This past week, we got to hang with our parents and share life on the race with them. We played, we worshiped, we walked alongside one another, we shared, and we laughed so much.
My teammate Tori told me a while ago, “We are going to do a teaching on Yahweh” to which I said, “ahhh okayy..”
I have been learning A LOT about this- who my creator is and what he has to say about himself.
It is important to me because I want to know, I have to KNOW, who is it that I am worshiping and living life to glorify?
These are the notes from our teaching and I thought it would be fun to share them here!
PSA- the resources for a lot of this are Tim Mackie’s sermon series “I Am Who I Am” which can be found on his podcast series Exploring My Strange Bible (episodes 62-53) https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/exploring-my-strange-bible/id1271147429?mt=2
And the book God Has A Name written by John Mark Comer. I highly suggest both of these.
Yahweh
Exodus 34:6-7
“Yahweh, Yahweh, a God MERCIFUL and GRACIOUS, SLOW TO ANGER, and ABOUNDING IN STEADFAST LOVE and FAITHFULNESS, keeping steadfast love for thousands forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who by no means clears the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and fourth generation”
“Yahweh, Yahweh” – (Exodus 3:14-15) I AM WHO I AM – in Hebrew: “ehyeh-asher-ehyeh” – I WILL BE WHAT I WILL BE.
A deeply personal character statement.. So we know that whatever character trait/attributions YHWH displays, he is that, he will always be that- and nothing can change it.
Ehyeh- also pronounced “ehweh” = I (1st person)
Yahweh = He (3rd person)
“God” = in Hebrew: elohim = a spiritual being
Who Yahweh says he is:
1. COMPASSIONATE AND GRACIOUS (ABIGAIL)
In the Hebrew scriptures, order matters- it is a clue to what is the most important.
“Compassionate and gracious” as the first thing- IMPORTANT.
Hebrew: Rahum we-hanun (a word pairing- they sound alike and are laid side by side to help explain one another)
Rahum- “compassionate” or “merciful” – from a root word meaning “female womb”- the idea is the feeling a mother has towards her infant child- an intense, visceral, motherly love for a child- how a parent feels towards their child. A FEELING word.
Hanun- “gracious” “to show grace” “to show favor”
an ACTION word, something you do.
It is mostly used in the old test. In reference to Yahweh coming to the rescue.
So, to recap: “compassionate” is a feeling word. Yahweh is like a father or even a mother, and we’re like His children. And “gracious” is an action word. It means, like a parent, God comes to the rescue when His kids need help.
These two words link up and fuse together to show us what Yahweh is like: He’s compassionate and gracious.
The God we worship is a God who FEELS, who cares about his children. And a God who ACTS, who wants to help- to do something about our situation.
So when we come before Yahweh, we shouldn’t come based on what we’ve done, or what’s been done to us- but based on who Yahweh is- based on his mercy.
2. SLOW TO ANGER; (TORI)
People typically think that God is out to get them to punish them for something because he is angry or they have formed in their head that God is never angry and is only ever gracious.
God DOES get angry sometimes really angry, but it’s ALWAYS righteous.
-
God is slow to anger. He doesn’t have a temper.
God does get angry but it takes a lot to get him there. He is patient with us and does not lash out at us. His anger is on purpose. There are times in life when anger is the right response. Anger can be just.
Our anger:
Typically when we get upset it’s because of a hurt ego. Someone has said or did something to offend us. Usually when we say we want justice what we really want is revenge.
Yahweh’s anger:
When Yahweh gets angry it’s a parent-like anger like:
Why is little Nicole running into the street again she’s going to get hurt?
Why are my Kids continually doing things that bring harm to themselves?
3. ABOUNDING IN STEADFAST LOVE AND FAITHFULNESS (TORI)
Love and Faithfulness- hessed and ement. (hebrew)
Hessed- there isn’t really a word to compare to in English.
The best translations are:
“steadfast love”
“Unfailing love”
“Covenant loyalty”
It’s a covenant term. So something that will ALWAYS be because the Lord Yahweh always keeps his promises.
The phrase steadfast love is repeated in this verse; in other words, his love is spilling over and way past capacity. A love that we will never be able to understand or grasp.
Ement- truth
It’s actually connected to the word amen. Like when people in a sermon yelling out amen at a preacher they are declaring whatever was said was truth.
It is also translated to trustworthy. In other words, Yahweh will never let me down.
When things get hard or difficult he isn’t going to run. He is only going to run after us harder.
When you put the two together they become a hendiadys.
Hendiadys- when two nouns are smashed together to help define each other.
So… Yahweh’s love is his faithfulness and his faithfulness is his love.
