The Name of the Lord, Exodus 34:1-7 (Knowing God Series)

One of the things we hear often in our popular culture is that all religions are pretty-much the same. They all worship the same God, but do it in different ways. “What’s the big deal anyway? Worship is worship, whether the object of worship is God, Allah, or Brahman. Prayer is prayer, no matter what name we give to the listening force” (Terry Muck, Those Other Religions in Your Neighborhood, p. 51). The differences between different religions, in this view, are really just differences of style and taste. Some people prefer one style, and others prefer another, but ultimately these differences are not significant.

The problem with this view is that different religions teach very different things about who God is, and these differences affect the way we live our lives. The men who high jacked planes and flew them into the World Trade Center did it because of what they believed about God. When the apostle Paul, before his conversion, participated in the killing of Stephen, he thought he was acting in obedience to God. The same is true of those who’ve taken part in human sacrifice throughout the centuries, thinking that what they were doing would put them in God’s good graces. What we believe about God affects the way we live our lives.

Even if we believe in the God of the Bible and have trusted in Jesus Christ alone for our salvation, misconceptions about God can continue to plague us. I read this quote by A.W. Tozer in the first sermon: “Nothing twists and deforms the soul more than a low or unworthy conception of God.” He was speaking about Christians, and he was especially concerned about our tendency to lose sight of God’s goodness. He says this a little later in the same chapter: “Much Christianity since the days of Christ’s flesh has... been grim and severe. And the cause has always been the same–an unworthy or an inadequate view of God. Instinctively we try to be like our God, and if He is conceived to be stern and exacting, so will we ourselves be” (“God is Easy to Live With,” in The Root of the Righteous, p. 14). He wants to reassure Christians that God is good, kind and gracious, not a stern, exacting task-master. He’s concerned that Christians often have an inadequate view of God.

If there’s any place in Scripture where we’d expect to find a grim, stern view of God it’s at Mt. Sinai, where the Law was given. Think of what has just taken place. Moses had gone up into the mountain to receive the law, and had been gone for over a month. As the days passed by, the people got tired of waiting, so they asked Aaron, Moses’ brother, to make them an idol. They said “Come, make us gods who will go before us” (32:1).

Aaron asked for their gold earrings, which he made into a calf. And when he showed it to them, the Israelites cried out: “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt” (32:4). Aaron then built an altar in front of the calf, and the people proceeded to worship it. At that point, Moses returned. (It’s interesting to notice how often we give in just before a trial or temptation is over.) In his anger, Moses had smashed the original tablets into pieces, and God had judged the people for their rebellion, killing several thousand of them. Things were not going well in the spiritual life of the nation. They had received so much from God in their deliverance from Egypt, but they had very quickly rebelled and turned to idolatry.

All this immediately precedes the passage we’re looking at today. That’s the background to verse 1: “Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke.” What we’d expect, at this point, is a revelation of God’s severity and wrath against the sin of idolatry. And yet, in the context of everything that has just happened, here at Sinai where He is giving the Law to Israel, when God reveals Himself to Moses the primary focus is not on His wrath, but on His goodness. Here’s a definition of God’s goodness: “The goodness of God is that which disposes Him to be kind, cordial, benevolent, and full of good will toward men. He is tenderhearted and of quick sympathy, and His unfailing attitude toward all moral beings is open, frank, and friendly. By His nature He is inclined to bestow blessedness and He takes holy pleasure in the happiness of His people.... The goodness of God is the drive behind all the blessings He daily bestows upon us” (A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy, p. 88). When we say “God is good,” we’re saying that He delights in showing kindness, compassion and mercy. God reveals Himself, in this passage, as good, kind and generous, but at the same time He doesn’t undermine, or cancel out, His holiness or His severity in dealing with sin and rebellion.

In chapter 33, immediately after the incident with the golden calf, God had said: “Go up to the land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go with you, because you are a stiff-necked people and I might destroy you on the way” (33:3). This is the point He’s making: “I’m still sending you into the promised land, and I’m sending an angel with you, but I’m not going to manifest my presence among you. I’m going to give you outward success, but I’m not going to be with you.” Moses finds this intolerable, so he begins crying out to God. He’s not interested in outward success unless God is among them. He wants to know God, and he wants the people to know Him. Near the end of chapter 33, we see him hungering and reaching for more of God, both for himself and for the people. In verse 13, he says: “If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. Remember that this nation is your people.” Verse 15: “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here.” And verse 18: “Now show me your glory.” No matter how much of God he has, Moses wants more. And God responds with this promise: “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence” (v. 19). The passage we’re studying in chapter 34 is the fulfillment of this promise.

