The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, "The LORD, the LORD, 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 will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation." And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped. And he said, "If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, please let the Lord go in the midst of us, for it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance."
Exodus 34:6-9
The revelation of God given in 6 and 7 is the answer to the prayer of 33:18 and the fulfilment of 33:19. This, then, is what the glory of God, and His goodness, is like! The Apostle John's words come irresistibly to mind, 'We beheld His glory, full of grace and truth'. We should ponder well each wonderful phrase here, for this is the God with Whom we have to do, the God of penitents and Saviour of sinners. In 7, the phrase 'clear the guilty' should perhaps be taken with the idea of forgiveness, reminding us that God's forgiveness does not consist in His simply overlooking sin. Guilt is not thus cleared; it is assumed, taken by Him to His own holy heart, and destroyed at infinite cost to Himself. Nor, having been thus dealt with, are its consequences necessarily nullified; there is such a thing as the entail of sin, which can have repercussions to the third and fourth generations (7b). Moses' response in 9 is striking and significant. It is as if he said, 'If Thou art such a God as this (6, 7), Thou art the very God to deal with this stiff-necked people. Thou canst do something with them. Go among us, then, and take us for, and make us, Thine inheritance'. This is certainly no ground for complacency but, rightly understood, a source of wondrous comfort and assurance to every difficult and warped spirit. God can do something with us, and make something of us - that is what these verses proclaim.