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Consider on this

I. THE CONNECTION WITH THE NAME JEHOVAH. "Proclaimed the name of Jehovah" (ver. 5). Observe -

1. The name Jehovah connotes moral attributes. The absolute being is, at the same time, the most perfect being. His excellence includes all possible perfection. This implies the possession of moral attributes. "That character," says Dean Graves, "from which the acutest reasoners have endeavoured demonstratively to deduce as from their source all the Divine attributes, is SELF-EXISTENCE. Is it not then highly remarkable that it is under this character the divinity is described, on his first manifestation to the Jewish lawgiver?"

2. Former revelations implied moral attributes. The attributes on which, in former revelations, the main stress needed to be laid, were those to be illustrated in the events of the exodus - power, freedom, supremacy, changelessness (cf. on Exodus 3:14; Exodus 6:2, 3). But that moral attributes - the attributes of truth, mercy, goodness, justice, also belonged to Jehovah was shown -

(1) From the nature of his purpose.

(2) From the character of his actings.

(3) From the simple fact of his revealing himself.

3. The new revelation declares moral attributes. Formerly, the revelation was in deeds, now it is in words. Formerly, God told Moses what, as Jehovah, he would do. Now he declares what, as Jehovah, he is. The name was first spelt, then pronounced. Cf. with law of ordinary historical progress -

(1) action;

(2) reflection on what has been done, with generalisation of principles.

Or of scientific progress -

(1) accumulation of facts;

(2) generalisation of law.

For this announcement of the name, the renewal of the covenant furnished an appropriate historical occasion.

II. TEACHING OF THE NAME. The name exhibits the Divine character. It lays bare to us God's very heart. It reveals his essence. Learn -

1. There is justice in God. "That will by no means clear the guilty," etc. (ver. 7).

(1) This attribute is essential. Without it, God would not be God. Says the poet, "A God all mercy is a God unjust." We go further, and affirm that without justice, there would be no mercy left to exercise. See Homily on Exodus 32:10. We have defined love in God as the perfect union of goodness and holiness. Mercy we would define as a mixed feeling of pity and resentment. See this point well illustrated in the chapters on "the Law of Mercy" in "Ecce Homo."

(2) Justice cannot be laid aside. God "will by no means clear the guilty." See Homily on Exodus 23:21. But if God cannot clear the guilty, cannot, i.e. call guilt other than what it is, or refuse to punish it, he can, on the ground of his Son's atonement, which fulfils every condition of a perfect satisfaction to justice, forgive the guilty.

(3) Manifestation of justice. In his personal dealings with individuals - not clearing the guilty. In his general government of the world - "visiting the iniquity of the fathers," etc. (cf. on Exodus 20:5; Deuteronomy 5:9).

2. There is mercy in God. This side of the Divine character is exhibited with much greater fulness than the other. "Merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy, forgiving iniquity, and transgression, and sin" (vers. 6, 7).

(1) God delights in mercy; he does not delight in judgment. Judgment is "his work, his strange work" (Isaiah 28:21). The visitation of sin is viewed as extending only "unto the third and fourth generation"; mercy is kept for "thousands" (cf. Psalm 103:17).

(2) Mercy is "abundant." Cf. Isaiah 55:7 - "will abundantly pardon." A wonderful utterance this from the standpoint of the Old Testament. Anticipates Paul - "where sin abounded, grace did much more abound" (Romans 5:20).

(3) Mercy qualifies judgment. It leads to forbearance with the sinner - "long-suffering" (cf. Romans 2:4). It secures pardon on repentance - "forgiving iniquity," etc.

(4) It is yet exercised in strictest harmony with the requirements of justice. The mode of the reconciliation of these two sides of the Divine character, however, remains in the Old Testament a partially unsolved problem.

3. Mercy rules in the character of God. This is a fair inference

(1) from the preponderating place assigned to the attributes of mercy, and

(2) from the fact that the attributes of mercy stand before the attributes of justice. It is but an earlier expression of the truth which the Gospel has now made a great spiritual certainty to us - "God is love" (1 John 4:16). Not simply loves, but is love. But if God is love, and love constitutes his essence, then must love dominate, wield, work through his other perfections, using all for its own purposes, transmuting all into its own nature. There cannot be discord or division in the breast of the Eternal. What God is, he must ever have been, must be at all times, through all ages, in all his works, under all forms of his manifestation. This is a conception so deep and far-reaching as to pass in its length and breadth beyond our grasp. Its lines prolong themselves to infinity. There lie in it possibilities which it is not given to man to fathom.

III. THE NAME AS REVEALED.

1. We need a revelation. It is but a dumb, inarticulate revelation of this name which we have in nature. What is revealed relates more to God's justice than to God's love. If there is much in nature which supports, there is also much which seems to discredit, belief in the entire goodness of God. Nature in. particular, has no answer to give to the questions - Can God forgive and restore sinners? Can he undo their evil? Can he turn back from its avenging course that terrible law of retribution which holds us in its grasp?

2. We may expect a revelation. If God loves men, we may expect him in some way personally to attest his love to them. "Gracious thoughts never revealed are not gracious thoughts at all. It is essential to the being of grace or love that it manifest itself. Love unrevealed is love unreal" (Dr. A. B. Bruce).

3. The revelation has been given.

(1) In deeds.

(2) In words.

(3) In the Son. - J.O.

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KJV: And the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD.

WEB: Yahweh descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of Yahweh.