirit in the word is not limited to anger... It means "a long holding out of the mind before it gives room to action or passion," and it describes God in His forbearance towards those who provoke Him.
Commentators differ on how far this proclamation reaches. One writer calls it government rather than salvation, pointing to the words that follow in verse 7.
Clearly this is not pure law; neither is it pure grace — the sovereign grace of God revealed in Christ. It is rather the goodness of God in government. Under that government, God will by no means clear the guilty. Under grace, God can justify the ungodly.
Others put the accent the other way, on what verse 6 discloses of God Himself.
In verse 6 and the first part of verse 7 the Lord is not declaring law at all. What He declares stands in contrast to law. It expresses what is actually in the heart of God. It is now shown in perfection in the person of the Lord Jesus and in His great sacrifice at Calvary.
To Moses, these qualities could have looked at odds with each other. Where the ESV says "steadfast love and faithfulness," older translations read "goodness and truth" — the wording used below.
He might have wanted to ask, If He is abundant in truth as well as goodness, how can He be gracious to a people such as we have proved ourselves to be? Or again, How can He rightly forgive iniquity and transgressions, if He will by no means clear the guilty...? Centuries later the Psalmist, writing as a prophet, looked ahead to the happy day when it would be said, "Steadfast love and faithfulness meet; righteousness and peace kiss each other" (Ps. 85:10). But even then, there was no full display of "grace and truth" until they "came through Jesus Christ" (John 1:17) and were harmonized by His death and resurrection.
One writer ties this name straight to the gospel preached today.
The gospel of the grace of God is the revelation of the glory of God in the person and the work of His Son Jesus Christ. It is the perfect expression of that name which God had proclaimed to Moses.
Israel saw what God did. Moses learned why He does it — and that difference shapes Israel's future restoration.
The ways of God, made known to Moses, will bring about the blessing of restored Israel. God revealed His outward acts to Israel; to Moses He revealed the principles on which He acted. These ways are now declared to the restored nation.
- Name — God's name here is His nature put into words: this is what He is like, not just what He is called.
- Named after failure — the tablets lie broken, and God joins mercy to the law when He gives it again.
- Named in patience — "slow to anger" describes a long holding back toward the very people who provoke Him.
- Named but not finished — commentators differ over how much grace this name holds; the full display waited for the cross.
- Name fulfilled — love and truth stand together in the verse. At the cross they meet, and the gospel becomes the perfect expression of this name.
keeping mercy unto thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but by no means clearing [the guilty]; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, upon the third and upon the fourth [generation].
Israel had made the golden calf, and Moses went back up the mountain to receive the law a second time. There God proclaimed His own name, and it holds together two things that seem to pull apart: free forgiveness of sin, and no clearing of the guilty.
In Scripture a name says what someone is. Here God makes Himself known as Jehovah — the name of His relationship with Israel.
Name in Scripture, at least in connection with God, expresses nature; and so here it means what God was as Jehovah. Remember: the One revealed here is not the Father. It is Jehovah in His relationship with Israel. So this is not a complete revelation of God. That could not come until after the cross... "It is not at all the name of His relationship with the sinner for his justification. It is the name of His relationship with Israel for His government. Mercy, holiness, and patience mark His ways with them, but He does not clear the guilty."... He did have a heart of love for His people. But that love waited, so to speak, until atonement was complete. Then God could righteously justify the ungodly.
The verse falls into three parts. The first says something pure law could never say.
Moses broke the first tablets at the foot of the mountain, and they never reached the people, who had already made the golden calf... This is the law God gave Moses the second time, in Exodus 34. It was a softened law, offered to man to keep, if his flesh had been able to keep at least what is relatively good. It proclaimed first of all what pure law could in no way show: the mercy and the grace of the Lord... Second, it proclaimed righteousness: He "will by no means clear the guilty." Third, it announced repayment under the government of God on earth.
Commentators give one warning again and again. Readers take this verse for a picture of the gospel. It is not.
People often bring this passage forward as a display of grace. It is entirely a display of government... Treat it as God presented in the gospel, and we would have a very limited view of what the gospel is. The gospel speaks like this: "in Christ God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them" (2 Corinthians 5:19). "Visiting iniquity" and "not counting" it are two totally different things. The first is God in government; the second is God in grace. It is the same God, but a different showing of Himself.
One writer answered a reader who stumbled over the closing clause. He traced the trouble to what the reader expected to find there.
The reader's difficulty comes from looking for the gospel plan of salvation in this text. It is the proclamation of the name of Jehovah in His government of Israel... God displayed precious goodness and patience here, no doubt. But this was for His people still under the law, so in the end it could only bring condemnation and death. The essence of the gospel is different. It comes to the sinner on the very ground that he is lost, and it plainly justifies the ungodly.
