Week 6: Steadfast Love and Faithfulness (Exodus 34:5–7)

The Big Idea

Israel has just broken the covenant by worshiping a golden calf, and Moses asks to see God's glory. God answers by proclaiming his own name, and the center of that name is steadfast love and faithfulness. God's covenant does not survive because Israel kept it. It survives because of who God is.

Before You Read

Only weeks after promising to do everything the LORD had spoken (Exodus 24), Israel made a golden calf and worshiped it (Exodus 32). Moses broke the stone tablets of the covenant at the foot of the mountain. God threatened to destroy the people, Moses pleaded for them, and God relented. In Exodus 33, Moses asks God to go with them and then asks to see God's glory. God says no one can see his face and live, but he will make his goodness pass before Moses and proclaim his name. In chapter 34, Moses carves two new tablets and climbs the mountain again. In the ancient world, a name was more than a label. It told you who someone was. This is the moment God tells Moses who he is.

Read

Read Exodus 34:5–7 slowly, twice, once aloud. Then read verses 8–9 to see how Moses responds. Because the passage is short, consider reading it a third time, pausing after each phrase.

Observe

1. What does the LORD do in verse 5? Who comes down, and who stands where?
2. In verse 6, what name is proclaimed? How many times is it said?
3. Make a list of every description of God in verses 6–7. How many can you find?
4. Which descriptions speak of God's mercy? Which speak of his justice? Which side gets more words?
5. To how many does God keep steadfast love? To how many generations does the consequence of iniquity reach? Compare the two numbers.
6. List the three words for wrongdoing in verse 7. What does God do with them?
7. What does God say he will not do with the guilty?
8. How does Moses respond in verses 8–9? What does he ask for?

A Word to Notice

Chesed (KHEH-sed), usually translated steadfast love, is one of the richest words in the Old Testament. It is covenant loyalty: love that is committed, love that keeps showing up, love that has bound itself to someone and will not let go. It appears twice in these verses. In verse 6 it is paired with emet (EH-met), faithfulness, which carries the idea of firmness and reliability, something you can lean your whole weight on. Together they describe the heart of God's covenant character. Chesed is the relational content of covenant; emet is its reliability. And God speaks them about himself at the very moment his people have proven they have neither.

Interpret

1. Why is it significant that God reveals his name right after the golden calf, and not before?Consider: Israel needed to know what God is like at their worst, not their best. God's self-description is a word spoken into failure. It tells sinners who God will be toward them.

2. God is merciful, gracious, and slow to anger, and yet he will not simply wave away guilt. How can both be true?Consider: God's mercy is not the same as pretending sin doesn't matter. He forgives, but he never calls evil good. The Bible's full answer to this tension comes at the cross, where God is both just and the one who justifies (Romans 3:26).

3. What does the contrast between thousands and the third and fourth generation suggest about which way God's heart leans?Consider: The consequences of sin are real and can ripple through a family, but God's steadfast love reaches far wider and lasts far longer. Mercy outruns judgment by an enormous margin.

4. Why do you think God puts chesed and emet together? What would love be like without faithfulness, or faithfulness without love?Consider: Love without faithfulness is a feeling that may not last. Faithfulness without love can be cold duty. God's covenant love is both warm and reliable.

5. Cross-reference: Read some of the places where this passage is echoed: Numbers 14:18, Psalm 103:8, Joel 2:13, and Jonah 4:2. How do later believers use these words?Consider: Moses prays them back to God, the psalmist praises with them, Joel uses them to call people to repentance, and Jonah complains about them. This description became Israel's most-quoted confession of who God is.

Apply: Let the Text Read You

• When you've failed God, what do you expect him to say to you? How does that compare with what he says about himself here?
• Moses' first response was to bow down and worship, and then to ask God to go with them. When you see God's mercy clearly, what does it stir in you?
• Many of us carry patterns from the generations before us, good and bad. How does it affect you to hear that God's steadfast love reaches to thousands?
• Which word in God's self-description do you most need to believe right now? Why that one?

Pray

LORD, you are merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. I have broken faith with you in ways I know and ways I don't. Thank you that you told your name to people who had just failed you. Let me know you as you really are. Amen.

For Groups (optional)

• Discussion starter: What is something people often assume about God that this passage corrects?
• Have the group read verses 6–7 aloud together, slowly, as a confession of faith. Many Christians through the centuries have memorized these lines.
• Be prepared for questions about verse 7 and the generations. Keep the focus on the contrast between thousands and three or four, and on God's justice and mercy together.

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Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.