Yeshua's attributes of mercy

This homily was give at Grace Anglican Church - Edgeworth, PA on the Feast of St. John in December 2025.

Exodus 33:18–23

Psalm 92

I John 1

John 1:1–18

I caught a glimpse of Your splendor

In the corner of my eye

The most beautiful thing I've ever seen

And it was like a flash of lightning

Reflected off the sky

And I know I'll never be the same

Show me Your Glory

Send down Your presence

I want to see Your face

Show me Your Glory

Majesty shines about You

I can't go on without You, Lord

That’s the band Third Day’s take on our Exodus passage.

This cry of Moses comes after a very dark incident. Moses was in the presence of God when the Israelites made the golden calf.

“You have committed a terrible sin!” Moses tells them. “Now I will go up to Adonai ; maybe I will be able to atone for your sin.”

When Moses went back to Adonai, he said, “Please! These people have committed a terrible sin: they have made themselves a god out of gold. Now, if you will just forgive their sin!” (Exod 32:30-32 CJB).

This act of intercession leads to a long conversation – a negotiation, a test of whether Moses understands what was important. At the end of it, Moses tells God, “If your presence doesn’t go with us, don’t make us go on from here.  For how else is it to be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people, other than by your going with us? That is what distinguishes us, me and your people, from all the other peoples on earth” (Exod 33:15-16).

It seems Moses does get it. It is not the journey or the destination that is important. What is important is that God is with them.¹ 

“Set your mind at rest,” God says. “My presence will go with you.”

Then Moses blurts out, “I beg you to show me your glory!” Is Moses wanting assurances of God’s promise to go with them? Maybe. Is Moses wanting a higher religious experience?² That’s an unfair simplification.

I think Moses is understanding that the main thing is not the freedom from slavery nor the defeat of one’s enemies. The main thing is knowing God. Moses has one of the most intimate relationships with God, yet he knows there is more to know.³

“Show me your glory!”

God responds not with a visual glory fireworks show. Rather, God displays his glory in a declaration of his character:

5 The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. 6 The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “[YHVH, YHVH], a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin… (Exod 34:5-7 ESV)

From this text in Exodus 34, our Jewish neighbors unpack 13 attributes of God, all displaying an aspect of his mercy. These 13 attributes are recited after a daily confessional prayer and in penitential seasons.⁴ They seem to serve as a sort of declaration of absolution.

The 13 attributes are that YHVH is

• God, which by Jewish definition is “mighty in compassion to give all creatures according to their need”
• merciful, so that humanity may not be distressed
• “gracious when humanity is already in distress
• “slow to anger (once, to the righteous)”
• “slow to anger (repeated again for the wicked)”
• full of kindness
• full in truth
• keeps kindness unto thousands
• forgives iniquity
• forgives transgression
• forgives sin
• pardons⁵ or cleanses⁶ the sinner.

In the Book of Common Prayer, the declaration of God’s glory is distilled in the Prayer of Humble Access to “you are the same Lord whose character is always to have mercy.”

“Show me your glory,” Moses pleads.

John says, “We have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14).

Moses hears God’s declaration that He is full of “grace and truth.” John says he has seen – in the person of Jesus Messiah – that God is indeed full of grace and truth.

Not only has John seen and heard like Moses, John says he and the disciples “have touched with our hands” Eternal Life itself in the person of Jesus Messiah. The blood of this Jesus, Son of God, Son of Man, John reminds us, “cleanses us from all sin… If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (I John 1:1-2, 7-9)

We all have our golden calf moments. We all come down from the highs of worship and crash back down into the valley of sin.

Take heart! Our God is merciful. He will be with us as we wander the wilderness that is this life. He has made a way to dwell with us and cleanse us from the sin that would otherwise keep him away.

He has sent down Jesus Messiah the righteous. Jesus is the atonement for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. He is Immanuel, God with us.

Hallelujah!

I'll let Third Day close us out as the rest of the song is a good prayer.

When I climb down the mountain

And get back to my life

I won't settle for ordinary things

I'm gonna follow You forever

And for all of my days

I won't rest 'til I see You again

Show me Your Glory

Send down Your presence

I want to see Your face

Show me Your Glory

Majesty shines about You

I can't go on without You, Lord

Footnotes

1. Allen Ross and John N. Oswalt, Cornerstone Biblical Commentary: Genesis, Exodus (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2008), 532.
2. Ross and Oswalt, Cornerstone Biblical Commentary, 532.
3. Russell Resnik, Gateways to Torah: Joining the Ancient Conversation on the Weekly Portion (Baltimore, MD: Messianic Jewish Publishers, 2000), 94.
4. Schochet, Dovie. “What Are the 13 Attributes of Mercy?” Chabad.Org. Chabad-Lubavitch Media Center, n.d. https://www.chabad.org/parshah/article_cdo/aid/3609722/jewish/What-Are-the-13-Attributes-of-Mercy.htm.
5. Schochet, “What Are the 13 Attributes of Mercy?”
6. Eisenberg, Ronald L. “The 13 Attributes of Mercy.” My Jewish Learning. 70 Faces Media, July 5, 2018. https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-13-attributes-of-mercy/.