Whispers of Grace
Walking with God is filled with mountaintops and valleys. Join passionate yet flawed Jesus-lover and mother of four Julie Colbeth as she delves into the Scriptures with a refreshingly honest perspective that will bring hope and encouragement to your day.
Whispers of Grace
The Presence - Part 2 of 2: God's Truest Heart
The Life of Moses- Episode #30 ♥️ What if the God of the Old Testament isn't who you think He is? Join me, Julie Colbeth, on "Whispers of Grace," as we dive into the profound connection between the God of the Hebrew Scriptures and the Jesus of the New Testament. We tackle the common struggle of reconciling the seemingly harsh God of old with the compassionate Savior of new. Using Dane Ortlund's insights from his transformative book, "Gentle and Lowly," we peel back the layers of misconception to uncover a God whose core is merciful and gracious, as revealed in Exodus 34.
Together, we venture into the sacred encounter between God and Moses on Mount Sinai, examining the symbolic act of chiseling new stone tablets. This episode reveals the beauty and privilege of divine collaboration, showcasing how God invites us to partner with Him in His plans despite our imperfections. We'll reflect on the elements of the Ark of the Covenant, such as manna and Aaron's rod, to illustrate how God uses ordinary vessels to manifest His glory. By understanding Moses' experience, we learn how to prepare ourselves for our own divine encounters.
Explore the depth of God's mercy, challenging the instinctual expectations of judgment with scriptures that spotlight God's steadfast love and eagerness to forgive. We confront the generational effects of sin, countered by God's unfailing love that transcends them. This episode invites you to remove the veil of fear and misunderstanding, embracing a God who longs for intimate connection with His children. As we journey through these reflections, we find a new understanding of God's character, discovering a heart that is slow to anger and abundant in compassion.
Sources:
“Gentle and Lowly: The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers” by Dane Ortlund
Kia ora, and welcome to Whispers of Grace, a place for women to be encouraged by God's holy word. I'm your host, julie Colbeth, and I am overjoyed to dig into the Bible with you today. Do you ever struggle to reconcile the God of the Old Testament with Jesus in the New Testament, the God of the Old Testament with Jesus in the New Testament? Do you feel relaxed walking hand in hand with Jesus but would prefer to avoid the presence of God, the Father? Do you dodge reading the Old Testament because your brain just can't understand the God that you see revealed there? If this is you, you are not alone, and today we are blessed to be diving into a section that brings incredible clarity and revelation to who God really is, as revealed in the Old Testament passage of Exodus 34. I cannot even explain how excited I am to get into this text with all of you. Unbeknownst to me, the Lord orchestrated a whole chapter in the book that I was already reading that's devoted to this text. The book is called Gentle and Lowly by Dane Ortlund. This book has expanded my understanding of the goodness of God in truly life-changing ways, and I would highly recommend to add it to your reading list or listen to it on audiobook. I will be sure to add a link to it in the show notes and I will be quoting this book at length for this episode, because I couldn't find better words than Mr Ortlund had already supplied. Dane Ortlund says that the Bible is one long attempt to deconstruct our natural vision of who God actually is. And isn't that the truth? We have many misconceptions about God that we harbor consciously or unconsciously. My hope and sincere prayer is that this message would be one of those moments of deconstruction, removing some improper perspectives or false narratives in your heart towards God. The statements that God makes about himself in this chapter are some of the richest in the Old Testament and will help us to see more clearly the character and nature of God. So, friends, sisters and brothers, I want all of us to just take a second unclench that jaw, drop your shoulders, relax your face and take a minute to connect with God in this moment. I want us all to take a nice deep breath, deep breath Now. Take a couple more as I pray with you, lord. You have been our dwelling place throughout all generations. Today, as we come to you, please show us yourself, show us your very heart, teach us deeply about your character and remove the veils that have hidden your goodness from us. Please move powerfully and help us to have ears to hear Amen, all right.