When God proclaims His name to Moses, He’s doing more than identifying Himself. Names in our culture are primarily used to identify us, to give us a label. They’re used in that way in the Bible also, but names are also intended to reveal a person’s true nature. Abram and Sarai, after they receive God’s promise, become Abraham and Sarah. Abraham means “father of many,” and Sarah means “princess.” After he wrestles with God, Jacob receives the name Israel, which means “one who struggles with God.” So names in the Bible are more than just labels to distinguish one person from another. They are meant to tell us something about the person. When God proclaims His name to Moses, He’s telling Moses what He is like. He’s proclaiming His true nature.

The name He proclaims is “the LORD.” In the NIV (and in many other English translations), LORD, in capital letters, is used to translate God’s name. We don’t know exactly how this name was pronounced. The Hebrew alphabet is made up entirely of consonants, and vowel points were added many centuries after the Old Testament was written. God’s name is written, in Hebrew, YHWH. The ancient Jews were afraid of taking God’s name in vain, so instead of speaking God’s name when they read Scripture, they substituted the Hebrew word adonai, which means “lord.” When Jewish Scribes, between the 6th and 10th centuries, added vowel points to the text, they put the vowels for adonai with the divine name YHWH, as a visual reminder to those reading the text aloud. This resulted in the name “Jehovah,” which is found in some translations; Jehovah is the result of combining the original consonants with the vowels for adonai. Yahweh is the best guess scholars have arrived at. It’s good to know that any time you encounter the word LORD (in capital letters) it’s a translation of this name, Yahweh.

But what does the name mean? It’s used primarily in the context of God’s covenant relationship with Israel, and it especially points to His self-existence, the fact that He is not dependent on anyone or anything else for His existence. One writer says this name “gives expression to the self-determination, the independence of God.... The name... signifies primarily that in all God does for His people, He is from-within-determined, not moved upon by outside influences” (Geerhardus Vos, Biblical Theology, pp. 118-19). Something of this meaning comes across in Exodus 3:14, where God speaks to Moses out of the burning bush: “God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.” Our lives are dependent on all sorts of things: air, water, food, protection from harm. All we need to do is watch the news to be reminded how fragile our lives are. Psalm 104 celebrates God’s creation: “O Lord, what a variety of things you have made! In wisdom you have made them all. The earth is full of your creatures.... Every one of these depends on you to give them their food as they need it. When you supply it, they gather it. You open your hand to feed them, and they are satisfied. But if you turn away from them, they panic. When you take away their breath, they die and turn again to dust” (vv. 24, 27-29, NLT). God is not like that. He is not dependent on anyone or anything else for His existence. He is complete in Himself. He is. He always has been and always will be. So, when He blesses His people, He is not being coerced by external forces.

This name proclaims His absolute lordship in the universe. It proclaims that He is God, that there is no one else like Him. But look how He elaborates: “I am the Lord, I am the Lord, the merciful and gracious god. I am slow to anger and rich in unfailing love and faithfulness. I show this unfailing love to many thousands by forgiving every kind of sin and rebellion” (New Living Translation). This God–who exists eternally in Himself, who is not dependent on anyone or anything for His existence, who is the rightful lord of all, and before whom every knee will one day bow–this God is good, and gracious and merciful. Tozer has a great description of fellowship with this God: “The truth is that God is the most winsome of all beings and His service is one of unspeakable pleasure. He is all love, and those who trust Him need never know anything but that love.... The fellowship of God is delightful beyond all telling. He communes with His redeemed ones in an easy, uninhibited fellowship that is restful and healing to the soul. He is not sensitive nor selfish nor temperamental. What He is today we shall find Him tomorrow and the next day and the next year. He is not hard to please, though He may be hard to satisfy. He expects of us only what He has Himself first supplied. He is quick to mark every simple effort to please Him, and just as quick to overlook imperfections when He knows we meant to do His will. He loves us for ourselves and values our love more than galaxies of new created worlds” (“God is Easy to Live With,” in The Root of the Righteous, p. 15). God is good, and He will never be otherwise. Knowing Him fulfills the deepest desire of our hearts.

But, having said all that, notice that, in verses 1-3, God gives Moses very clear, definite instructions which he needs to carry out in order to receive this revelation. God’s goodness doesn’t mean that He’s easy-going and indifferent, that we can approach Him casually and flippantly, any old way we like. Moses needs to follow God’s instructions in preparing the stone tablets and presenting himself on the mountain the next morning, and he needs to be sure that no one else comes near. God is revealing His goodness to Moses, but anyone else who draws near will die. God is good, and He is holy. There’s no contradiction between these things.

