This is why Jesus said that eternal life is knowing God (John 17:3).

Is God just, or is He merciful? Yes. Read / Listen Listen to passage & devotional: Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 11 Q. [God won't permit sin to go unpunished...] But isn’t God also merciful? A. God is certainly merciful, but he is also just. His justice demands that sin, committed against his supreme majesty, be punished with the supreme penalty— eternal punishment of body and soul. Summary We meet Moses in today's passage at a very low point in his life. After descending down from the ultimate mountaintop experience in which he'd been in God's presence for an extended time, he returns to find his fickle people dancing around hand made idols. Moses speaks to God with amazing honesty, reminding God that the Israelites were His people, and almost demanding that God teach him God's ways, so that Moses might know God. Moses even flat out demands that God show Moses His glory! Moses has already seen God unleash the plagues on Israel, open the Red Sea, speak like thunder from a mountain, along with all sorts of other miracles along the way. God would have been just in striking Moses with lightning for making such a demand asking for more glory. But instead God lovingly complies, telling Moses that He will cause His goodness to pass in front of Moses. What Moses learns is that God's goodness has two poles: grace, mercy and peace for those He's chosen, but justice & punishment for those who remain in their guilt. Lest Moses (or us) thinks that somehow we're righteous enough to be in the presence of God's holy glory and goodness on our own, God places Moses in the cleft of a rock to shield him. Who do you suppose that Rock of Ages was foreshadowing? Dig Deeper So many people have a warped, lopsided view of God. Some associate God as a genie in the sky dispensing goodness and blessing on anyone who asks, while others see Him only as a grouchy curmudgeon crushing people for the smallest infraction. Yet at one of the lowest points of his life, Moses resists both of those extreme caricatures, and asks God for something very simple, yet life changingly profound. He ask God to "teach me your ways so that I may know you." Of all the attributes God could have responded with, God shows Moses His goodness, and in His goodness God is fully merciful AND fully just. No creature in heaven or earth can do this, but God can and did by pouring out His justice on His Son so that He could show you His amazing grace and mercy. AAA Prayer (About) ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: The LORD, the LORD, compassionate and gracious, yet who punishes the guilty; ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Ask God to display His glory and goodness to you (be careful, this is a dangerous thing to ask for if you're not prepared to align your life with it!!) ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - Acts 3

covenant relationship with their God and how Abraham was told many years before to “walk before God” (Gen. 17 A second part of this phrase is also joined with this request over and over, giving the purpose for the WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that you will be sanctified by the truth, for God’s Word is truth and life (John 17:17) ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: Read the New Testament in a year!

fretting about them; ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - John 17

Moses says that God “created the world”; and John says that “all things were created by the Word,” which Yesterday we read the beginning of Jesus' prayer in John 17.

This is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent ( John 17:3 ).

and resurrection power Mark 9:2–13 (NASB95) 2 Six days later, Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John Then, on this mountain, Peter, James, and John saw Jesus speaking with two prominent Old Testament prophets As He states within the sermon of the mount in Matthew 5:17, “Do not think that I have come to abolish 1:17).” prophet and teacher, the Word who became flesh who revealed the glory of God full of grace and truth (John

Acts 4:1–22 (NASB95) 1 As they [Peter & John] were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain scribes were gathered together in Jerusalem; 6 and Annas the high priest was there, and Caiaphas and John and Alexander, and all who were of high-priestly descent. 7 When they had placed them [Peter & John] miracle has taken place through them is apparent to all who live in Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it. 17 So even as Peter and John were speaking to the people who'd gathered once they heard about the miracle

Matthew 3:1–12 (NASB95) 1 Now in those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea Notice how Matthew introduces John. But John's oddities aren't the first thing Matthew mentions. Rather, the first thing he reports is that John came preaching. John, like any good preacher, pointed away from himself to the mightier One: Jesus Christ.

Gospels: Week 5 - Jesus' power over creation, demons, hunger and unbelief CONTEXT: John the Baptist has Matthew 14:13–21 (NASB95) 13 Now when Jesus heard about John, He withdrew from there in a boat to a secluded 17 They said to Him, “We have here only five loaves and two fish.” 18 And He said, “Bring them here to And the news of John's sudden execution hit him hard.