Exodus 34:5-9
Thirteenth Sunday After Pentecost Pastor Nathan P. Kassulke Sunday, August 27, 2023
“The Lord Proclaims His Name”
What did Moses expect? To understand why I ask that question in relation to our passage from Exodus, consider what brought him to the point of what we hear in that reading today.
Moses was the Lord’s chosen leader for his people. He had led the people out of Egypt where they had been slaves. He was the Lord’s instrument through whom the Lord had displayed his power by miraculous signs and devastating plagues. Moses had led the people through the heart of the Red Sea on dry ground and out into the wilderness on their way to the Promised Land. And the people had all stopped at the Mountain of the Lord, Mount Sinai. Moses went up and spoke with the Lord and received from him all the instructions about leading and organizing the people. Among those instructions were God’s Ten Commandments, a summary of everything that God wanted all of his people to follow for all of their lives on this earth. The Lord had even inscribed those commandments on tablets of stone that Moses could take with him.
On his way down to the camp, Moses heard an unusual sound. The people were acting wildly. They were worshiping, but not worshiping the Lord who had brought them out of Egypt. They were throwing a worship party for a calf idol that they had made out of gold. And Moses, realizing that the people had completely shattered everything that God had wanted them to do and had gone against everything that God had wanted them to be, Moses took the stone tablets and smashed them to pieces on the ground.
I am summarizing a bit for the sake of our time together this morning, but Moses spoke to the Lord again. The Lord instructed Moses to go ahead and lead the people toward the Promised Land. But he also suggested that he would not go with them as he had to that point. He was too angry and too concerned about what they would do to provoke him next. And Moses begged and pleaded. He prayed and implored. He demanded that the Lord go with Moses and the people. He expected the Lord to keep his promises. And the Lord assured Moses that he would do just that. And with the Lord’s assurance that he would be with and bless Moses and the people, Moses asked, “Please show me your glory.”
So what did Moses expect? Was he thinking that the Lord would shake the mountain and fill the air with bright light and smoke? Was he expecting miraculous things to go on all around him? Could he even imagine what it would mean to see the glory of the Lord? The words of our sermon text from Exodus 34 tell us what Moses got. The Lord explained that no sinful human being could see his face and live, so he was going to answer Moses’ request by hiding him in a cleft of rock and by passing by with his hand covering the opening so that Moses could get a glimpse of the Lord’s back. And God promised that as he passed by, he would proclaim his name. And that is exactly what happened. With stone tablets prepared to replace the broken ones, Moses went back up the mountain. And then our reading begins. The Lord came down in the cloud. He took his stand there with Moses and proclaimed the name of the Lord.
This is the glory of the Lord, that he proclaims his name. And he does so for the sake of stiff-necked people. That’s how Moses describes the people he was leading. Remember how they worshiped the golden calf? They had done so much more as well. They had grumbled and complained as God miraculously provided food for them. They longed to go back to the land of slavery in Egypt when small troubles and trials appeared. Again and again they rejected the Lord and went their own ways. It was as if their necks were stuck in the direction of their own thoughts and desires and could not be persuaded by the Lord to turn in the way he wanted them to go.
And Moses wasn’t innocent, either. The Bible tells us a great deal about the incredible things that the Lord accomplished through him, but Moses had his moments. He had his early impetuous years when he struck down an Egyptian for treating an Israelite harshly. He had his moments when he was more upset with the people than God was and he struck out in anger. The one responsible for leading the people right to the threshold of the Promised Land was not allowed to go into it himself because he had been so stiff-necked at times.
You know who else fits the description of a stiff-necked person? You do. I do. We were born set on our own ways and not on God’s. in fact our ways by nature are set against God’s. And even the group that gathers here on a
Sunday morning and makes a regular practice of worship and Bible study, even those who give offerings and truly live their lives around what God says in his Word have those moments of stiff-necked rebellion. Did you catch the way the Lord talks about people? He calls them “guilty.” He describes their “guilt and rebellion and sin.”
