Episode Details

Who Does God Say He Is? Bible Study 101: Hearing Jesus, Bible Study, Devotional

In today's episode, Rachael walks through the moment God introduces Himself to Moses in His own words, right after Israel's worst betrayal, the golden calf. What God leads with, and what comes right after it, gives a fuller and more honest picture of His character than most of us were taught to hold onto.

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Chapters

0:12 What are we actually looking for when we look for God in a passage?

3:19 The golden calf, and the worst timing possible

5:33 Moses asks to see God's glory

6:03 Exodus 34:6-7, God introduces Himself in His own words

7:32 Why God leads with compassion, not power

8:58 What "slow to anger" and "lovingkindness" actually mean in Hebrew

10:54 The justice side: the third and fourth generation

13:14 A personal story about generational sin

16:43 How this same passage gets quoted throughout Scripture

19:41 How to start building your own list of who God is

23:18 Closing prayer

What Does Exodus 34:6-7 Actually Say About God?

Right after Israel's worst betrayal, the golden calf, God passes in front of Moses and introduces Himself in His own words: "The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin." He doesn't lead with power, even though He'd just parted the Red Sea. He leads with compassion, a Hebrew word tied to the tenderness of a mother for the child she carried.

Does God Punish Children for Their Parents' Sins?

The same passage continues: "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." This isn't God assigning guilt to people who didn't sin. It's an honest description of how far the damage of unaddressed sin actually travels through a family line, generational patterns, addiction, broken relationships, until someone in that line chooses to stop it.

Why Does This Passage Get Quoted So Often Elsewhere in Scripture?

David uses it in the Psalms. Nehemiah uses it during Israel's confession of failure. Joel uses it as a call to return to God. Jonah even throws it back at God in complaint, because he didn't want God to be merciful to Nineveh. Different authors, different centuries, different circumstances, all returning to the same description, because it's the fixed reference point for who God actually is.

FAQ

Is this the same as the "God is the hero" teaching from earlier episodes? It builds on it. Once you're looking for God in a passage, this is the actual content you're looking for, His own self-description.

What's a simple way to start applying this? Keep a running list titled "God is like" somewhere in your Bible or journal, and add one line every time you study a passage.

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