4. FORGIVING ALL SIN (TORI)
In this verse, it goes through different types of sin
Iniquity- immoral or grossly, unfair behavior
Transgression- an act that goes against law, rule or code of conduct.
Then the verse comes back to just plain sin.
As humans it’s so easy to rate sin, but God if you put sin into a bar graph and compared it, it would have all different heights and amount to it in our eyes but God looks at it from above and to him one isn’t greater than the other.
So for some of us it’s hard to accept his forgiveness but we get to start fresh every day because our father in heaven forgives us always.
5.VERSE 7
= a coherent statement about Yahweh’s love and his justice
Written in poetic form- ABBA
A keeping steadfast love for thousands – Yahweh’s hesed (covenant love) he is “maintaining” it- no-ser in Hebrew- means to protect or to guard and it’s for the THOUSANDS- not just for me or for you- but for everyone. It is limitless.
B forgiving wickedness, rebellion, and sin, – forgive- Hebrew is nasa- means “to lift up,” “to carry,” or “to take away”
Wickedness- avon in Hebrew- any kind of bad behavior
Rebellion- pesha in Hebrew- means “to break the law” a legal word
Sin- hata in Hebrew- means “to miss the mark” a word picture
^ these words together cover the full breadth of human pollution.
Yahweh is forgiving of sins of all shapes and sizes- nothing is too big for him to forgive.
Not just that he forgives, but HE IS FORGIVING.
Douglas K. Stuart says this in a commentary on Exodus, “He does not reluctantly forgive sins against himself and others; he does so eagerly, as a manifestation of his character.”
It is his CHARACTER to EAGERLY forgive.
B but who by no means clears the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the
childPren and the children’s children,
Yahweh is forgiving by nature, but he is also JUST.
Forgiveness is like a gift- we have to reach out, to take it, and open the box- we have to say yes to it. If we don’t, then we are not off the hook.. God’s end goal is a world with no evil- Yahweh’s justice isn’t about retribution or payback or some kind of God-sized vendetta- it’s about the healing and renewal of the world.
When we repent, he responds with mercy, but if we don’t repent, then he will only wait for so long before he puts a stop to our rampage- because evil is the by-product of sin, and Yahweh is after a world with no evil.
A world with no sweatshops, child labor, no cruel dictators, no genocides, no violence, no shootings in elementary schools, no divorce, no betrayal, no fatherless children.
We want justice. We crave it. We ache for it, deep in our bones.
And we have that to look forward too when Jesus comes back, but for now- Yahweh still has the right to be just.
But because Yahweh is forgiving, we don’t have to cower in fear or dread, but we can take our “wickedness, rebellion, and sin” straight to the cross and let it die on Jesus’ shoulders.
The next line- visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children
We read this in our English translation and think yikes.
But it can’t mean what we think it does at face value, look at Deut 24:16
“Fathers shall not be put to death because of their children, nor shall children be put to death because of their fathers. Each one shall be put to death for his own sin.”
So, what does it mean? Well first, we should recognize that parents’ sin has consequences for the children’s future. Ex. If parents run a meth lab in their back yard and get thrown into jail, it’s their children who will suffer the most- being placed into the foster care system and being passed from home to home.
The next layer of this statement that sin runs in the family, like DNA.. one generation’s sin often becomes the next generation’s sin – “like father, like son” “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree”
The last layer of this is BECAUSE YAHWEH IS JUST, HE WILL CONTINUE TO PUNISH SIN IN EACH AND EVERY GENERATION UNTIL IT IS COMPLETELY GONE.
Look at Hebrews 12:4-11
In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5 And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?
“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
nor be weary when reproved by him.
6 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
and chastises every son whom he receives.
7 It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.9 Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. 11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
Because his end goal is a world free from evil, and he will not stop until the eradication of sin in our family lines are complete.
A to the third and fourth generation
The word “generation” does not exist in the Hebrew text here- should be read, “to the 3rds & the 4ths” which correlates to the first line- “who keeps covenant love for thousands” A & A // B & B they go together.
This creates a scale for us- justice < mercy
He punishes to the third and forth, yes- but he’s maintaining love to the THOUSANDS.
Yahweh is just, and that is good because we can look forward to a better tomorrow. But he is also forgiving. He can’t help but to show mercy, its who he is. And when his justice and mercy bump up against each other- when they conflict and bang heads and square off- MERCY WINS EVERY TIME.
This is important because:
We are made in the image of God part of our purpose here on earth is to embody who Christ is.
In order for us to really grasp who we are created to be we have to grasp who our creator is.
This is also important to worship because we know who we are worshipping and why and what his characteristics are.
if you made it this far- I commend you!
Thanks for reading along and learning what I have been learning.
As always, I am so thankful for the people who follow me on my journey.
xoxo
abigail
