According to the Puritan Thomas Goodwin, "there were two grand pillars in the Old Testament: one, God’s promise of Christ; and the other, this manifesto of God’s gracious nature [in Exodus 34:6-7 [6] And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, [7] 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.
See All...]: and lo, the advantage God took for both, upon the commission of the most heinous sins; the one upon occasion of the first and greatest sin, and of the largest extent of mischief in the consequence that ever was committed, viz., our first parents’ fall, by which all mankind were undone; and it was upon that occasion he let fall that promise of Christ [Genesis 3:15And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
See All...], which was the first foundation of Old Testament faith, and continues such to the end: and now again upon the first greatest sin this people did commit after their having received the law [the making of the golden calf in Exodus 32], and heard God’s voice, it was that he publisheth this other [the declaration of His mercy in Exodus 34:6-7 [6] And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, [7] 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.
See All...]."