Character of God quotes

1) After Israel's covenant and pledge to be the followers of God had been ratified, then the Lord God Michael asked Moses, his brother Aaron, Aaron’s two sons, “and seventy of the elders of Israel” to “Come up unto the Lord” apart from the rest of the camp of the Israelites (Exodus 24:1, 9). None of the Israelites had seen the Lord God Himself speaking to them, but had only heard His great voice coming out of the devouring fire. Soo to prevent any from believing that the Lord God Himself was just fire and not an actual Divine Being with a form and shape, Michael was going to reveal Himself to all these 74 leaders of the Israelites at the same time!

The Lord God Michael appeared unto them all “and they saw the God of Israel” (Exodus 24:10). Although most of the Lord God Michael’s form and features were not clearly revealed to their sight, yet they all were clearly able to make out “his feet”, and also saw beneath His feet “as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone” that was clear like the blue sky of the “body of heaven” (Exodus 24:10). With this evidence they all knew that “they saw God”, that He was not fire itself but was an actual living Being, and yet they were all still alive and able to “eat and drink” (Exodus 24:11).

2) But it was not just the divine features of His feet that the Lord God Michael ever revealed to any of His servants. While still before Mount Sinai, Moses asked the Lord God, saying “if I have found grace in thy sight, shew me now thy way, that I may know thee...And he [also] said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory” (Exodus 33:13, 18).

The Hebrew word for “way” used here is “derek”, and it translates and means “a course of life or mode of action” (Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, word #1870). The Hebrew word for “know” used here is “yada”, and in this context translates and means “to know by recognition, to comprehend, discern, discover, perceive, understand” (Strong’s, word #3045). And the Hebrew word for “glory” is “kabowd”, and it translates and means “splendor, glory, honour” (Strong’s, word #3519). This reveals that Moses wanted God to shew him His good and splendorous way or course of life and action so that he could discover, discern, perceive, understand and comprehend what He was like in character, and thus be able to recognize the glory and honorableness of the Lord God Himself.

Moses wanted to make sure that he gave glory and honor to the Lord God and did not want to make any mistakes and misrepresent God in character and thus dishonor Him as he followed God’s command to “Bring up this people” - some 2-6 million Israelites - into the promised land (Exodus 33:12). With this extra knowledge of the true character of the Lord God Michael Himself, then Moses would be able to more completely pattern his life after the divine model of character of His Lord God, and would thus help all the Israelites to know more about their Creator God.

3) The "Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend” (Exodus 33:11), and Michael graciously granted this non-presumptuous request. “And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee” (Exodus 33:19). The Hebrew word for “goodness” used here is “tuwb”, and it translates and means “goodness, beauty” (Strong’s, word #2898).

The Lord God Michael informed Moses that “Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live” (Exodus 33:20). This reveals that even though Moses could speak with God face to face, yet because Moses was of a fallen nature then he was unable to physically endure the full splendor and glory of the Lord God Michael’s divine radiant face. Yet the Lord God Michael mercifully worked out a solution so that Moses could indeed know more about the way of the Lord, could then know Him more fully, and could see God’s glory.

“Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock: And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by: And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen” (Exodus 33:21-23). The Lord God Michael then told Moses that He would reveal Himself to him early the next day, and he alone was to “come up in the morning unto mount Sinai, and present thyself there to me in the top of the mount” (Exodus 34:2).

4) “Moses rose up early in the morning, and went up unto mount Sinai, as the Lord commanded him” (Exodus 34:4), and as soon as he reached the top of the mount, Moses presented himself and then waited to see what the Lord would do next.

The mighty Lord God Michael then “descended in the cloud, and stood with him there” (Exodus 34:5), He then gently picked up Moses with His divine hand and placed him in the cleft of the rock and covered his sight with His hand. Then as “the Lord” (Exodus 34:6), His “glory” (Exodus 33:22), and His “goodness” or beauty (Exodus 33:19) “passed by before him” (Exodus 34:6) Moses heard the Lord God proclaim “the name of the Lord” (Exodus 34:5) stating “The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation” (Exodus 34:6-7). The Lord God Michael then removed His hand so that Moses could see the divine features and form of His head, shoulders, back, hips, legs and feet as He continued walking by.

The Hebrew word for “merciful” is “rachuwm”, and this word translates and means “full of compassion, mercy” (Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, word #7349). It is derived from the Hebrew word “racham”, which translates and means “to fondle, to love, to have pity” (Strong’s, word #7355).

This reveals that the compassion of the Lord God to us is not manifested from a motive of grudgingly extending mercy towards troublesome inferiors because they don’t know any better. Nor is it manifested from a selfish motive of desiring to gain advantages over us because of our plight. Nor is it manifested devoid of any feeling at all. But the Lord God Michael manifests mercy towards us because He loves us and longs to fondle or tenderly hold and comfort us in His strong arms. His heart is touched with pity by seeing His fallen creation having to go through all of the problems and adversities of a life brought about because of sin, and having to live in a world under the control of Lucifer. As love “seeketh not her own” (1 Corinthians 13:5), then it is only out of a heart full of tender compassion and mercy that the Lord God Michael lovingly reaches out to try and rescue all He can from remaining bound to sin, from being under the control of Lucifer, and from receiving destruction in the end.

The Hebrew word for “gracious” is “channuwn”, and this word translates and means “gracious” (Strong’s, word #2587). It is derived from the Hebrew word “chanan”, which translates and means “to bend or stoop in kindness to an inferior; to favor, to bestow, to implore or move to favor by petition, to entreat, to make supplication” (Strong’s, word #2603).

As Michael is our God and Creator, He is so much greater in power and authority than any and all of His creation combined. Yet the mighty Lord God Michael willingly bends and stoops down to favor us with His blessings, and bestow upon us His love and merciful kindness. As love “vaunteth not itself” (1 Corinthians 13:4), so the Lord God Michael reveals His love towards us by not flaunting His exalted divine dignity in our faces, and then refuse to have anything to do with us inferiors. As love also “is not puffed up” (1 Corinthians 13:4), then neither does Michael take the position that once He created us, then we are now all on our own and must then deal with our own choices and suffer the consequences of our evil actions alone and without any hope of divine help.

The Lord God Michael did not abandon us because He knew what torture and misery humanity would have to endure under the absolute control of Lucifer, and He also knew that once sin was chosen then humanity would need His divine help more than ever in order to obtain freedom. God instead humbled Himself and came even closer to us in order that we might be able to better know Him and His love for us. And with this extra knowledge, then we would be more willing to follow and obey Him, and thus obtain His help in escaping from sin and from the devil.

There is no Hebrew word for “longsuffering”, as it is a combination of the words long and suffering. The Hebrew word for “long” in this context is “arak”, and it translates and means “to be long, defer, draw out, lengthen, prolong” (Strong’s, word #748). The Hebrew word for “suffering” in this context is “nacah”, which translates and means “to accept, suffer, bear, hold up, spare” (Strong’s, word #5375).

This reveals that even though humanity deserves the penalty of death for their choice to sin, yet the Lord God Michael draws out, lengthens and prolongs our time on this earth, deferring or holding up the execution of this penalty and punishment against us until a future time. And why? Because the Lord “is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).

It is the Lord God Michael’s earnest longing that His wayward creation find the freedom from Lucifer’s dominion that can only come by accepting Him as their Saviour and God, and thus escape from death and destruction in the end. This merciful purpose allows Him to defer punishment until everyone has had a precious chance to know more about Him and an opportunity to investigate into the plan devised for their salvation. As this realization and understanding takes various lengths of time to finally dawn upon the minds of mankind, the mighty Lord God Michael accepts our weakness and dullness of comprehension and then patiently suffers and bears with all of our sins and unrighteous actions, sparing us until we wake up because He “remembereth that we are [but] dust” (Psalms 103:14).

Yet at the same time Michael is not inactive. He is not waiting for mankind to take the initiative, but He is working through the Holy Spirit and heavenly angels to wake us up and bring all to a knowledge of the truth so that they can obtain salvation and escape death and destruction. So while the mighty Lord God winks at the time of our ignorance, yet He is calling all to come to repentance and find salvation. This reveals that “the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation” (2 Peter 3:15)!

The very foundation for the mighty Lord God being longsuffering towards humanity, and patiently enduring all our faults, mistakes, sins and dullness of mind, is based upon love for us. Through this God is teaching us that love “suffereth long”; it “Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things” (1 Corinthians 13:4, 7). So the mighty Lord God Michael patiently endures and bears all of our disobedience, faults, mistakes, and even abuse towards Him because He loves us and hopes that we will finally wake up and be saved.

8) The suffering that the Lord God Michael endures is more than just having to patiently wait for us to finally “awake to righteousness, and sin not” (1 Corinthians 15:34). Every sin against His law, each time one chooses to reject His ways or to manifest unappreciation of His blessings, causes Michael sorrow and sadness, and at times even great internal pain. This is because He has shown humanity over and over again exactly how much He loves them and longs for them to come to Him and be saved. When such boundless and infinite love goes unrequited or is unappreciated, it causes the Lord God Michael internal suffering. But when our love is finally returned, then all such internal suffering and pain is quickly replaced with beautiful feelings of peace, contentment and wonderful happiness because finally our love is appreciated and responded to! The same wondrous and joyful experience occurs with our Lord God Michael when we finally respond to His love! In fact, Michael cannot contain exactly how overjoyed He really is because of you – that one precious repenting soul – coming to Him, and “He will joy over thee with singing” (Zephaniah 3:17)!

It is not just the Lord God Michael who is overjoyed when one of His creation finally chooses to serve, obey and to love Him as their God. But “there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth” (Luke 15:10). And even the Almighty Lord God joins in the happy heavenly celebration, until all “heaven” is filled with “joy...over one sinner that repenteth” (Luke 15:7) – over you dear one!


	"LET THERE BE LIGHT" Ministries home \| Sermon Quotes THE CHARACTER OF GOD quotes 1) After Israel's covenant and pledge to be the followers of God had been ratified, then the Lord God Michael asked Moses, his brother Aaron, Aaron’s two sons, “and seventy of the elders of Israel” to “Come up unto the Lord” apart from the rest of the camp of the Israelites (Exodus 24:1, 9). None of the Israelites had seen the Lord God Himself speaking to them, but had only heard His great voice coming out of the devouring fire. Soo to prevent any from believing that the Lord God Himself was just fire and not an actual Divine Being with a form and shape, Michael was going to reveal Himself to all these 74 leaders of the Israelites at the same time! The Lord God Michael appeared unto them all “and they saw the God of Israel” (Exodus 24:10). Although most of the Lord God Michael’s form and features were not clearly revealed to their sight, yet they all were clearly able to make out “his feet”, and also saw beneath His feet “as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone” that was clear like the blue sky of the “body of heaven” (Exodus 24:10). With this evidence they all knew that “they saw God”, that He was not fire itself but was an actual living Being, and yet they were all still alive and able to “eat and drink” (Exodus 24:11). 2) But it was not just the divine features of His feet that the Lord God Michael ever revealed to any of His servants. While still before Mount Sinai, Moses asked the Lord God, saying “if I have found grace in thy sight, shew me now thy way, that I may know thee...And he [also] said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory” (Exodus 33:13, 18). The Hebrew word for “way” used here is “derek”, and it translates and means “a course of life or mode of action” (Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, word #1870). The Hebrew word for “know” used here is “yada”, and in this context translates and means “to know by recognition, to comprehend, discern, discover, perceive, understand” (Strong’s, word #3045). And the Hebrew word for “glory” is “kabowd”, and it translates and means “splendor, glory, honour” (Strong’s, word #3519). This reveals that Moses wanted God to shew him His good and splendorous way or course of life and action so that he could discover, discern, perceive, understand and comprehend what He was like in character, and thus be able to recognize the glory and honorableness of the Lord God Himself. Moses wanted to make sure that he gave glory and honor to the Lord God and did not want to make any mistakes and misrepresent God in character and thus dishonor Him as he followed God’s command to “Bring up this people” - some 2-6 million Israelites - into the promised land (Exodus 33:12). With this extra knowledge of the true character of the Lord God Michael Himself, then Moses would be able to more completely pattern his life after the divine model of character of His Lord God, and would thus help all the Israelites to know more about their Creator God. 3) The "Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend” (Exodus 33:11), and Michael graciously granted this non-presumptuous request. “And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee” (Exodus 33:19). The Hebrew word for “goodness” used here is “tuwb”, and it translates and means “goodness, beauty” (Strong’s, word #2898). The Lord God Michael informed Moses that “Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live” (Exodus 33:20). This reveals that even though Moses could speak with God face to face, yet because Moses was of a fallen nature then he was unable to physically endure the full splendor and glory of the Lord God Michael’s divine radiant face. Yet the Lord God Michael mercifully worked out a solution so that Moses could indeed know more about the way of the Lord, could then know Him more fully, and could see God’s glory. “Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock: And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by: And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen” (Exodus 33:21-23). The Lord God Michael then told Moses that He would reveal Himself to him early the next day, and he alone was to “come up in the morning unto mount Sinai, and present thyself there to me in the top of the mount” (Exodus 34:2). 4) “Moses rose up early in the morning, and went up unto mount Sinai, as the Lord commanded him” (Exodus 34:4), and as soon as he reached the top of the mount, Moses presented himself and then waited to see what the Lord would do next. The mighty Lord God Michael then “descended in the cloud, and stood with him there” (Exodus 34:5), He then gently picked up Moses with His divine hand and placed him in the cleft of the rock and covered his sight with His hand. Then as “the Lord” (Exodus 34:6), His “glory” (Exodus 33:22), and His “goodness” or beauty (Exodus 33:19) “passed by before him” (Exodus 34:6) Moses heard the Lord God proclaim “the name of the Lord” (Exodus 34:5) stating “The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation” (Exodus 34:6-7). The Lord God Michael then removed His hand so that Moses could see the divine features and form of His head, shoulders, back, hips, legs and feet as He continued walking by. 5) Characteristic #1 – The Lord God Michael is “merciful”. The Hebrew word for “merciful” is “rachuwm”, and this word translates and means “full of compassion, mercy” (Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, word #7349). It is derived from the Hebrew word “racham”, which translates and means “to fondle, to love, to have pity” (Strong’s, word #7355). This reveals that the compassion of the Lord God to us is not manifested from a motive of grudgingly extending mercy towards troublesome inferiors because they don’t know any better. Nor is it manifested from a selfish motive of desiring to gain advantages over us because of our plight. Nor is it manifested devoid of any feeling at all. But the Lord God Michael manifests mercy towards us because He loves us and longs to fondle or tenderly hold and comfort us in His strong arms. His heart is touched with pity by seeing His fallen creation having to go through all of the problems and adversities of a life brought about because of sin, and having to live in a world under the control of Lucifer. As love “seeketh not her own” (1 Corinthians 13:5), then it is only out of a heart full of tender compassion and mercy that the Lord God Michael lovingly reaches out to try and rescue all He can from remaining bound to sin, from being under the control of Lucifer, and from receiving destruction in the end. 6) #2 – The Lord God Michael is “gracious”. The Hebrew word for “gracious” is “channuwn”, and this word translates and means “gracious” (Strong’s, word #2587). It is derived from the Hebrew word “chanan”, which translates and means “to bend or stoop in kindness to an inferior; to favor, to bestow, to implore or move to favor by petition, to entreat, to make supplication” (Strong’s, word #2603). As Michael is our God and Creator, He is so much greater in power and authority than any and all of His creation combined. Yet the mighty Lord God Michael willingly bends and stoops down to favor us with His blessings, and bestow upon us His love and merciful kindness. As love “vaunteth not itself” (1 Corinthians 13:4), so the Lord God Michael reveals His love towards us by not flaunting His exalted divine dignity in our faces, and then refuse to have anything to do with us inferiors. As love also “is not puffed up” (1 Corinthians 13:4), then neither does Michael take the position that once He created us, then we are now all on our own and must then deal with our own choices and suffer the consequences of our evil actions alone and without any hope of divine help. The Lord God Michael did not abandon us because He knew what torture and misery humanity would have to endure under the absolute control of Lucifer, and He also knew that once sin was chosen then humanity would need His divine help more than ever in order to obtain freedom. God instead humbled Himself and came even closer to us in order that we might be able to better know Him and His love for us. And with this extra knowledge, then we would be more willing to follow and obey Him, and thus obtain His help in escaping from sin and from the devil. 7) #3 – The Lord God Michael is “longsuffering”. There is no Hebrew word for “longsuffering”, as it is a combination of the words long and suffering. The Hebrew word for “long” in this context is “arak”, and it translates and means “to be long, defer, draw out, lengthen, prolong” (Strong’s, word #748). The Hebrew word for “suffering” in this context is “nacah”, which translates and means “to accept, suffer, bear, hold up, spare” (Strong’s, word #5375). This reveals that even though humanity deserves the penalty of death for their choice to sin, yet the Lord God Michael draws out, lengthens and prolongs our time on this earth, deferring or holding up the execution of this penalty and punishment against us until a future time. And why? Because the Lord “is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). It is the Lord God Michael’s earnest longing that His wayward creation find the freedom from Lucifer’s dominion that can only come by accepting Him as their Saviour and God, and thus escape from death and destruction in the end. This merciful purpose allows Him to defer punishment until everyone has had a precious chance to know more about Him and an opportunity to investigate into the plan devised for their salvation. As this realization and understanding takes various lengths of time to finally dawn upon the minds of mankind, the mighty Lord God Michael accepts our weakness and dullness of comprehension and then patiently suffers and bears with all of our sins and unrighteous actions, sparing us until we wake up because He “remembereth that we are [but] dust” (Psalms 103:14). Yet at the same time Michael is not inactive. He is not waiting for mankind to take the initiative, but He is working through the Holy Spirit and heavenly angels to wake us up and bring all to a knowledge of the truth so that they can obtain salvation and escape death and destruction. So while the mighty Lord God winks at the time of our ignorance, yet He is calling all to come to repentance and find salvation. This reveals that “the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation” (2 Peter 3:15)! The very foundation for the mighty Lord God being longsuffering towards humanity, and patiently enduring all our faults, mistakes, sins and dullness of mind, is based upon love for us. Through this God is teaching us that love “suffereth long”; it “Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things” (1 Corinthians 13:4, 7). So the mighty Lord God Michael patiently endures and bears all of our disobedience, faults, mistakes, and even abuse towards Him because He loves us and hopes that we will finally wake up and be saved. 8) The suffering that the Lord God Michael endures is more than just having to patiently wait for us to finally “awake to righteousness, and sin not” (1 Corinthians 15:34). Every sin against His law, each time one chooses to reject His ways or to manifest unappreciation of His blessings, causes Michael sorrow and sadness, and at times even great internal pain. This is because He has shown humanity over and over again exactly how much He loves them and longs for them to come to Him and be saved. When such boundless and infinite love goes unrequited or is unappreciated, it causes the Lord God Michael internal suffering. But when our love is finally returned, then all such internal suffering and pain is quickly replaced with beautiful feelings of peace, contentment and wonderful happiness because finally our love is appreciated and responded to! The same wondrous and joyful experience occurs with our Lord God Michael when we finally respond to His love! In fact, Michael cannot contain exactly how overjoyed He really is because of you – that one precious repenting soul – coming to Him, and “He will joy over thee with singing” (Zephaniah 3:17)! It is not just the Lord God Michael who is overjoyed when one of His creation finally chooses to serve, obey and to love Him as their God. But “there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth” (Luke 15:10). And even the Almighty Lord God joins in the happy heavenly celebration, until all “heaven” is filled with “joy...over one sinner that repenteth” (Luke 15:7) – over you dear one!