Amazingly, God describes His very essence in terms of His relationship to us. He is “merciful.” Surely there is no need of mercy within the Trinity, for the Father, Son, and Spirit never do anything condemnable that one should need to exercise mercy. He is “gracious,” “slow to anger.” These qualities of God are only necessary in connection with creatures needing graciousness and slowness to anger and steadfastness, lest they die…
The mercy and graciousness of God also slice through any preconceived, hard-and-fast notions about what God can and cannot do in our New Testament age. He can do whatever He pleases. Therefore I will ask whatever I please, unhindered by man-made theologies that put God in a box. If my hair is falling out like mad (which it is), I will ask for him to arrest it. On what basis? Mercy. Graciousness. God will answer as He pleases. But there is no harm in asking, and no one will steal my hope. No one—no matter how fancy his theological proofs and paradigms—will hinder me from asking anything of a God who describes himself as the source of all “mercy” and “graciousness.”
via WORLDmag.com | Community | Blog Archive | An insomniac’s Psalm 103: Verse 8.
Bought by the Blood 
After seeing the plagues in Egypt against the Egyptian gods, the crossing of the Red Sea event, and after receiving manna in the wilderness, the children of Abraham quickly fall away by worshiping a golden calf while Moses talked with God face to face in the midst of the smoke and fire descended on Mt Sinai. Subsequent to this great sin, Moses intercedes on behalf of the people, and the LORD declares He will be merciful to whomever He chooses.
In context of the restoration of the tablets on which appeared written the ten commandments (apparently very soon after) and the restoration of the covenant accompanying the commandments, the LORD declared His name as “merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.”
In Exodus, this self-definition of God appears to be an expansion of His earlier declaration of His name, the LORD (or Yahweh, the “I am”) to Moses at the burning bush. This expanded definition then later echoes repeatedly in Scripture (e.g., Num. 14:18 [after the people rebel against the good report of Joshua and Caleb and the LORD curses the people to die in the wilderness over a 40 year period of wandering]; 2 Chron. 30:9; Neh 9:17; Ps 86:15, 103:8, 111:4, 112:4, 116:5, 145:8; Joel 2:13) particularly as later generations of believers look back to the Scriptures and to the paradigmatic events that God brought to pass in Moses’ day.
Here is a definition of God, a glimpse of His majesty, of no small significance. May it be to us as well indeed.
Comment by Peter — October 1, 2009 @ 10:00 pm |