Julie:So in the last episode I went through Exodus 33, and I kind of left you hanging, because we see this amazing interaction with Moses and God. Moses tells God that Israel refused to leave Mount Sinai unless the tangible presence of God went with them. Moses was not content even to have an angel lead them, he wanted God alone. He didn't just want the protection and the provision of the Lord, but he wanted the pillar of cloud and fire. He begged for God to remain with them, and God's heart was touched. He forgave Israel and promised that his presence would indeed go with them. So Moses took this opportunity to ask the Lord to show him his glory, to reveal even more of himself. Moses was hungry for God and the Lord happily responded by telling Moses that he couldn't see the face of God. But God would hide him in the cleft of the rock, speak his name and show Moses his back.
Julie:Now, this week, we get to explore this incredible encounter. This is Exodus, chapter 34. Then the Lord told Moses chisel out two stone tablets, like the first ones. I will write on them the same words that were on the tablets that you smashed Be ready in the morning to climb up Mount Sinai and present yourself to me on the top of the mountain. No one else may come with you. In fact, no one is to even appear anywhere on the mountain. Do not even let the flocks or the herds graze near this mountain. So Moses chiseled out two tablets of stone, like the first ones.
Julie:Early in the morning he climbed Mount Sinai as the Lord had commanded him, and he carried the two stone tablets in his hands. Then the Lord came down in a cloud and stood there with him and he called out his name. Yahweh 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. I lavish unfailing love to a thousand generations. I forgive iniquity, rebellion and sin, but I do not excuse the guilty. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children and grandchildren. The entire family is affected, even children to the third and fourth generations.
Julie:Moses immediately threw himself to the ground and worshipped and he said O Lord, if it is true that I found favor with you, please travel with us. Yes, this is a stubborn and rebellious people, but please forgive our iniquity and our sins and claim us as your own special possession. So we have this incredible encounter with god and in verse one, god asks moses to cut new stone tablets, because moses destroyed the first ones. If you remember from the story, he threw them down on the ground when he saw that Israel had created a golden calf and were worshiping it. Those broken tablets spoke of the holy laws of God that had been broken by the Israelites.
Julie:This was an opportunity for God. This was God's invitation for Moses to be a part of the restoration. God was inviting him to be a part of the process of rebuilding what was broken through sin. God wanted Moses to be involved. It took planning and tools and effort to carve new tablets out of stone. This wasn't popping into warehouse stationery and buying a ream of paper. This was real work. It took time and precision and care, and God wanted Moses to sweat over this task, to be personally invested in the restoration. This is an invitation to deeper intimacy, chance for moses and god to work together on this project. Moses cut the stones, but god would write on them. Up on mount sinai. These tablets would be passed down for generations and finally find their resting place in the Ark of the Covenant. Now, inside the Ark of the Covenant, there were three things the hidden jar of manna, aaron's budded rod and the Ten Commandments. The jar of manna was a human-created vessel that was filled with the miraculous bread from heaven. Aaron's walking stick that, budded with flowers, was a tool of man that was touched and transformed by the divine. And the Ten Commandments were another amalgamation of human work and the work of God. Moses cut the stones and God wrote on them.
Julie:The Creator, god, invites us to be a part of his work. What an unfathomable privilege and gift. He knows that we're broken and flawed. He sees our frailty and all of our failures. He knows our scars and our hurts and he partners with us. Anyway, why? Why would a perfect God do that? Because he is most glorified when broken things are filled up with the divine. He is magnified when cracked vessels overflow with holy oil, when dead sticks come to life like it's springtime. He's glorified when it's obvious that our success could not be measured back to our own potential or ability. His power is made perfect in weakness.
Julie:Just like Moses, god wants us friends, you and me, to be involved in the work of restoration. He wants to work with us as broken and flawed as we are. His invitation is to deeper intimacy Through partnering with him and sharing himself with the whole world. What a crazy thought. We are just like that pot holding the manna. We're like the walking stick of Aaron and we're just like those raw stone tablets. God wants to fill us with manna to make what was once dead bloom again, and he wants to write on us with his finger so the world can see the beauty in simple things that are dedicated to the creator Right off the bat. Here we see so much depth in beauty in the section of scripture, but there's so much more.
