The first half of Verse 6 is quoted 20 more times.
Verse 7 raises a lot of questions. So is God merciful or vengeful?
Let's see these words in the larger context by looking at something important in Genesis. The first scroll of the Bible, their God chooses one family, the Israelites, from among the nations and he promises that he's going to rescue the whole world through this family somehow and Genesis ends with the family of Abraham in Egypt.
Then the book of Exodus begins and this book has two large movements.
- This first movement of Exodus God rescues Israel from slavery in Egypt
- The second movement God leads them to Mount Sinai where they camp out for a year and God invites this whole nation into a partnership called a covenant so that they can be shaped by his values and character and represent God to all the other nations
Now this whole Mount Sinai movement in Exodus can be broken up into four literary units
- First there's the actual ceremony where the Israelites agree to be God's partners and God sets up the terms of the relationship starting with the 10 commandments
The first two are don't give your allegiance to other gods and don't make any idol images of God. - After that God gives Moses detailed blueprints for building this sacred home so that God can come and live among them
- Then comes a really long narrative about the building of that sacred home
- Right in between these sections is the story that has our description about God's character. The story begins with Moses going up on the mountain writing down the partner agreement as the Israelites are at the base of the mountain violating the first two commands. They're breaking the covenant vows while the ceremony is still going on. So God is hurt and angry and he warns Moses that this betrayal will keep on happening. God is ready to call it quits. But what about his promise to rescue the world through them? This is what Moses brings up. Should God end the partnership which would be fair or will he be faithful to his promise to Abraham and show them mercy?
Now look back at the words that we began with and you'll see they're about this very tension between God's mercy and his justice. So the statement opens like this: A God compassionate and gracious and overflowing with loyal love and faithfulness. Each of those lines have two attributes of God. And they surround a fifth attribute that God is slow to anger. That's the first half of this description of God.
Then comes the second half. God maintains loyal love for thousands. But how is he going to remain loyal to people who keep rebelling against him? By forgiving iniquity transgression and sin. But God's forgiveness doesn't mean people can just do whatever they want. God's mercy is balanced in what follows. He won't declare innocent the guilty. He'll bring the iniquities of the father's upon the children and grandchildren to the third and the fourth. The third and the fourth is referring to generations of people who repeat their ancestors rebellion against God. They'll get what they deserve. But notice this small number of generations contrast that massive number up above God's loyal love to thousands. God's forgiveness of iniquity in this line is contrasted with his justice on iniquity. And all those lines are surrounding a central line here about God's justice He will not declare innocent that guilty. So while God is slow to anger he's also just. This is the tension that these two sentences are exploring. How does a faithful and loyal God deal with such a rebellious people? This is the challenge God faces in this story and it's the same challenge he faces in the whole biblical story as he works to rescue the world through this family.
With that in mind we can take a closer look at these five attributes that God declares about himself to Moses. A God compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, overflowing with loyal love and faithfulness and we'll see how each one leads us deeper into the character of God and into the story of the Bible.