Exodus 34:6-9 NIV
“And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.” Moses bowed to the ground at once and worshiped. “Lord,” he said, “if I have found favor in your eyes, then let the Lord go with us. Although this is a stiff-necked people, forgive our wickedness and our sin, and take us as your inheritance.””
We are sinners is fact, the grace of Salvation that our sins are forgiven is also a fact. Through Jesus Christ, we are saved through grace of God. Do we treasure this saving grace?
God was gracious to Israelites, God has sent His servants to remind them and to lead them. They have experienced the mighty power of God. They saw from their own eyes the miracles from God. However, when Moses was up to the Mount Sinai for 40 days and nights meeting with God and God gave Moses the laws and commands (Exodus 24:12), the people forgot their God almighty. They made a golden calf to replace Jehovah their God. They committed a serious sin. “When Moses approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, his anger burned and he threw the tablets out of his hands, breaking them to pieces at the foot of the mountain.” (Exodus 32:19 NIV) After this incident, God wrote again on the two new stone tablets. God proclaimed his name “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.” He pointed us to the attributes of God almighty: compassionate, gracious, abounding in love, faithful, just, slow to anger. Whenever people are willing to repent, the sins are forgiven. What a wonderful grace, it is also the truth of God’s love.
We are sinners who have been saved through faith and grace of God. In our interpersonal relationship, do we still holding grudges or counting the wrongs of others? This is tarnishing our relationship, or even broken our relationship with others. When we believe that our God is God of compassion, gracious and abounding in love, we have to treasure the saving grace of God. May God help us to live out our transformed life, to forgive and to build one another.