Tuesday 28 July 2009
- Bible Book:
- Exodus
"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 the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, yet by no means clearing the guilty, but visiting the iniquity of the parents upon the children and the children's children, to the third and fourth generation.'" (v.6-7)
Background
In today's passage, God renews the Covenant with the Israelites,who are still wandering in the wilderness after their escape fromoppression in Egypt. In the chapters preceding today's reading,Israel has deeply betrayed its covenant with God by making andworshipping a golden calf image (
Moses' approach and God's arrival is dramatic enough as a story,and conjures up a great cinematic scene with clouds and fire. Butthe heart of the passage is in what God declares about God's'self', in the verses quoted above.
There is a deep tension in who God is.First, the verses make seven claims about God's extraordinarycommitment to the people. God is merciful, gracious, slow to anger,abounding in steadfast love, faithful; God keeps steadfast love,and is forgiving. Seven is a significant number in Hebrew writing.A group of seven is meant to show a special completeness orperfection. Together, these seven attributes of God are a prettygood summary of who God is, in Old Testament theology. But they arenot the end of the story.
Equally, God will not pardon violations of the Covenant, and willreact with severe and ferocious punishment over generations. Thesefinal qualities of God are as real as the others, even though theydirectly contradict what God has already said.
There is a temptation if we read this passage from a purelyChristian perspective to try to undo the contradiction. But toexplain away this tension is to diminish or 'domesticate' God. Todo this would be to make a 'golden calf' in intellectual terms,trying to make God fit tidy expectations so that God can be easilyunderstood.
This passage presents God as infinitely loving, infinitelylife-giving, and infinitely dangerous to the usual way of theworld.
To Ponder
Consider the list of God's attributes. Which areyou drawn to? Are there any which you do not respond to? Why?
What does it mean to you to think of God as'dangerous?'