Julie:Then God tells Moses in verse two and three be ready in the morning to climb up Mount Sinai. Present yourself to me on the top of the mountain. No one else may come with you. In fact, no one is to appear anywhere on the mountain. Do not even let the flocks or herds graze near the mountain. When I read this, I see four important commands here. Moses was instructed to one be ready Chiseling those new stone tablets. It took time and planning and he needed to sort all of those things out by the morning.
Julie:I think of the effort that I put into planning a simple beach trip with my family. If we have a beach day, I try to gather all the towels and the toys and the umbrellas and the chairs and the sunblock and all the bits and load the car the night before we go. I like to make the lunches and have a plan for an easy breakfast, so I know that we will have a streamlined morning that will not get off on the wrong foot trying to wrangle six people in all of our bits, because I know how cranky everyone can get me included when I don't plan well, and if I'm ready, then our time is much smoother. Kinder people appear in the car, patience has not already been depleted and dad and I are less stressed and we have a greater capacity to invest in our day together. So God tells Moses be ready.
Julie:Moses needed to be ready to meet with God, not be scrambling to get ready and show up frazzled and tired and rushed. He was to be prepared for this important thing. The next instruction from God was climb up Now. Moses needed to climb a mountain with two stone tablets under his arm or strapped to his back or something. I bet you didn't know that Moses was a CrossFit champ even back in the day, but this showed his intentionality and his effort and his determination to climb.
Julie:Number three the Lord tells Moses present yourself. Present yourself to me. This simple instruction shows honesty, openness and vulnerability. There would be no faking and no hiding. And then verse three says for Moses to come alone. Moses all by himself. Likewise we stand before. Come alone, moses all by himself. Likewise we stand before God alone. It's not about our parents' faith or lack of faith. It's not about our church or our friends or our spouses. We stand before God alone. These four simple instructions are such great advice for us. Be ready, plan ahead to spend quality time with Jesus like a good beach trip.
Julie:Now, I know a lot of you are very time poor and you're exhausted and I hear that because I have had large seasons of my life like that as well. But do your best to carve out good time to spend with Jesus. I know that it's not perfect and that's not always possible, but when it is, carve the time out and climb up. Be intentional and determined. Schedule that time. Put in the effort of meeting with God. Present yourself when you show up to spend time with Jesus, put off all the pretense. Be raw and exposed. Be honest and open. Your father knows you and he sees all these things anyway. Show him your weakness and your disappointment in your own spiritual condition. He knows it. Be honest with him, present yourself and the last thing, come alone. Don't expect it to be someone else's job to get you to Jesus your pastor, your friends, your spouse or kids. They might encourage you, but it's on you, baby. You got to show up All right.
Julie:Now we dive into some really good God stuff as he reveals himself to Moses and to us and tells us what his glory looks like. In verses 5 to 7, we see the fulfillment of God's promise to Moses. In the last chapter, if you remember from the last episode, we went through Exodus 33, where Moses asks to see the glory of God. I'll read verses 19 through 23 of Exodus 33, so you can remember what God told Moses that he was going to do. The Lord replied I will make all my goodness pass before you and I will call out my name, yahweh, before you, for I will show mercy to anyone I choose and I will show compassion to the Lord. Continued passes by, I will hide you in the crevice of the rock and cover you with my hand until I've passed by, and then I'll remove my hand and let you see me from behind, but my face will not be seen. So now imagine being Moses in this moment, up on that mountain that you climbed with God being hidden in the crack of a rock, so that you could endure the power and gravity of this experience.
Julie:So back in Exodus 34, we're reading through the actual event, and this is what it says in the New Living Translation. Then the Lord came down in a cloud and stood there with him and he called out his own name with him, and he called out his own name. Yahweh 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. I lavish unfailing love to a thousand generations. I forgive iniquity to a thousand generations. I forgive iniquity, rebellion and sin, but I do not excuse the guilty. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children and grandchildren. The entire family is affected, even children in the third and fourth generations.
