Forgiveness in the Old Testament

The forgiveness of sin is a central concept throughout the Scriptures.

The Old Testament often speaks of forgiveness from God whereas no other religion knows of such a complete and free forgiveness.

Exodus 34:5 The Lord descended in the cloud and stood there with him as he called upon the name of the Lord. 6 Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; 7 who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.” 8 Moses made haste to bow low toward the earth and worship. (NASB95)

In Exodus 33:18-23, Moses made a request of the Lord that He, the Lord would show him His glory.

The Lord responded by telling Moses that He won’t fully manifest His glory since this would kill him since Moses was a sinner by nature.

However, the Lord promises to make all His goodness pass before Moses by proclaiming His goodness, which is the function of His attribute of love which is compassionate and merciful towards sinners.

Instead of fully manifesting His presence to Moses, the Lord promises something to Moses, which is essential for him to know as a sinner.

Namely, the Lord would proclaim before Moses His name that He is gracious to whom He chooses to be gracious and shows compassion to whom He chooses which met Moses’ request to be shown His glory.

The Lord’s graciousness and compassion towards sinners constitutes His goodness.

This is indicated by the Lord’s response to Moses’ request to see His glory.

The Lord told Moses that He would make all His goodness pass by Him in the sense that He would proclaim His name, namely that He is gracious and compassionate towards sinners.

When God says to Moses that He will make “all” His goodness pass by, He means that His goodness as revealed to Moses would be total in the sense of nothing but goodness.

Moses wanted incontrovertible evidence that the Lord had again accept his people and would go with them into the Promised Land and would continue to guide and lead them.

He wanted a sign that would convince him that God was with him and the Israelites.

The Lord’s proclamation of His goodness which said that He was compassionate and merciful was important for Moses and the Israelites since as sinners, it was essential that God was compassionate and merciful to them in order for the Lord to continue to be in their midst because His holiness does not tolerate sin and sinners.

Thus, the Lord’s proclamation of His goodness which speaks of the manifestation of His attribute of love would encourage Moses that the Lord would continue to be in their presence.

In other words, the Lord says I will be compassionate and merciful to you sinners so I can continue to be in your midst.

In Exodus 34:7, “lovingkindness” is the noun ḥě∙sěḏ, which refers to God’s “unconditional love” describing that He is loyal or faithful to His covenants with men and characterizes how God acts towards His covenant people Israel.

It is an attribute of God and thus originates with Him (1 John 4:7-8).

God would continue to love even though there were no sinners because His attribute of love is a part of His divine essence.

In Exodus 34:7, the Lord describes Himself as forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin.

The forgiveness of God originates from His very nature.

The Old Testament possesses a variety of rich language to describe God’s forgiveness.

God is proclaimed as a merciful and forgiving God (Ps. 103:12; Is. 38:17; 43:25; Jer. 31:34; Mic. 7:19; cf. Lk. 15:11-24).

Exodus 34:8 records Moses responding to the Lord’s proclamation of His character and modus operandi with regards to the human race by immediately prostrating himself on the ground in the Lord’s presence and worshipping Him.

Daniel speaks of God forgiving his nation their sins in his great prayer prior to receiving the seventieth weeks prophecy recorded in Daniel 9:24-27.

Daniel 9:1 During Darius’ first year, Ahasuerus’ son, who was from Median descent, who was made king over the Chaldeans’ kingdom- 2 during the first year of his reign, I myself, Daniel understood by means of the scrolls the specific number of years which the word of the Lord communicated to Jeremiah the prophet for completing devastating Jerusalem-seventy years. 3 Therefore, I devoted my full attention to my Lord, the one and only God by repeatedly presenting prayer request in the form of pleas for mercy while fasting with sackcloth as well as ashes. 4 Indeed, I caused myself to enter into prayer to the Lord my God. Specifically, I caused myself to enter into confession and said, “O my Lord, the one and only God, the Great One yes the Awesome One, who is faithful to His covenant because of His unconditional love on behalf of those who love Him, namely on behalf of those who conscientiously observe His commands, 5 we have sinned, thus we have done wrong so that we have been condemned as guilty because we have rebelled. Specifically, we have deviated from Your commands, that is, from Your laws. 6 Furthermore, to our own detriment, we never paid attention to Your servants, the prophets who spoke by Your authority to and for the benefit of our kings as well as our leaders and in addition our ancestors, yes, to and for the benefit of all the people belonging to the land. 7 You are righteous my Lord but we are publicly disgraced as is the case this very day. To the detriment of the Judean people as well as to the detriment of Jerusalem’s inhabitants likewise to the detriment of all Israel, those nearby as well as those far away in all the countries where You have driven them because of their unfaithfulness which they perpetrated against You. 8 We are publicly disgraced Lord, to the detriment of our kings, to the detriment of our leaders as well as to the detriment of our ancestors because we have sinned against You. 9 My Lord, our God is merciful as well as forgiving even though we have rebelled against Him. 10 Specifically, to our own detriment, we never paid attention to the Lord, our God’s voice by living by means of His laws which He gave in our presence through His servants, the prophets. (My translation)

After listing the charges and the indictment against Israel in Daniel 9:5-8, Daniel says in verse 9 says to God that He is merciful and forgiving even though Israel rebelled against Him.

God is merciful and forgiving with Israel because of His attribute of love.

Those in Israel who repent by confessing their sins will receive forgiveness of sins and mercy in the sense that God will withhold judgment and discipline in order to restore the repentant sinner to fellowship with Himself.

Daniel knew this about God because he was a student of the Scriptures.

He could see from the book of Exodus that as to His nature, God is forgiving and merciful.

The Exodus generation under Moses rebelled against Moses’ authority and God’s authority many times, yet God did not destroy completely the nation.

Instead in response to Moses’ intercession, God forgave Israel and withheld judgment by not wiping out the nation completely (cf. Exodus 32-34).

The fact that God disciplined the nation of Israel by sending her into exile for seventy years in Babylon did not mean that God was withholding mercy and forgiveness from Israel.

However, it did mean that because He is also righteous, God punished Israel’s unrepentant sin and rebellion and disobedience.

The fact that God did not wipe out completely the nation but instead left a faithful remnant is further evidence that God is merciful and forgiving.

So Daniel is saying that God always treats Israel better than she deserves.

This is true of the church today since God treats both Israel and the church better than they deserve because as to His nature, He is love.

God’s love manifests itself in forgiveness and mercy when the believer confesses their sin to be restored to fellowship with God and maintains that fellowship by their obedience to His commands and prohibitions.

Therefore, here in Daniel 9:9, Daniel is contrasting Israel’s guilt with the fact that God is merciful and forgiving.

God’s love is “’magnanimous” meaning that God is generous in forgiving insults and injuries without being vindictive and becoming involved in petty resentfulness.

So magnanimity is related to forgiveness (Col. 3:13-14).

Daniel is asking God to be magnanimous to Israel since Israel doesn’t have a leg to stand on in relation to God.

They must appeal to God’s merciful and forgiving character and nature if they are to have any hope of a future because Israel has no excuses.

They are responsible for their plight.

Yet, because of his knowledge of God’s character and nature which he acquired through his Old Testament Scriptures such as the Law, Daniel knew that there is always hope for Israel and in fact a confident expectation of a bright future for the nation because God is magnanimous and merciful and forgiving.