So how can God forgive and still refuse to clear the guilty?
There seems a contradiction here at first sight. Here is God declaring that He is ready to show mercy to thousands, to forgive sins, and yet declaring that He will by no means clear the guilty. How can this seeming contradiction be explained?
The answer is not that justice steps aside so mercy can win.
Justice never gives up its claims, and it cannot. But Christ satisfies it. Justice is not pushed into second place, even though grace reigns. God showed Moses governmental goodness, but justice kept its claims. There was no atonement, and each soul had to answer for itself.
The closing clause describes something still visible in ordinary life.
Exodus 34 does not show sovereign grace bringing a soul to eternal life. It shows governmental power, and we can see it at work every day around us. For if a man wastes his fortune, or ruins his health by any kind of excess, his children suffer for it. This is an invariable principle.
But Scripture also guards this warning against a misreading.
He has Himself told us that He visits "the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation." But He adds words that guard this from being misread: "of those who hate Me." Israel picked up a proverb from just such a misreading, and elsewhere the Lord condemns it in the strongest terms: "The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge" (Ezekiel 18). He does not only say it; He swears it. They will have no reason to use that proverb.
- Name. God says what He is like. He speaks as Jehovah, dealing with Israel for His government — not as the Father who justifies a sinner.
- Mixture. The verse is neither pure law nor pure grace. It holds mercy for thousands, righteousness that will not acquit, and repayment under God's government on earth.
- Reach. That government runs down the generations. But God guards it: He visits iniquity "of those who hate Me," and swears the sour-grapes proverb has no ground.
- Limit. In the gospel God does not count trespasses. Here in His government He visits them. Read this verse as the gospel and you shrink the gospel.
- Resolution. Justice never gives up its claims. Christ satisfies them, and so God can forgive iniquity and still refuse to clear the guilty.
And Moses made haste, and bowed his head to the earth and worshipped,
The people had sinned, and Moses was almost in despair about them when he asked to see God's glory. God answered by making all His goodness pass before him, and verse 8 records what that did to the man who heard it.
One writer traces the order: shelter first, then the proclamation, then silence.
He makes His goodness pass before us, and we are bowed by the sight of it before Him. That is how it was with Moses in this chapter. He was crushed, and almost in despair about the people, when he asked to see God's glory. God said, "I will make all my goodness pass before you." And what would God do for him, so that the sight would not overpower him? "I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by." The Lord passed by. He proclaimed His goodness before His servant. What could he say, while sheltered there, as he saw it and heard it all? He made haste, bowed his head, and worshipped; and so it always is. So it is with us whenever He makes us aware of His goodness and His presence. Words are missing, or die away in silence — the silence of worship.
Scripture records the same act again and again, and one thread runs through it.
Israel worshipped when they bowed the head at God's revelation through Moses. Moses did the same at another revelation. So David worshipped... Job worshipped when he fell down in subjection to God's dealings with him. Eliezer worshipped when he bowed his head, for in that act he owned the divine goodness shown to him. What were all these acts? Each one thankfully acknowledged God for what He had done or said, and accepted His mercy.
Nearness to God produces one of two opposite results. It depends on whether a person knows grace.
If someone stands in that presence and does not know grace, he must feel that judgment has to come, because of sins on his conscience. But God graciously chooses to make Himself known as a God who pardons. The moment that access opens to man, the worshipper must be on his face before Him, like Moses in Exodus 34:8-9.
Verse 8 flows straight into a plea for the nation. One commentator marks the order: the personal effect comes first. Then comes the work of the mediator, the man who stands between God and the people.
The first effect is personal. It bows Moses to the ground in worship before the Lord. Every revelation of God to the heart of His people produces this result... Overwhelmed by the revelation made in grace to his soul, he is compelled to worship. But he at once takes up his position as mediator. God's favour made him feel his own acceptance, and his acceptance as mediator for Israel too. So he begins his intercession... It is very beautiful to see how completely he makes himself one with those he pleads for. He says "in the midst of us"; "our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance."
Mercy might seem to make sin look smaller. It does the opposite.
He worshipped in recognition of God's grace, first toward himself and then toward the people. Once more he asked for pardon, confessing their sin and their stubborn spirit. It is good for us to see that a sense of grace does not lead to making light of sin. The reverse is in fact true. In the presence of grace, sin appears in all its seriousness, as the Lord's words in John 15:24 make clear.
Moses' plea then takes a surprising turn.