And you know that his description fits you. You know the times that you have lashed out against someone. You know that you expect people to give you the benefit of the doubt when you do something that they don’t like, but you are not often ready to return that favor. You know the grudges you hold. You know even the golden calves that come into your lives when there are times that God’s ways and God’s Word take a back seat to entertainment and sports and family activities. It’s not hard to imagine it, if you stop to consider, that the Lord would say, “That’s it. I am not going with you any longer. You are on your own.” And please understand what that means. If the Lord is not with you, you do not reach the Promised Land. If the Lord is not with you, this is as good as it gets and when the end of this life comes you will find nothing but suffering. This is the Lord who says, “He will by no means clear the guilty.”
But it is for the guilty and for the stiff-necked people just like you that the Lord proclaims his name. We’ve been using the word “Lord” to describe God. That is an appropriate name. But when he says he will proclaim his name, he means much more than that he will tell you what to call him. In the Second Commandment he says, “you shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God.” In the First Petition of the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray that our Father’s name would be hallowed or kept holy. When the Bible speaks in terms of God’s name, it means for us to have in mind everything that God has revealed to us about himself. Think about it. When someone hears your name, it is not a meaningless bunch of letters or sounds or syllables. When they hear it, they think of you and everything they know about you. God’s name reflects everything that we know about him.
And when the Lord proclaims his name, here is what he says: “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, and overflowing with mercy and truth, maintaining mercy for thousands, forgiving guilt and rebellion and sin.”
The name of the Lord is incredible news and an incredible comfort for stiff-necked people like us. This is who he is. He is compassionate and gracious and loving and forgiving. He is overflowing with mercy and truth. What an amazing pairing, mercy and truth. God does not simply ignore sin—that wouldn’t be truthful. But in his mercy, the Lord forgives. He does so in Jesus.
In the person of Jesus, the Lord himself came into our sinful world but was without sin. Jesus was never stiffnecked or self-serving. He was always directed by God’s will and his Word. He was set on accomplishing the goals of forgiveness and salvation. He was set on accomplishing these things for you and me and a world of sinners. Those goals took him all the way to suffering and death on a cross not because he had sinned, but because we have sinned. And the people of Israel sinned, and their leader Moses sinned.
It is amazing to think that the Lord proclaimed his name to Moses around 1500 BC, and everything he said about compassion and love and mercy was based on what he would accomplish for the world in Jesus Christ. That’s why Jesus asked his disciples about who he is. He was not Elijah or some other prophet. He was not there primarily to perform miracles or even to preach and teach. Jesus was there as God’s anointed, the Lord in human flesh come to be the Savior of the world. That is the foundation on which God’s invincible church is built. The Church that God wants is the Church that really understands this, the Church that recognizes that Jesus is the compassionate and gracious Lord who took away sin and forgives his people.
Just like we asked what Moses expected, we could ask what we expect when we come to church. Maybe we hope church makes me feel better. Perhaps I want the church to do the things that I like. Maybe I want the music to entertain me, or I wouldn’t mind a joke or two from the pastor. But all those descriptions of church make a church that serves me only in the here and now. It does nothing for me for my future after this life. For that I need the church that really knows Jesus. That church warns against sin and wickedness and rebellion. That church offers the joy and comfort of forgiveness It proclaims the name of the Lord. That is to say, the Lord proclaims his name to us and through us. And just like Moses did, we worship the Lord and trust his promises.
The Text: Exodus 34:5–9 (EHV)
5The Lord came down in the cloud. He took his stand there with Moses and proclaimed the name of the Lord. 6The Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed: “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, and overflowing with mercy and truth, 7maintaining mercy for thousands, forgiving guilt and rebellion and sin. He will by no means clear the guilty. He calls their children and their children’s children to account for the guilt of the fathers, even to the third and the fourth generation.”
8Moses quickly bowed to the ground and worshipped. 9He said, “If I have now found favor in your sight, Lord, please let the Lord go along with us. Although this is a stiff-necked people, pardon our guilt and our sin, and accept us as your possession.”