What is this character? It is found, classically, in the creed of Exodus 34. This creed is quoted some twenty other times in Scripture, both in the Hebrew Bible and in the Greek. I’ve quoted it before, but here it is again:
"The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations." Exodus 34:6-7
Here there are eight characteristics of God, all of which together equal the whole of what we are to share with the Father. It is the center of what we should know about God—His character rather than philosophical speculations about His being. If we are to know a person, we speak of their character, not their physical makeup. If someone says, “What is Steve like” it would be irrelevant to speak of my limited capacity of knowledge, my necessity to wear glasses or my shoe size. What is important is the kinds of things I do, the attitude I typically have and my relations to my friends, my children and the poor.
Even so, when God gave his special personal description to Moses, it isn’t concerning his classic orthodox attributes. In fact, as we have seen, the whole of Scripture only clearly speaks of a few of these. Rather, these eight characteristics of God’s personality is what is emphasized, what is spoken of again and again. If we want to know God, if we want to know how we are to be unified with God, these are the characteristics we should focus on.
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