Yesterday a co-worker sent me a devotional entitled, God's Love and Lemonheads The Writer was attempting to write down all the synonyms she could think of for Love, trying to describe God’s Love without using the word Love. There is one big problem with that, we cannot compare man’s love, or even equate God’s love with what man describes as love no matter the language used (see Isaiah 55:8-9). In today’s passage I saw something that might give us a clue of What God’s Love is:
Exodus 34:5-7 NLT Then the LORD came down in a cloud and stood there with him; and He called out His own name, Yahweh. (6) The LORD passed in front of Moses, calling out, "Yahweh! The LORD! The God of compassion and mercy! I am slow to anger and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness. (7) I lavish unfailing love to a thousand generations. I forgive iniquity, rebellion, and sin. But I do not excuse the guilty. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children and grandchildren; the entire family is affected--even children in the third and fourth generations."
Within this passage is something that appears to break away from love and it is something I have wrestled with for years, the laying/visiting/punishing upon the children/grandchildren the sins of their parents: It doesn’t sound like love to us humans, at least to me it doesn't. In The Hebrew, as in the King James, that particular word is translated “Visiting”. According to Strong’s Hebrew and Greek Dictionary, the Hebrew word is.
[H6485 –פּקד - pâqad - paw-kad' - A primitive root; to visit (with friendly or hostile intent); by analogy to oversee, muster, charge, care for, miss, deposit, etc.: - appoint, X at all, avenge, bestow, (appoint to have the, give a) charge, commit, count, deliver to keep, be empty, enjoin, go see, hurt, do judgment, lack, lay up look, make X by any means, miss, number, officer, (make) overseer have (the) oversight, punish, reckon, (call to) remember (-brance), set (over), sum, X surely, visit, want.]
When someone comes to visit, you don’t have to let them in. But if you’re living in a house under the tutelage of your parents their guests, their sins, are brought into the space you live in thus that visitor, that “sin,” becomes Familiar to you, which is how it gets passed down from one generation to the next. Unless the children reject that sin and/or sins, it will truly move down the line from one generation to the next.
The passage also states, God forgives, but doesn’t overlook the guilty. Guilt, true guilt, in this context means the person never sought forgiveness from God. They may have sought forgiveness from others, but they never stood under the cleansing Stream of God’s Forgiveness.
In the New Testament Passage for today, we can see the –Cause-Effect-Cause, of our sins, our family sin being passed down one generation to the next in the following statement. [Jesus is before the crowd at his trial. Pilate’s wife has sent him a message about her bad dread and she warns him to leave Jesus alone. The warning shakes Pilate up and he ceremonially washes his hands in front of the crowd and states he is not responsible for what is about to happen (As if shirking your responsibility to lead somehow gets rid of your responsibility) - The conversaton bewteen Pilate and the crowd]:
Matthew 27:24-25 NLT Pilate saw that he wasn't getting anywhere and that a riot was developing. So he sent for a bowl of water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, "I am innocent of this man's blood. The responsibility is yours!" (25) And all the people yelled back, "We will take responsibility for His death--we and our children!"
Further down in the Matthew passage we see the “world” trying to strip Jesus of His Covering, His Favor with God which is keeping with my overall theme of Cloaks and Favor,
Matthew 27:27-31 NLT Some of the governor's soldiers took Jesus into their headquarters and called out the entire regiment. (28) They stripped Him and put a scarlet robe on Him. (29) They wove thorn branches into a crown and put it on His head, and they placed a reed stick in His right hand as a scepter. Then they knelt before Him in mockery and taunted, "Hail! King of the Jews!" (30) And they spit on Him and grabbed the stick and struck Him on the head with it. (31) When they were finally tired of mocking Him, they took off the robe and put His own clothes on Him again. Then they led Him away to be crucified.
God is still God; Jesus is still God as well as the son of God. no matter what we do or don’t do. Even if we attempt to strip God verbally of his awesomeness and His power, He is still God and Jesus is still His son.
Luke 19:11-27 NIV While they were listening to this, he went on to tell them a parable, because he was near Jerusalem and the people thought that the kingdom of God was going to appear at once. (12) He said: "A man of noble birth went to a distant country to have himself appointed king and then to return. (13) So he called ten of his servants and gave them ten minas. 'Put this money to work,' he said, 'until I come back.' (14) "But his subjects hated him and sent a delegation after him to say, 'We don't want this man to be our king.' (15) "He was made king, however, and returned home. Then he sent for the servants to whom he had given the money, in order to find out what they had gained with it. (16) "The first one came and said, 'Sir, your mina has earned ten more.' (17) "'Well done, my good servant!' his master replied. 'Because you have been trustworthy in a very small matter, take charge of ten cities.' (18) "The second came and said, 'Sir, your mina has earned five more.' (19) "His master answered, 'You take charge of five cities.' (20) "Then another servant came and said, 'Sir, here is your mina; I have kept it laid away in a piece of cloth. (21) I was afraid of you, because you are a hard man. You take out what you did not put in and reap what you did not sow.' (22) "His master replied, 'I will judge you by your own words, you wicked servant! You knew, did you, that I am a hard man, taking out what I did not put in, and reaping what I did not sow? (23) Why then didn't you put my money on deposit, so that when I came back, I could have collected it with interest?' (24) "Then he said to those standing by, 'Take his mina away from him and give it to the one who has ten minas.' (25) "'Sir,' they said, 'he already has ten!' (26) "He replied, 'I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given, but as for the one who has nothing, even what he has will be taken away. (27) But those enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them--bring them here and kill them in front of me.'"
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