In a time of great trouble and anxiety, when Israel had "corrupted themselves," "They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshiped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be your gods, O Israel, which have brought you up out of the land of Egypt;" (Exodus 32:8) and, "Thus, they changed their glory into the similitude of an ox that eats grass;" (Psalm 106:20) the Lord descended in a cloud and stood with Moses, and declared His name. And this is the name that God proclaimed: "The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, Keeping mercy for thousands, and forgiving iniquity, and transgressions, and sin." (Exodus 34:6-7)
Now the interesting and comforting thing about this is that the word here rendered "forgiving" is from the Hebrew word meaning "to lift up, to bear." Thus God really declared himself to Moses as:
"The Lord God,...bearing the iniquity, and transgression and sin."
The Lord on Mount Sinai was the same as beside the Jordan, namely, "the Lamb of God, which bears the sin of the world." (John 1:29 [margin])
His name and nature is to bear sin, yours and my, the sin of all whole world; and He cannot do otherwise. Then let it remain there; Take the name of Jesus with you.--Lydia O. Baxter, Hymn: Take the Name of Jesus With You. And as truly as He has descended into the lower parts of the earth, will your sin be buried out of sight.--Present Truth, December 4, 1902--Exodus 32:7-8
E.J. Waggoner