A Closer Walk

My name is Emily Keller and I am the granddaughter of Greg Worthen. I agreed to write for the column for a few weeks as a guest contributor.
There is a great refrain that echoes throughout the Old Testament, declaring what the heart of God’s character is like. “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness” (Exodus 34:6). This verse in Exodus is the first time this refrain appears, but it pops up time and time again as the Old Testament writers point back to it in similar declarations of the character of God. Some of these instances include Numbers 14:18; Nehemiah 9:17; Psalm 86:15, 103:8, 145:8; Joel 2:13; and Jonah 4:2. Where did this beautiful and foundational refrain originate? The answer may seem surprising.
In the book of Exodus, the Israelites are waiting for Moses, their leader, to receive the law from God on Mt. Sinai. They grow impatient and make a golden calf to worship. God is angry and sends a plague on Israel. He threatens to destroy them, but after Moses intercedes for the people “the LORD relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people” (Exodus 32:14). Then Moses pleads for God to show him His glory. God answers, “While my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen” (33:22-23). In chapter 34, Moses climbs up Mt. Sinai again and God re-establishes His covenant with Israel. This is when the refrain is first uttered.
One may expect that it was Moses who proclaims the great refrain, or perhaps it was Israel after they were forgiven. However, that was not the case. The individual who first declared that the LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, was not Moses or the Israelites. It was God Himself, when He showed Moses His glory. “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” (34:5-6). Here we have the most foundational declaration of God’s character, the essence of His glory, and it is a proclamation from God Himself that He is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. What a great God!
    However, even in this amazing glimpse of who God is, Moses had to be hidden in the cleft of a rock. God warns him, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live” (33:20). The face of God is too great and holy for any mere man to see. Moses still needed protection from God.
    We also need protection from God. Like the Israelites building the golden calf, we also have idols. We may not make physical idols, but as Ray Comfort said, “We don’t bow to a god made with our hands, we bow to a god made with our mind.” We may try to make God out to be something He isn’t and worship Him for being what He is not. We may also unwittingly worship things that are not divine in any way, such as people or money or things. Anything can become an idol, something we value above God. In Exodus 34 God also says He “will by no means clear the guilty” (verse 7). God will not let the guilty go unpunished. If we have any idol at all, we are guilty, because God commands that “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3). Just like Moses, we also need hidden from God’s face in the cleft of a rock.
    Remarkably enough, God did provide a cleft in the rock for us. Jesus took our sin upon Himself on the cross, shielding us from the wrath of God. The hymn “Rock of Ages” pleads, “Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in Thee; let the water and the blood, from Thy wounded side which flowed, be of sin the double cure, save from wrath and make me pure.” We are protected by the blood of Christ and saved from the wrath of God. Nowhere else is the grace, mercy, steadfast love, and faithfulness of God more magnified than the cross of Christ. Hallelujah, what a Savior!
We must now cling in faith to this cleft in the Rock of Ages that God has so graciously provided. We cannot take this great gift and protection for granted. One day when we enter heaven and see the Lord’s face, we can sing even louder than Israel, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.”
***All quotes taken from the English Standard Version (ESV)