Exodus 34  Moses was once again summoned to the mountaintop to meet with the Lord. He had to cut out two stone tablets to replace the ones he had shattered. But, this meeting was about more than the stone tablets.. "the Lord descended in the cloud and stood there with him as he called upon the name of the Lord." 

 Once again, the Lord came to Moses.. and as He "passed by" He revealed something more to Moses.. " The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers' on the children and on there grandchildren to the third and fourth generations. " (v6-7)

Moses fell on his face to worship the Lord and make his petition, " O Lord I pray, let the Lord go along in our midst, even though the people are so obstinate; and do Thou pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us as Thine own possession." 

Moses found favor with the Lord... Who renewed the covenant and promised to do great miracles in order to bring the people into the land of promise.  Moses was so filled with the glory of the Lord that his face began to shine. It shone so brightly that he had to use a veil when he spoke to the people. Only when he went into the tent to meet with God would he take the veil off. 

I love verse 6 of this chapter.  I love that God describes Himself in these terms.. compassionate.. gracious.. slow to anger.. abounding in lovingkindness.. forgiving and yet just. This description is something that King David clung to.. it is found in several of His psalms.. 86:15, 103:8 and 145:8 to name a few..It is also found in Nehemiah 9:17 and Joel 2:13.  This is a passage that fills our hearts with truth about the God we serve and love!  May we cling to these truths as we also come before Him in worship and in our petitions. 

Father in heaven, we hallow Your Name for You are our God who has made Your compassion and grace known to us through Jesus Christ the Lord as You sent Him into the world to become our Savior... The Lamb of God who was slain so that we could be forgiven of all our transgressions, iniquities and sins. Cover us with Your abounding lovingkindness, O God, so that we might walk in ways that find favor with You.  May our lives be led by Your Spirit and bring glory to Your name. We ask this in the name of Jesus, Amen.