Julie:This is God's declaration of his glory. He begins by reminding Moses of his name. Maybe this call to remembrance the first time that God spoke his name to Moses in the burning bush, bringing together that first experience of God and linking it with this fuller explanation of the character, nature and substance of God. God calls himself Yahweh, I am, or Jehovah, which means the self-existent or eternal one, the Lord. He reminds Moses that he is the giver of existence, the incomparable, absolute, self-consistent and unchangeable one, the one who is. Then God continues to tell Moses what his glory looks like, and what is the very first thing that he mentions? Is it his wrath for sinners or his power to crush the ungodly? No, he says he is compassionate and merciful, slow to anger and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness. The New King James translates it merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abounding in goodness and truth. The title under his social media profile would be merciful, slash gracious. His game show introduction would be the great I am the God of the universe, merciful and gracious, patient with sinners and overflowing with love and goodness. Are these the very first things that come into your mind when you think of god, the father, or the manifestations of god that we see in the old testament? I know for many of us. This is not the case.
Julie:The dane ortling quote that I read at the beginning of the episode is so key. The Bible is one long attempt to deconstruct our natural vision of who God actually is. In his book Gentle and Lowly, dane Ortlund says this. Gentle and lowly Dane Ortlund says this when we speak of God's glory, we are speaking of who God is, what he is like, his distinctive resplendence, what makes God God. And when God himself sets the terms of what his glory is, he surprises us into wonder. Our deepest instincts expect him to be thundering gavel, swinging judgment relishing. We expect the bent of God's heart to be retribution for our waywardness. And then Exodus 34 taps us on the shoulder and stops us in our tracks. The bent of God's heart is mercy. His glory is his goodness. His glory is his lowliness. Psalm 138, 5 and 6 says great is the glory of the Lord, for though the Lord is high, he regards the lowly.
Julie:Consider the words of Exodus 34, 6 through 7, merciful and gracious, these are the first words out of God's own mouth after proclaiming his name. The Lord or I am the first words. The only two words that Jesus will use to describe his own heart are gentle and lowly in Matthew 11, 29. And the first two words that God uses to describe who he is are merciful and gracious. God does not reveal his glory as the Lord the Lord exacting and precise, or the Lord the Lord tolerant and overlooking, or the Lord the Lord disappointed and frustrated. His highest priority and deepest delight and first reaction, his heart, is merciful and gracious. He gently accommodates himself to our terms rather than overwhelming us with his. I know that was a long quote and if you need to hear it again, push that little rewind button or slide back a minute in the recording to let that sink in, because he puts it so, so well. So let's keep picking these verses apart, because there is so much here to consider.
Julie:God tells Moses that he is long-suffering. He has extensive endurance. God's intense love causes him to be filled with patience, like a marathon runner that just goes and goes forever. Ortlund puts it this way we tend to think divine anger is pent up and spring-loaded and divine mercy is slow to build. It's just the opposite. Divine mercy is ready to burst forth at the slightest prick. And in his book, dane goes on to say that people are the opposite of God in this, because we need to stir one another up to love and good deeds and we need to strive for patience and love and long-suffering. But God, he doesn't need any provoking to love. It's his anger that needs provoking to come to the surface. God's love and his mercy are gushing torrents, ready to flood your life and to cover your sin, but his wrath towards you, it's damned up and held back by his fervent love. He is long-suffering and merciful at his core, my friends At his center at his heart. This is who he is. This is reflected in God's last statement about himself.
Julie:God says that he is merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abounding in goodness and truth. He continues on saying I lavish unfailing love to a thousand generations. I forgive iniquity, rebellion and sin, but I do not excuse the guilty. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children and grandchildren. The entire family is affected, even children in the third and fourth generations. Now, here is usually where we erroneously tend to focus the most attention and notice that God says that he lays the sins of the parents on their children and grandchildren, and we want to cry out at the perceived injustice of God making children pay for the sins of their parents. But upon further inspection of this passage we can learn something. God begins this section saying that he lavishes unfailing love to a thousand generations. The implication here is that God's unfailing love will never be stopped. It goes on generation after generation.
