NOVEMBER 15, 2012
God’s
Description
Read: Exodus 34:1-8
The Lord, the Lord
God, merciful and gracious. —Exodus 34:6
The
prayers of young children show us what they think of God.
Here are two I read
recently:
“Dear
God, what does it mean that You are a ‘jealous’ God? I thought
You had
everything.”
“I
didn’t think orange went with purple until I saw the sunset You
made on
Tuesday. That was cool.”
These
children are right to think of God as the owner and creator of
everything, the
One who can paint beautiful sunsets. But how does
God describe Himself?
Moses
needed an answer to that question when he was about to lead
the Israelites into
the wilderness. He wanted to be assured of God’s
presence and leading, so he
asked Him to reveal Himself (Ex. 33:13,18).
In response, God came down in a
cloud and said: “The Lord,
the Lord
God, merciful
and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness
and truth, . . . by no
means clearing the guilty” (34:5-7). He is good;
He is just.
We
too can know this God and be assured of His presence. He has
revealed Himself
in His creation and in His Word. As we ask Him to
make Himself known to us,
we’ll learn that He is even more than
the owner and creator of everything!
Sing praise to God who reigns above,
The God of all creation,
The God of power, the God of love,
The God of our salvation. —Schutz
In a world of superlatives, God is the greatest.
Source:
Our Daily Bread 2012
