Exodus 34:6 (NLT) The LORD passed in front of Moses, calling out, “Yahweh! The LORD! The God of compassion and mercy! I am slow to anger and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness. Exodus 34:7 (NLT) I lavish unfailing love to a thousand generations. I forgive iniquity, rebellion, and sin. But I do not excuse the guilty. Following the instructions on 2 Timothy 2:15, “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that need not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth”. I want us to critically analyze and rightly divide this description.
For the first part, He says that He is a God full of Compassion, Mercy, Love and Faithfulness. In a minute we are going to see that that is who He really is. Now the next part of describing Himself is when he introduces a third party. He describes Himself here of how He is when He relates with people. He says He is not easily angered, He lavishes unfailing love to a thousand generations and forgives iniquity, rebellion, and sin. So this is how He relates with people and wants to maintain this character.
Now the second description starts with a but, very important to note this. The conjunction but according to the Macmillan dictionary, is used for joining ideas when the second part is different from the first part or used for changing the subject. So God says, “ But I do not excuse the guilty”. Now we can see that this sentence comes directly after saying He forgives iniquity, rebellion, and sin and of course they are for the people. These are the very people who are guilty, so how then does He say that He punishes them? That seems completely very contradicting if it is not well understood.
Now this where the subject of repentance comes in. Isaiah 1:18-20, God Himself says this to His people, “Come now, let us reason together”. Though your sins are like scarlet, I will make them as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, I will make them as white as wool. If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the best of the land. But if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword” These are His people who have continually rebelled and sinned against Him. God shows who He His, full of compassion and care and says that He will forgive their sins and rebellion. But notice the condition, if these people refuse to be changed, then they themselves will bring their own destruction.
Peter says, God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance 2 Peter 3:9. So if He is not willing that any should perish, that means that the one who perishes, perishes by himself. Hence when God says that He does not excuse the guilty, the only thing He does is giving them over to destruction because they have refused to repent. From the Biblical perspective, Romans 1:28 (KJV) says “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient”. Hence a ‘punishing God’ is not God’s personality. We serve a God full of love and care for His people.
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