He makes their very wickedness a ground of appeal to the Lord to go with them... It is not that we are so good that He cannot do without us, but that we are so bad we cannot do without Him. If this is presumption, it is the presumption of faith; and I wish we had more of it.
- Revealed — God proclaimed His name and made His goodness pass by; worship began there, not in Moses.
- Bowed — the sight of that goodness bowed him. When God makes us aware of His presence, words die away into the silence of worship.
- Owned — bowing the head thankfully acknowledged God for what He had done and said, and accepted His mercy.
- Sent — worship did not end in private feeling. It moved him straight into intercession, and he pleaded as one of them: our sin, us for your inheritance.
- Bold — grace made the people's sin look worse, not lighter. Moses turned that very sin into his plea: we are so bad we cannot do without Him.
and said, If indeed I have found grace in thine eyes, Lord, let the Lord, I pray thee, go in our midst; for it is a stiff-necked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for an inheritance!
Moses has just seen the LORD pass by and heard His name proclaimed, and his first act is to bow to the ground. Then he asks for the one thing God had said He would not give: His presence among a stiff-necked people. And he asks for it on the very ground that had made God refuse.
Moses does not bargain. He falls on his face first, because of who God has just shown Himself to be.
God stoops in grace to make Himself known as a God who pardons. The moment that opens the way for man to come to Him, the worshipper must be on his face before Him, like Moses in Exodus 34:8-9.
Notice the pronouns. Moses could have stood apart from a guilty people. Instead he puts himself in with them.
He prays that the Lord would go among them. And he prays it for the very reason that had led the Lord to say He would not dwell in their midst… It is beautiful to see how fully Moses identifies himself with those whose cause he pleads, now that he holds the full place of an accepted mediator. He says, "among us"; "our iniquity and our sin, and take us for Your inheritance." This is a principle of the highest importance. The One whom Moses pictured showed it perfectly.
God had said He would not go up with them because they were stiff-necked. Moses asks Him to go up because they are stiff-necked. The same fact, turned around.
If it were only a question of justice, He could only consume them by coming among them, because they were "a stiff-necked people." But the moment He speaks of grace, in connection with the mediator, their very stiff neck becomes a plea for demanding His presence… This is beautiful and moving. A stiff-necked people demanded the boundless grace and inexhaustible patience of God. None but He could bear with them.
The same turn works in a believer's own life. What condemns is also what drives us to God, once sacrifice has come in.
I know that sin in me is the ground of my being lost. Yet now that sacrifice has come in, sin in me is the very ground of my going to God to keep me. It shows a wonderful character of grace, its overflowing fullness. What was the ground of judgment becomes the ground of God's being with us.
This is a daring thing to ask. What keeps it from being arrogance is that Moses asks on the ground of the grace God had just revealed.
So he uses the special affection God had shown him to put himself with the people, and to secure God's presence going with them. Otherwise they could never enter the land. It was bold faith, working in genuine love for the people, and with a deep sense of what God is despite all their unworthiness. Yet the highest thing it asks for rests on revealed grace, and so it is the very opposite of human presumption.
One writer even gives that boldness a name.
It is not that we are so good that He cannot do without us, but we are so bad that we cannot do without Him. If this is presumption, it is the presumption of faith; and I wish we had more of it.
Moses' argument is ours too. The same weakness makes the same prayer necessary.
Our only standing is in grace, through the mercy of God, on the ground of atonement… We are a forgiven people. But we are stiff-necked and always going wrong, and that is just why we so much need God's presence with us. Do you think we would ever get "up from here" with our evil, treacherous hearts and our stubborn, wayward, unsubdued wills, if God were not with us?
Moses asks for more than pardon. He asks God to claim this failing nation as His own possession, and what he asks reaches far past his own day.
In chapter 33:5 the LORD called the people stiff-necked. Moses did not use that word then. But here, when the LORD speaks of grace, he pleads that very charge as the ground for forgiveness and mercy. This is a wonderful foreshadowing of the gospel of grace… One day the Holy One of Israel will be among His earthly people. Then He will forgive their sins and remember them no more, and they will be His inheritance.
- Grace first. God showed His goodness before Moses asked for anything. Every real prayer grows out of what God has already shown of Himself.
- Grace bows. The revelation put Moses on his face in worship, and only then on his feet as an intercessor.
- Grace identifies. He does not say "their sin" but our sin. Standing with the guilty is the mark of a true intercessor, and the One whom Moses pictured did it perfectly.
- Grace reverses. The stiff neck was God's reason to consume them. Moses makes it his reason to beg Him to come. Our sin is just why we cannot do without His presence.
- Grace keeps. The plea does not end at pardon but at possession: take us as Your inheritance. Faith this bold is the opposite of presumption.