Leftovers...

One of the most difficult tasks of preaching is not figuring out what to say…but what not to say. To ignore this could result in a sermon that is awfully lengthy…and so we don’t (you’re welcome for that). Here’s what didn’t make it into the sermon…..

Is it glory or goodness???
As I mentioned on Sunday, when Moses asked to see God’s glory while the two of them meet on the top of Mount Sinai (Exodus 33:18), God responded, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and proclaim before you my name (Exodus 34:19).”

Is this just stylistic showboating or something more? I think the best way to read this is that the Lord has placed the terms glory and goodness in apposition to one another. That’s a technical way to show two words/phrases mean the same thing because they are placed a grammatical parallel to one another.

In this case, God is telling Moses that “His glory” and His goodness” are the exact same thing. Or…put more simply…if Moses wants to see God’s glory, He only needs to notice God’s goodness.

And as promised…
Sunday, I rattled off a slew of Old Testament verses that spoke of God’s love and forgiveness. It was an attempt to offer a sense of how grace and forgiveness is not only a characteristic of God in the OT…but the predominate way God shows up in relationships.

Here are the ones I mentioned yesterday…but rest assured, there are more than this to be found…
 
Numbers 14:18…‘The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression…

Nehemiah 9:17…They refused to obey and were not mindful of the wonders that you performed among them, but they stiffened their neck and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt. But you are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake them.

Nehemiah 13:22… Then I commanded the Levites that they should purify themselves and come and guard the gates, to keep the Sabbath day holy. Remember this also in my favor, O my God, and spare me according to the greatness of your steadfast love.

Psalms 5:7… But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love, will enter your house. I will bow down toward your holy temple in the fear of you.

Psalms 69:14…But as for me, my prayer is to you, O Lord. At an acceptable time, O God, in the abundance of your steadfast love answer me in your saving faithfulness.

Psalms 86:5…For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon you.

Psalms 103:8…The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

Psalms 145:8…The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

Isaiah 63:7…I will recount the steadfast love of the Lord, the praises of the Lord, according to all that the Lord has granted us, and the great goodness to the house of Israel that he has granted them according to his compassion, according to the abundance of his steadfast love.

Lamentations 3:31-33…For the Lord will not cast off forever, but, though he causes grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; for he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men.

Joel 2:12-13…“Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.

Jonah 4:2…And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.

Nahum 1:3…The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty. His way is in whirlwind and storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.