Moses' #tbt Moment – Part 1

Have you ever been in the presence of someone you really admire? During a recent trip to Dallas, Chris and I had the opportunity to meet George W. Bush while we were at his Presidential Library. At the last minute, we were given permission for Annika to join us. She was grateful for the opportunity and later recounted the brief conversation she’d had with the President. He’d asked her where she was from, where she attended school, and if she ever gave her parents any trouble (of course not!).George W. Bush comes across as the most approachable man, but he’s still a U.S. President. Annika was appropriately humbled to be in his presence. She didn’t prepare any questions for him… she was just glad to shake his hand and take a picture.If that’s the case with a person meeting an American President, we can hardly imagine what it might be like to actually be in the presence of our Heavenly Father. Yet in Exodus 34, that’s exactly where Moses found himself. In verse 5, it literally says, “The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there.”Can you visualize standing next to God? There wasn’t a timer measuring the length of this event, but I imagine it felt like both a blink of an eye and that time had stood still. As I came to this passage in my priority time, I couldn’t keep myself from bringing this exchange to my readers. In these few verses, we see such a clear picture of who our God is and how we should respond. Today, let’s look at what God told Moses. Volumes have been written on these 2 verses, but just reading them as they appear will stop you in your tracks…

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, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation."(Exodus 34:6-7)

What jumps out at me the most is that every quality God describes is so benevolent and compassionate until the very end. He’s merciful, gracious, patient, loving, and forgiving. This is our God. Pretty unbelievable. As far as we can stray, our God still loves us and offers all of these opportunities to be connected to Him. In the same breath, we can all find our place in the guilty category, too. And by the sounds of it, our guilt can have incredibly long repercussions for our family long after we’re gone. So, how do we reconcile God’s description of Himself with where we are?[bctt tweet="As far as we can stray, our God still loves us."]The truth is, we need a God who doesn’t wink at sin. I don’t know about you, but in the world we live in, I need to know my God isn't a celestial version of Mr. Rogers. There are many times when we’re wronged by others and we want (and even need) to know there’s justice. At the same time, the dividing line in those two verses is determined by our choice. How God responds depends on whether or not we’re sorry. Not just sorry we got caught, but grieved by our own sin. Do we come to God? Do we agree with Him that what we did was sin? Are we changing our ways? Big or small, all of us have sin. I challenge you to stop right now and bring to the Lord anything you know you’re guilty of… He’s merciful and gracious.[bctt tweet="I need to know my God isn't a celestial version of Mr. Rogers."]On Thursday, we’ll look at how Moses responds to God’s declaration. In the meantime, treasure the fact that you have a God who extends mercy and grace to all who humbly come to Him, while also being just. He’ll right what’s wrong in this world, all while offering us every opportunity to be under His protective care.