PROCLAIMING the ‘NAME’ and ‘ATTRIBUTES’ of ‘YAHWEH’!
January
29 Bible Reading: Exodus Chapters 34-36
PROCLAIMING the ‘NAME’ and ‘ATTRIBUTES’ of ‘YAHWEH’!
Now the Lord descended in the cloud and
stood with him there, and proclaimed the
name of the Lord. And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, "The
Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in
goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and
transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity
of the fathers upon the children and the children's children to the third and
the fourth generation." (Exodus 34:5-7)
When YAHWEH
revealed Himself to Moses, it was more than His appearance but He revealed His
character as well. He declared Himself to be a God of mercy, grace, patience, and goodness (v. 6). Yet at the same
time, God executes justice on wrongdoers (v. 7). These two “sides” to God’s moral character—being merciful and being just—do not contradict but rather complements
each other. For God to be merciful He
must right the wrongs that people do;
that calls for justice. On the other
hand, to be fully just God must allow for the weakness and limitations
of His creatures; that demands mercy.
We can note
that YAHWEH proclaimed His name to Moses by expressing His character, His awesome wonder,
and His mercy. When the Gospel of
John introduces Jesus as The Word, there is celebration of the fact that He is “full of grace and truth” (John 1:14,
17) and was echoing the words of the above passage. To see Jesus is to see the Father! (John 1:18).
The name YAHWEH is holy as Jesus taught us through His prayer (Matt. 6:9b), and should
not be taken in vain (Exodus 20:7). This name is a strong tower of refuge for
us (Proverbs 18:10) that should be leaned upon (Malachi 3:16). This is the name
that will be written on our foreheads one day in the future (Rev. 22:4).
When YAHWEH
proclaimed His name —the great “I AM” - He was actually revealing His seven attributes to Moses and to us,
which are as follows:
- He is merciful – not giving the punishment that we deserve.
- He is gracious – being kind and benevolent towards us.
- He is longsuffering – patiently enduring all provocation from us.
- He is full of goodness – revealing His virtue and moral excellence.
- He is Truth – as an indisputable fact or reality (John 14:6)
- He is forgiving – as he grants pardon and absolves us from any wrongdoing (Jer. 31:34)
- He will punish the wicked – who do not seek Him for forgiveness (Psalms 99:8)
These seven
attributes are revealed through His agape
love that He bestows upon us (1 Cor. 13). Because He is gracious and
long-suffering, God gave His people another opportunity, just as He does with
us today (1 John 2:1–2). He gave a “second
chance” to Abraham (Gen. 13:1), Jonah (Jon. 3:1), and Peter (John 21:15).
Can we
proclaim His wonderful name and turn to Him today?
