Exodus 34:5-6 And the Lord descended in the cloud,
and stood with him (Moses) there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord.
6 And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord God,
merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth.
The Lord is proclaiming a new revelation of Himself to us. We will know Him in a way we haven’t known before. It is not that we haven’t known His grace and mercy, but we are going to know it on a higher level.
We all believe God can do anything. Whatever our problems or needs are, we know He can meet them. But we haven’t always believed that He would. We know He can, but will He do it? Some things have lingered on and lingered on until the heart becomes sick. How long will this go on? Will God ever meet this need?
The main hindrance has been our unbelief. We’ll just have to admit it – there is still unbelief in our hearts. We don’t want it, but we know it is there. There are times when we are weak. Sometimes there is doubt. We are not always as dedicated as we should be. So God is proclaiming Himself merciful, gracious, longsuffering, abundant in goodness and truth. He wants us to understand that He is greater than our unbelief.
A father brought his son, who had a demon, to Jesus. If Thou canst do any thing, have compassion on us, and help us. Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief. Mark 9:22-24. The father knew there was a mixture of belief and unbelief in his heart. He also became aware that Jesus was greater than his unbelief. So he said, “I believe; help Thou mine unbelief” – meaning, “You are able to overcome my unbelief.”
We have been lacking in our awareness of how gracious, merciful, and compassionate the Lord is. We do not have the ability to overcome the unbelief inherent within the human heart, only God does. We could spend a lifetime trying to eliminate unbelief and get nowhere. As long as we are focused on our unbelief, we are held captive by it. We must take our attention off the unbelief and open up to the revelation of the Lord that He is trying to minister to us.
The Lord is saying, “Know Me in this way! Focus on My grace, My mercy, and My compassion! Let Me reveal to you how much I love you. I can overcome your unbelief.”
Copyright © 1999 by Henry DuBose