Gentle and Lowly, Chapter 16 - “The Lord, The Lord”

This reflection is by Visio Dei deacon Travis Bradshaw.

The 16th chapter of Gentle and Lowly asks the question, “Who is God”? It answers that question with the statement of God about himself in Exodus 34:6-7.

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.”

Another question that this chapter examines is, “How do we come to our answer of who God is?” A lot of how I view God has been based on my behavior at any given moment. If I am stuck in a pattern of sin—especially if it’s shameful sin—my view of God tends toward disappointment. If I feel like I’m behaving better, I think that God probably likes me. Over time though, my view of God has been growing more stable, stabilized by passages like Exodus 34. Such passage say that God is the same, no matter how I’m feeling. They speak to who God is, not who I am. Dane Ortlund says that “the Christian life, from one angle, is the long journey of letting our natural assumption about who God is, over many decades, fall away, being slowly replaced with God’s own insistence on who he is.” As someone who is still relatively young in the faith, I’m in the earlier stages of this journey, but no matter where we are in it, this is God’s will for us.

Second Thessalonians reminds us that God chose us to be saved though sanctification. This sanctification will be a part of the rest of our lives here on Earth, until that day when we see the glory of God fully revealed at Jesus’ coming.

But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. To this he called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Thess. 2:13-14).