Gracious & Merciful...& Just

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 in the third and forth generations." Exodus 34:6-7

Hi Friends!

Did you ever doodle in your notebook in high school? I did, all the time. Today, I'm sharing some "doodles" about God. He is so awesome that sometimes it makes Him hard to understand because He says and does things that may not seem "right" to you and me with our human perception. His ways are certainly not our ways. And that's a very good thing! Let's dive into Exodus 34:6-7.

Exodus 34:6, "The Lord passed in front of Moses, calling out, 'Yahweh! The Lord! The God of compassion and mercy!' Yep, He sure is- compassionate and merciful! Thank You, Lord!

'I am slow to anger and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness.' That's great, I'm with ya- slow to anger, check; loving and faithful, check, check.

Exodus 34:7, 'I lavish unfailing love to a thousand generations. I forgive iniquity, rebellion, and sin.' Yes, You are so generous! Thank you, Jesus!!

'But I do not excuse the guilty.' Yeah, I get it. He's just and righteous and can't ignore sin.

'I lay the sins of the parents upon their children and grandchildren; the entire family is affected- even children in the third and forth generations.' Wait...what??!!

It's easy to only think of our God in terms of love and faithfulness, of compassion and mercy, of forgiveness and redemption. And He is ALL of those things. But, He's also righteous and just and holy. And that's where the last part of verse 7 comes into play. And it's hard for us to hear.

But, I'll give you the good news first. If you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you are no longer part of "the guilty." Through Jesus, you have been forgiven and redeemed. The end. Nothing you can do can take you out of His hand. So who are the guilty? Anyone who doesn't accept Jesus as their Savior. He is holy. He can't ignore sin. So, the guilty will be punished.

What did God mean by "I lay the sins of the parents upon their children and grandchildren; the entire family is affected- even children in the third and forth generations." There is generational sin. It began with Adam and Eve. We all inherited a sinful nature through them. And if we look at our families, we can probably see sins were passed from generation to generation through genes or sinful habits and environments. Each person, though, is responsible for their own sins as we each have free will. Just because our parents or grandparents sinned in a particular way doesn't mean we have to make the same choice. When God said this to Moses, of course, Jesus had not come yet. If the people were unrepentant, their familial sins grew and grew throughout the generations. That can still happen to the unrepentant today. But you can break that just by accepting Jesus. Just say, "YES!" to Him.

He does love us. He forgives us. He is gracious and merciful, and yes, He is just. In Jesus, we are safe from His wrath. Thank You, Jesus!!

Page details: I used the brand new Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps sets called Set Apart and Walk by Faith. I also used an oldie, but goodie set called Note This for this doodling inspired page. As soon as I saw Set Apart, I was reminded of my high school notebooks. So, I used colored pencils and a ruler to turn my Bible page into a notebook paper page. The lines are a little hard to see in the photo, but I hope you can make them out. Then I stamped the words first, and then randomly stamped the doodles. I stuck with black ink because I wanted it to look like it was done in pencil or pen. I had so much fun doing this page!

We have an awesome, incomprehensible, good God. Praise Him!
Have a blessed week! Andrea