Today's verse is again one that I cannot quite understand why its important to learn. In fact it makes no sense unless you read it in the context of the chapter.
We're still in Exodus and we're still traveling around in the desert. The scene of this particular verse is Moses on Mt. Sinai where he goes to talk to God and be in His presence. our verse is Exodus 34:6,7 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, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children;s children, to the third and fourth generation.
So in this verse we see that God passed before Moses, meaning Moses got to see the glory of God. if we look a few verses before this we see the reason that Moses is on the mountain with God. Moses had broke the two tablets that the ten commandments had been written on because of his anger at what the people were doing at the foot of the mountain while he was with God. So Moses is going back to God to ask for the Commandments to be rewritten. So God comes down in a cloud and stands with Moses.
Now we can look at the verse and understand it a little better now that the context has been revealed. These verses are God talking about himself. Only he can be this kind of loving God, to not give up on His people after time and time again they turn away from Him to worship things they created. Not only that but He extends this love to the future generations.
So soak in this truth. God is forgiving and gracious, merciful and loving, steadfast and faithful, and on top of all that slow to anger. Being slow to anger is vitally important because otherwise there would be no world for us to be living in now. If you haven't experienced this truth, this love that God has for you, please cry out to Him, ask for His forgiveness, because He won't clear the guilty, and without Christ we are all guilty. But when you accept the free gift of Christ's death on the cross you are no longer viewed as guilty, but as a forgiven son or daughter of God.
Romans 3:23-24 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus
