God’s Glory in Forgiveness

This study seeks to situate the revelation of God’s glory in Exodus 34:6–7 in concrete action, namely in the greater context of how God has revealed himself in the book of Exodus through signs and wonders, and in the particular context of Israel’s sin in making the golden calf. In a fresh study on signs and wonders in Exodus, we find that God’s glory was made known in majestic acts of power in the exodus events but at Mt. Sinai, for the first time in the Pentateuch, God makes himself known as the forgiving God. The use of Exodus 34:6–7 in the Hebrew Bible and into Second Temple Literature is often in the context of sin and the need for forgiveness. This contextualized understanding of Exodus 34:6–7 has implications for its use in the NT, such as in the revelation of Jesus’ glory in John 1:14–18.