Life News
They’re an unruly, stubborn bunch to lead through a wilderness. Their constant whining about food and water is bad enough, but then on top of that, there’s the incident of the idolatrous Golden Calf.
Yet Moses wants more than anything for God to receive glory through His people. He doesn’t even want to enter the Promised Land unless God goes with them. The Lord assures Moses He will go with the Israelites.
Then Moses asks God to show him His glory, to which God consents—but because Moses cannot see His face and live through it, God shows Moses a cleft in a rock where He will put His hand over him until He has passed by.
Heart pounding out of his chest, skin clammy with perspiration, Moses peeks out from the cleft to see the back of God as He goes by. That’s an astonishing experience—but the next day, something even more remarkable happens.
Early the next morning, Moses follows the Lord’s instructions to come back up Mount Sinai alone. God has promised to make His goodness pass before him, and to proclaim His name to him. We aren’t ancient Hebrews, so we don’t necessarily catch the significance of this on the surface.
To proclaim one’s name was a matter of extreme importance in the ancient world. It was to define one’s character. It was a profound revelation of the nature of a person.
Back when God spoke to Moses out of the burning bush, He called Himself, “I Am who I Am.” Now God is about to reveal to Moses—and through the Scriptures, to all of us—something more clearly defined about who He is.
The first adjective which God uses to describe His nature to human beings is “merciful.” That takes my breath away. So what does this revelation of God’s character have to do with pro-life ministry? Interestingly, the Hebrew word for merciful (rachûwm) is related to the word for womb (rechem).
Yet Moses wants more than anything for God to receive glory through His people. He doesn’t even want to enter the Promised Land unless God goes with them. The Lord assures Moses He will go with the Israelites.
Then Moses asks God to show him His glory, to which God consents—but because Moses cannot see His face and live through it, God shows Moses a cleft in a rock where He will put His hand over him until He has passed by.
Heart pounding out of his chest, skin clammy with perspiration, Moses peeks out from the cleft to see the back of God as He goes by. That’s an astonishing experience—but the next day, something even more remarkable happens.
Early the next morning, Moses follows the Lord’s instructions to come back up Mount Sinai alone. God has promised to make His goodness pass before him, and to proclaim His name to him. We aren’t ancient Hebrews, so we don’t necessarily catch the significance of this on the surface.
To proclaim one’s name was a matter of extreme importance in the ancient world. It was to define one’s character. It was a profound revelation of the nature of a person.
Back when God spoke to Moses out of the burning bush, He called Himself, “I Am who I Am.” Now God is about to reveal to Moses—and through the Scriptures, to all of us—something more clearly defined about who He is.
“The LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. 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…’” (Exodus 34:5-7)He proclaims His name, and thus His character, as, “The Lord, the Lord, merciful…”Not “The Lord, the Lord, sovereign.” Not “The Lord, the Lord, omnipotent.” Not “The Lord, the Lord, righteous.”
The first adjective which God uses to describe His nature to human beings is “merciful.” That takes my breath away. So what does this revelation of God’s character have to do with pro-life ministry? Interestingly, the Hebrew word for merciful (rachûwm) is related to the word for womb (rechem).
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