What do these passages say about forgiveness?
Reading it all at once (link)
hmmm. wow. The holy God would rightly pass us by in all his glory, and we would cease to exist because of his holiness. But instead he hides us in the cleft of the Rock. Who is this Rock? Jesus, certainly, is the rock - the foundation and chief cornerstone. And then Moses begged God, using God's own condemnation of the people, saying, "we are a stiff-necked people, come and dwell among us."That’s what’s so wow.
Moses knew so clearly our problem, because God had clearly stated it and he was actually paying attention. But with great humility, the very thing that pronounces judgement becomes a cry for a father’s help: “Father, we are stiff-necked, please, come and dwell with us.”
It might have been, "We are unworthy, stay away from us," or, "We are content in our comfortable distance from you," but he didn't pray that.
How wise that Moses could hear God's pronouncement and immediately see that only one so righteous could also bring the same remedy. He didn't justify or mitigate the damage of the people's pride; he didn't deny it or avoid it. And the other passages remind us that God agreed to the remedy ... he himself came down and dwelt among us in the tabernacle of Jesus. Jesus overturned and rebuilt that tabernacle in the three days of his own death, burial, and resurrection; he promises to be with us (stiff-necked though we are) to the very end of time.
There's much more here, though ... I'll have to come back and listen some more.Reading it day by day
13th – Exodus 33:18-34:914th – Matthew 18:21-35
15th – 1 John 1
16th - Romans 12:14-21
17th - Matthew 6:5-15
18th - Colossians 3:12-17