I Will Have Mercy
“And the LORD said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.”
At some point in our pursuit of the Christian life we come to a great and terrible realization: we discover to our utter shame that, like the Israelites, we are not really interested in God at all. Instead, we are only interested in what God can do for us. What will God acquire for us? Whom God will conquer for us? Why hasn’t God given us the things we want? In the meantime, we may also find to our even greater shame that what we really want is to hold on to our sin, and so, also like the Israelites, we construct new idols to replace old ones (Exodus Chapter 32).
This is just the situation Moses finds himself in as a leader. The people of God have shown themselves to be “stiff-necked” and unwilling to yield to the good commands of the Lord, and so God has decided to grant them their deepest sinful desire: he will give them their riches and their inheritance – the land He has promised – and send them into it alone, without himself. Otherwise, He says, because of they are disobedient, “if I were to go with you, even for a moment, I might destroy you” (Exodus 33:5).
Then something amazing happens, and perhaps this has happened to you too. Because God has offered to abandon them to their sin, Moses and the people realize their mistake. Their great inheritance and their great riches exist not in the wealth of the land that has been promised, but rather in the very presence of God among them, and so Moses cries out before the Lord on behalf of the people, “If your presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all other peoples on the face of the earth?” (Exodus 33:15-16)
Moses proclaims that his desire, and the desire of the people, is for nothing but God, and even if gaining God means losing everything else, they will willingly leave their treasures behind.
What follows in verse 19 is perhaps the greatest revelation of all; God responds mercifully. Our relationship with God is not based on our ability to obey it is based solely on His ability to have mercy on us. They do not deserve Him and neither do we, but the mercy and compassion of God overcomes the obstacle of our sin and judgment.
“Our relationship with God is not based on our ability to obey it is based solely on His ability to have mercy on us.”
That’s an interesting point. I do think our *growth* in the Lord is based a lot on our obedience in him (as well as other things) but we tend to confuse our obedience as the key role in our relationship with him.