Julie:God is reaching out with love and mercy, but the effects of sin certainly flow down through the generations, don't they? We've all seen the effects of sins following a family and breeding generational issues time and time again. Sin is cruel and it easily passes from the parents down to the children, doesn't it? But the Lord is there to remind us not to lose heart, because he has overcome the world and every generational sin with his generational love. Sin must be punished. God would not be a just judge or a good, good father or a watchful shepherd if he allowed sin to run rampant and continue to destroy the world. God is not soft on sin, but he is merciful to us and his love can swallow up even the ugliest of sins.
Julie:Now, if the concept of divine justice and punishment seems hard for your mind to grasp, I would encourage you to listen to episode number 28 in this Moses series, entitled Golden Calf Failure and Judgment. In that episode I unpack the difficult topic of divine justice and go into it a bit more, but for now I want to move on and read a few supporting scriptures that help our minds to be recoded. Joel 213, written by an old testament prophet, echoes the truth that we have been discussing when he writes this don't tear your clothing in your grief, but tear your hearts instead. Return to the Lord, your God, for he is merciful and compassionate, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. He is eager to relent and not punish. You hear that God is eager to show compassion and forgiveness and love to you and to me, and he wants to offer it to the whole world.
Julie:Another Old Testament proof of God's truest heart is written in Ezekiel 33, 11. Ezekiel 33, 11. As surely as I live, says the sovereign Lord. I take no pleasure in the death of wicked people. I only want them to turn from their wicked ways so they can live. Turn, turn from your wickedness, o people of Israel. Why should you die? God's long-suffering heart desires mercy and not judgment. God is not pent up with wrath towards you. He's not waiting for you to get out of line so that he can punish you. Ezekiel 18.23 tells us that God takes no pleasure in the destruction of the wicked, but he is pleased when the wicked turn from their sinful ways.
Julie:The New Testament speaks again and again and again of the long-suffering and love of Jesus. We can affirm these truths that we're talking about over and over again through the New Testament scriptures and over again through the New Testament scriptures. But it's so important for us to understand that the powerful God that we see punishing the wicked in the Old Testament is the same God who heals the sick, who eats with prostitutes and zealots and notices the unloved, and he gave his very life to redeem our relationship from him, gave his very life to redeem our relationship from him. Maybe you skipped the Old Testament because the judgment of God feels too heavy to bear and because you haven't sought out the whole counsel of God's word. It doesn't quite make sense to you.
Julie:Maybe you've been living like God is perpetually mad at you or looking for an opportunity to punish you, to take things that you love and make you suffer for the sin in your life. This could be the very reason that you hide from God when you sin, instead of running into his arms, knowing that there is safety and love and restoration waiting for you. This could be the reason that you want to turn to food for comfort or too much media or drugs or sex or alcohol or anything that will take your mind off of your life? Are you thinking properly about God? Maybe today the Lord is patiently lovingly correcting your perception of him?
Julie:Ortlund says this in his book the Christian life from one angle is the long journey of letting your natural assumption about who God is over many decades fall away, being slowly replaced with God's own insistence on who he is. This is hard work. It takes a lot of sermons and a lot of suffering to believe that God's deepest heart is merciful and gracious, slow to anger. The fall in Genesis 3 not only sent us into condemnation and exile. The fall also entrenched in our minds darkest thoughts of God, thoughts that are only dug out over multiple exposures to the gospel over many years.
Julie:Perhaps Satan's greatest victory in your life today is not the sin in which you regularly indulge, but the dark thoughts of God's heart that cause you to go there in the first place and keep you cool toward him in the wake of it. If you are pricked by these thoughts, if you know that your perspective of God has been off, I encourage you to take God's advice to Moses in the beginning of the section of scripture. Remember God told Moses be ready, come up, present yourself and come alone. God promises that he will never cast aside or drive away those that come to him. His desire is for you. He loves you. He is not waiting to swing the hammer and punish you. He is waiting to embrace you as a son or a daughter. I pray that God would help our perspective to be this and that we could look at the whole counsel of God and understand more deeply the heart of God. Thank you.
