103121-“Compassionate & Gracious God” Exodus 34:5-8.

Genesis 3:1-5 “He said to the woman, ‘Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden’? The woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden. But about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God said, ‘You must not eat it or touch it, or you will die.’ ‘No! You will not die,’ the serpent said to the woman. ‘In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’”

Sermon In A Sentence:Scripture is God’s inspired endeavor to reveal to us how wrong is our natural judgment of His character.

“Gentle and Lowly”; p.148 “‘Slow to anger.’ The Hebrew phrase is literally ‘long of nostrils.’ Picture an angry bull, pawing the ground, breathing loudly, nostrils flared. That would be, so to speak, ‘short-nosed.’ But the Lord is long-nosed. He doesn’t have His finger on the trigger. It takes much accumulated provoking to draw out His ire.”

God Surprises Us Because He:
-First proclaims His compassion & grace toward the repentant
-Then proclaims His unwillingness to forgive the unrepentant

“Gentle and Lowly”; p.150 “His covenant love flows down to a thousand generations; but He visits generational sins to the third or fourth generation. Do you see the difference? Yes, our sins will be passed down to our children and grandchildren. But God’s goodness will be passed down in a way that inexorably swallows up all our sins. His mercies travel down a thousand generations, far eclipsing the third or fourth generation.”

Exodus 33:18-19
“Then Moses said, ‘Please, let me see Your glory.’ He said, ‘I will cause all My goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim the name Yahweh
before you…’”

Exodus 34:5-8 “The Lord came down in a cloud, stood with him there, and proclaimed His name Yahweh. Then the Lord passed in front of him and proclaimed: ‘Yahweh—Yahweh is a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in faithful love and truth, maintaining faithful love to a thousand generations, forgiving wrongdoing, rebellion, and sin. But He will not leave the guilty unpunished, bringing the consequences of the fathers’ wrongdoing on the children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generation. Moses immediately bowed down to the ground and worshiped’”

Exodus 3:14 “God replied to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: I AM has sent
me to you.’”

Ephesians 3:17-19 “That you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge”

Deuteronomy 5:9,10 “I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the fathers’ sin to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing faithful love to a thousand generations of those who love Me and keep My commands”