There’s a tendency, in contemporary American churches, to forget God’s holiness, to approach Him casually, to speak to Him as if He were one of us. Remember that John the apostle, who had an especially close relationship with Jesus during His earthly ministry, fell down in fear at the feet of the risen Christ on the island of Patmos: “I saw a gold menorah with seven branches, and in the center, the Son of Man, in a robe and gold breastplate, hair a blizzard of white, eyes pouring fire-blaze, both feet furnace-fired bronze, his voice a cataract, right hand holding the Seven Stars, his mouth a sharp-biting sword, his face [blazing like the] sun” (Revelation 1:12-16, The Message). He’s straining the limits of his language to describe the risen Lord in all His glory. Then he says: “I saw this and fainted dead at his feet.” We need to keep these things together. We approach God freely as our heavenly Father, knowing that He cares for us and delights in our fellowship. But at the same time we approach Him reverently, knowing that He is holy, that He is exalted beyond our comprehension. If we were to see Him revealed as He is, our first response would be fear. If we let go of either of these things, our relationship with God will be distorted. God is good, and He is holy.

The last thing to notice is at the end of verse 7: “Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.” God’s goodness and compassion don’t cancel out His severity in dealing with sin. God’s goodness presents us with an invitation to repent of our sins and to bow before His lordship. The temptation then is to use God’s goodness as an excuse to keep on sinning, to assume that because God is good and merciful He will overlook our persistent rebellion. When people in our culture think of God’s goodness, this is usually what they’re thinking. They think of God as an indulgent, Santa Clause-like figure. He wishes we’d behave better, but He’ll forgive all of us in the end anyway.

Paul confronts this problem in Romans 11. He’s writing primarily to Gentile Christians about what has happened to Israel because of their rebellion and refusal to believe the gospel. But he doesn’t want these Gentile Christians to become presumptuous, so he says this: “Don’t think highly of yourself, but fear what could happen. For if God did not spare the branches he put there in the first place, he won’t spare you either. Notice how God is both kind and severe. He is severe to those who disobeyed, but kind to you as you continue to trust in his kindness. But if you stop trusting, you also will be cut off” (vv. 20b-22, NLT). God is good, but His goodness is not a license to sin. Paul calls us to hold both of these things together, the goodness and the severity of God. We’ve experienced His goodness, but we need to beware of presumption.

The way we get into trouble is by isolating God’s goodness from all the other things He’s revealed about Himself. And yet, the primary stress, in God’s relationship with His people, is on His goodness. That’s the emphasis even at Sinai, despite Israel’s rebellion and idolatry. If we become so worried about His holiness and severity that we can no longer rejoice in His goodness, we’ll do harm to our souls and our relationship with Him will be impoverished. Remember Tozer’s words: “The truth is that God is the most winsome of all beings and His service is one of unspeakable pleasure. He is all love, and those who trust Him need never know anything but that love.”

Here’s a suggestion, if you start to lose sight of God’s goodness. Read through the gospels, being attentive to the ways Jesus deals with people. Notice how patient and gracious He is with His disciples. Most of His severity is reserved for the hard-hearted religious leaders and for those who persist in unbelief. Jesus “reflects God’s own glory, and everything about him represents God exactly” (Hebrews 1:3, NLT). If you start losing sight of God’s goodness, the place to begin is with Jesus, who reveals God perfectly in human form. Read through the gospel accounts prayerfully, asking God to make Himself known to you as you read. He is kind and gracious to sinners, but He doesn’t say, “Oh, it’s not such a big deal. God the Father is good and forgiving.” He says, “your sins are forgiven. Now go, and stop sinning.” And then He demonstrates the full extent of His goodness by going to the cross to pay the penalty for our sins. In the cross, both the goodness and severity of God are revealed. His severity is poured out on His only Son, who took our sins upon Himself. And, because of this, we experience His goodness.

Meditate on God’s infinite goodness displayed in the sacrifice of His only Son. He “does not leave the guilty unpunished.” But the punishment for our guilt was more than we could bear, so God the Son took the punishment upon Himself. The guilt has been punished, and we have been pardoned. The debt is paid in full. If you begin to grasp the meaning of God’s goodness, you won’t want to use it as an excuse for sin. You’ll cry out, like Isaac Watts, “Were the whole realm of nature mine, that were an offering far too small. Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.” May God enable us to see Him more truly as He is and to give Him worship that is worthy of His great name.