See the Glory of the Lord
And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious.” Exodus 34:6
It had only been a month since God spoke His commandments in the hearing of all the people, beginning with the first, “You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them.” (Exodus 20:3-5) All the people promised to keep these commands. Yet now, right there in the presence of God before the mountain, they made a golden calf to worship. They were dancing around it and calling it the god who brought them out of Egypt.
God’s anger burned hot. He told Moses to leave Him alone that He might consume them and then He would start over and make a great nation out of Moses. (Exodus 32:7-10) When we know the hot anger of the Lord against sin; when we see how, because of the sins of the people, God destroyed the whole world in a flood, and the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah in fire and brimstone; when we know that even our own hatred of a brother makes us guilty of murder before God (1 John 3:15) and our anger and derogatory words towards another makes us worthy of the fires of hell (Matthew 5:21-22), then there is nothing more amazing and reassuring than knowing that the LORD God is “merciful and gracious.” He would much rather forgive than punish. He has compassion and pity on our lost estate.
Both of these Hebrew words are used only of God. Only He is truly gracious as He chose to sacrifice His own Son for our sins instead of punishing us. Call upon God for His grace and mercy and you will see the glory of His forgiveness in Christ.
O God, be merciful to me, the sinner. Let me see and know your grace and mercy. Amen.