The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,
Israel worshipped the golden calf, Moses broke the tablets, and now God gives the law again — this time speaking His own name over it. How much of God does that name reveal: the gospel arriving early, or something short of it?
The Name as Character
In Scripture a name tells you what someone is. Here God defines Himself. One writer weighs what this name shows and what it leaves for later. ("Jehovah" below is the name the ESV prints as "the LORD.")
Edward DennettName in Scripture, at least in connection with God, expresses nature; and so here it means what God was as JEHOVAH. Remember: this is not the Father revealing Himself, but Jehovah in His relationship with Israel. So it is not a complete revelation of God. That could not come until after the cross. The difference is between what God was as Jehovah to Israel, and what God is as the Father to His children.
Law Given a Second Time, With Mercy Attached
The first giving of the law carried no such words. When the tablets are replaced, something new is spoken over them.
Frederick W. GrantBut now, if He gives the law a second time, He gives it with other declarations alongside it, unlike anything that had gone before. He now couples His mercy with it... It was still law — they were still under responsibility to keep it. But now He was going to exercise patience. He would forgive iniquity, transgression, and sin. And yet, at the same time, He could not clear the guilty.
"Slow to Anger"
One writer traces the word for "slow to anger" through the Greek Old Testament.
J. A. TrenchFrom Exodus 34:6 onward, the Greek Old Testament uses makrothumos again and again of God... In Proverbs 15:18 and 16:32 it answers to our "slow to anger," though the patient restraint of spirit in the word is not limited to anger... It means "a long holding out of the mind before it gives room to action or passion," and it describes God in His forbearance towards those who provoke Him.
Neither Pure Law Nor Pure Grace
Commentators differ on how far this proclamation reaches. One writer calls it government rather than salvation, pointing to the words that follow in verse 7.
Hamilton SmithClearly this is not pure law; neither is it pure grace — the sovereign grace of God revealed in Christ. It is rather the goodness of God in government. Under that government, God will by no means clear the guilty. Under grace, God can justify the ungodly.
Others put the accent the other way, on what verse 6 discloses of God Himself.
L. M. GrantIn verse 6 and the first part of verse 7 the Lord is not declaring law at all. What He declares stands in contrast to law. It expresses what is actually in the heart of God. It is now shown in perfection in the person of the Lord Jesus and in His great sacrifice at Calvary.
Qualities That Look Opposed
To Moses, these qualities could have looked at odds with each other. Where the ESV says "steadfast love and faithfulness," older translations read "goodness and truth" — the wording used below.
F. B. HoleHe might have wanted to ask, If He is abundant in truth as well as goodness, how can He be gracious to a people such as we have proved ourselves to be? Or again, How can He rightly forgive iniquity and transgressions, if He will by no means clear the guilty...? Centuries later the Psalmist, writing as a prophet, looked ahead to the happy day when it would be said, "Steadfast love and faithfulness meet; righteousness and peace kiss each other" (Ps. 85:10). But even then, there was no full display of "grace and truth" until they "came through Jesus Christ" (John 1:17) and were harmonized by His death and resurrection.
The Same Name, Fully Spoken
One writer ties this name straight to the gospel preached today.
J. N. DarbyThe gospel of the grace of God is the revelation of the glory of God in the person and the work of His Son Jesus Christ. It is the perfect expression of that name which God had proclaimed to Moses.
What Moses Received That Israel Did Not
Israel saw what God did. Moses learned why He does it — and that difference shapes Israel's future restoration.
Hamilton SmithThe ways of God, made known to Moses, will bring about the blessing of restored Israel. God revealed His outward acts to Israel; to Moses He revealed the principles on which He acted. These ways are now declared to the restored nation.
Summary
- Name — God's name here is His nature put into words: this is what He is like, not just what He is called.
- Named after failure — the tablets lie broken, and God joins mercy to the law when He gives it again.
- Named in patience — "slow to anger" describes a long holding back toward the very people who provoke Him.
- Named but not finished — commentators differ over how much grace this name holds; the full display waited for the cross.
- Name fulfilled — love and truth stand together in the verse. At the cross they meet, and the gospel becomes the perfect expression of this name.