God-Who-Forgives

O LORD our God, you answered them. You were a forgiving God to them, but you punished them when they went wrong. Psalms 99:8 NLT

I was reading this chapter this morning in the NKJV and stopped as came across verse 8. In the NKJV it read “You were to them God-Who-Forgives”. I went through the typical Hebrew names of God and could not remember this one. Jehovah Rohi – The Lord is my Shepherd. Jehovah Roi – The God who Sees.  Jehovah Jireh – The Lord will Provide. Not remembering this name led me to today’s discovery.

This is not a compound name as the other names I just mentioned. Rather it is “El” meaning God and then a verb “nasa” meaning forgive. This is where the fun begins.

“Nasa” at its core means to lift off or carry. It has both a physical and spiritual application.  It is used 600 times for a variety of situations. Physically, the waters lifted around Noah. Then it shifts in meaning as Moses said “I cannot carry the burdens of the nation.’

For our purpose of understanding forgiveness we find on the Day of Atonement the scapegoat “will carry on itself all their sins to a solitary place”. Lev 16:22. This is a clear foreshadow of Jesus carrying our sins to the cross. Forgiveness is not limited to a legal matter, but it involves physical action.

Jesus lifts our sins from us and carries them on His body to His sacrificial death on the cross.

Hopefully the image is sinking down into the reality of where you and I live. We are free. Our past sins have been carried away. As far as the east is from the west, He removed them from us.

When you remember that God is a forgiving God, it is more than cancelling our debt. He “nasa” it off of us. All of it. Praise Jesus.

And to keep us humble, he adds, “you punished them when they went wrong”. God disciplines us with love and justice. Out of His mercy, He forgives again. Praise the Lord.

Blessings Love y’all