“6 The Lord passed in front of him and proclaimed,
The Lord, the Lord God,
compassionate and gracious,
slow to anger,
and filled with gracious love and truth.
7 He graciously loves thousands,
and forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin.
But he does not leave the guilty unpunished,
visiting the iniquity of the ancestors on their children,
and on their children’s children
to the third and fourth generation.”
After the Betrayal, after the making of the Golden Calf, Moses comes to God, pleading to Him, pleading that God will not turn his back on his people.
But He does turns His back—not to His people— but God turns His back on Moses. But it’s not to walk away from him, God turns His back only to shield Moses from His Glory. No thunderous show of lightening and smoke, no manifestation of light and sound, but a quiet reminder of His character. “Remember me this way,” God nearly whispers to Moses.
I have been thinking about the process of remembering, that the curse is present for only three or four generations—the length of a “living memory”—but the promise is remembered for a thousand generations. I am living in that “thousand generations.” There is a timeless quality to His compassion and abounding love. Yes, there is consequence from the effects of sin that linger and perpetuate, but the promise is that it can fade.
But either way, to really understand God, it takes a perspective that spans thousands of generations. My lifetime is not enough, it will surely take an eternity.