Welcome to the Daily Blade . The Word of God is described as the sword of the Spirit , the primary spiritual weapon in the Christian's armor against the forces of evil . Your hosts are Joby Martin and Kyle Thompson , and they stand ready to equip men for the fight . Let's sharpen up .
Speaker 2Alright , guys , this week we're looking at Exodus 34 , verses 6 and 7 , where God describes his own attributes . So yesterday we did a little foundational work by setting the context of Exodus 34 , by summarizing what we see in Exodus 32 and 33 and reading the first five verses of Exodus 34 . So let's go ahead and read Exodus 34 , verses 6 and 7 , and we're going to be reading out of the Nazarene 1995 edition . Then the Lord passed by in front of him , in front of Moses , and proclaimed the Lord , the Lord , god compassionate and gracious , slow to anger and abounding in loving , kindness and truth , who keeps loving kindness for thousands , who forgives iniquity , transgression and sin . Yet he will by no means leave the guilty unpunished , visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations . So , guys , in these two verses God describes seven distinct attributes of himself . So that's what we're going to be covering this week and today we're going to focus on the first two . God is compassionate and God is gracious and as my pastor , dr Mark Hitchcock of Faith Bible Church in Edmonton , oklahoma , put it , verse 6 of Exodus 34 , okay , is one of the most important verses in the Bible . God attributes , or his attributes of compassion and graciousness . These are mentioned 12 times in the Old Testament , so the fact that we get it that often lets us know how important it is . And the word used for compassion here is sometimes translated as merciful , and it also is used to describe the womb of a mother . So if you are a mother listening to this , obviously you understand what that is like . Or for any of you husbands out there , where your wife was , you know , holding your child , your progeny , in her womb . Just think about how she cares for her stomach and cares for her womb and her body in those moments . And the womb itself is a form of protection until the baby develops further right to where it can , you know , live outside the womb and do all those different things . It's still dependent on us as their caretakers , but that is a safe , comfortable place for the baby to develop , and this just really shows us the depth of God's feelings towards us .
Speaker 2Now , the word used for gracious here means to bend or to stoop down . So just think about this . Before God sent his son Jesus around , you know , 1400 years or so later to earth , he literally had to lower himself to reach us in our earthly humanity . Okay , so God is not simply waiting for us to reach up for him , right , he's actually reaching down to us . So he looks down at us you know the dirty and dumb sheep that we are and he feels compassion towards us . He feels he's basically he's gracious enough to scoop us up when he certainly doesn't have to right Now .
Speaker 2These two attributes show the overall benevolence of God . Okay , it shows his character , but you have to ask yourself , well , why ? Well , for starters , god did not have to deal compassionately and graciously with the Israelites , right ? Because , again , when Moses was on the mountain with God , the Israelites back at camp went full apostate . They started worshiping a golden calf statue , they threw a good size rager . They were going crazy , and that broke the covenant that God made with these people . But here God is renewing the same exact covenant , right ? And look , do you think Moses would be able to deal with all these stiff-necked Israelites if he were not compassionate ? I mean , that'd be an impossible task if he chose to not operate in that way , right ?
Speaker 2And so all of this guys reminded me of the parable that Jesus told of the prodigal son that we see in Luke 15 , one of the most famous parables . So , as most of you know , as a setup of the story , a man had two sons . The older son was super type A , very conscientious , he got crap done and did it on time . The younger son was a complete screw-up , right , right . So the younger son demanded his inheritance before his father actually died , which , as you can imagine , is just the ultimate insult . Okay , dad , I love you and all that , but you just won't die quick enough . So can I just go ahead and have what's owed to me now ? I mean , it's pretty brutal .
Speaker 2Then the younger son goes off and squanders his entire inheritance with the ancient equivalent of hookers and blow . He finds himself in a literal pigsty and then he decides that he's going to swallow his pride and , in a posture of desperation , go home to his father . So let's actually pick up the parable in Luke 15 , verse 20 . And these are the words of Jesus here . And he arose and came to his father , but while he was still a long way off , his father saw him and felt compassion and ran and embraced him and kissed him . And then the son said to him father , I have sinned against heaven and before you I'm no longer worthy to be called your son .
Speaker 2But the father was compassionate towards his ne'er-do-well son , right , but he didn't just feel compassion and then do nothing , right . He ran towards his son and , just contextually speaking , men didn't do that back in this day , right , you know , with their clothes and robes and everything . It was kind of hard to run , and so the fact that he ran to his son in an undignified manner was incredibly , incredibly telling . And the father then graciously put his own robe on the son and made ready for an immediate celebration because his son had come home . And that's what God has done for us . If you want to know the attributes of God , let's take him at his word . God is compassionate , god is gracious . Chew on that today . We'll see you back here tomorrow .
Speaker 1Thank you for listening to today's episode Before you go . If you want to help equip other men for the fight , share this podcast around and leave us a five-star rating and review . Stay sharp .