Troublesome Topic: WHAT ABOUT PUNISHMENT THAT CARRIED OVER TO FUTURE GENERATIONS?

Exodus 20:5-6 says the following:

Exodus 20:5

Translation

You shall not bow down to them nor serve

them

for I, YHVH

your ELOHIM

(read Adonai your Elohim) am

a jealous God,

visiting the punishment for the iniquity of the fathers upon the sons to the third and fourth [generation]

of those who hate me.

Paraphrase

You must not do things that demonstrate submission and loyalty to them, nor live out that loyalty to them with your actions and efforts, for I, THE ETERNAL AND PERSONAL GOD, who is also your OWNER AND RULER am protective of what is mine and will not relinquish it easily; I protect by using punishment in order to teach fathers and sons and grandsons down as far as I need to go in cases where people demonstrate disregard for what I have required of them.

Exodus 20:6

Translation

but showing mercy

to the thousandth [generation]

of those who love

me and keep my commands.

Paraphrase

but showing compassionate mercy always and forever

to those who

love me and demonstrate it by obeying what I have charged them to do.

First of all, we dare not forget that God’s mercy extends much longer and to many more people than does His punishment.

But people still want to know, “Why does He punish the children at all? It seems unfair to punish people who did not commit the offense.”

Here is what I think is going on in those cases. I think God is still punishing the fathers with extended consequences that carry on for a long time. One of the prices of leadership is that consequences are far reaching in the number of people they touch and the length of time they endure. Kings and presidents have consequences that carry on long after they are gone. As the first representatives of the human race, Adam and Eve received consequences that are still in effect today. All of us live under the consequences of sin. The difficult circumstances brought on by those consequences are intended to make us think about such things as consequences for our actions, the reality of right and wrong, our purpose in life, and eternity. You may not like that answer, but that is what I think is going on.

There is a grave responsibility that comes with leadership.

One of the reasons God has given leadership in the home to the husband and father is that men naturally sense the gravity of leadership; and the tendency of many men is to shrink back from it. They know there are serious consequences, and they are not sure if they can do a good job of leading. There are a few men who thrive under that kind of pressure. In contrast, many women are willing to push forward and take the lead.

In summary, God prefers to show His holiness through mercy more than through punishment. He will punish when He must, but He prefers mercy which demonstrates that He is very different than we are.

God wants us to be a reflection, a miniature picture, of who He is and what He is like. In order to properly reflect Him, we need to understand His character and the unity of holiness and mercy is a key part of His character.

We need to ask ourselves these questions:

What am I reflecting? Do I reflect the world, or do I reflect God’s character?

In what areas do I need to grow in order to better reflect God’s character?

Footnotes

1

“serve” is closely tied to the idea of labor, i.e. serving through one’s efforts or exertion. Serving a deity was by no means a passive thing.

2

This name of God comes from Elohim but is spelled differently because it means “your God,” not just God. It is serving a different grammatical function so it takes a different form. However, I have expressed it as “your Elohim” to avoid confusion.

3

This was the simplest form of the word “God,” and for the Hebrews it had the meaning of “God” in a general sense. It was not a proper name, but was the foundation for the name Elohim, and was also the root of the Arabic word Allah. There was a Canaanite deity named El.

4

The word “generation” is not in the Hebrew but is the assumed from context.

5

“hate” does mean “to hate.” By implication it refers to someone who has disregard for God’s covenant, expressed through failure to follow the covenant conditions. It is contrasted with “love” in the next verse.

6

“mercy” is a great Hebrew word that is extremely important for our understanding of who God is and what He is like. The word means “compassion, kindness, mercy, love, piety, and goodness.” Of these possibilities the word “kindness is the one that seems to be repeated most. It is difficult to use one English word to capture the richness of this Hebrew word, so Bible translators often render this word with a descriptive phrase such as “loving kindness,” or “unfailing love.”

In this context I believe “mercy” needs to be included in the rendering because it is used in contrast to the punishment in the previous verse. However, our word “mercy” standing alone is not adequate to express the richness of this Hebrew word, therefore, I have chosen the phrase “compassionate mercy.”

7

The word “generations” is not found in the Hebrew text but is supplied by the context. It can properly be assumed that this is talking about the thousandth generation, not just thousands of people, because it stands as the completion of the phrase in the previous verse, the construction of which is most logically fulfilled by adding “generation.” This is the nature of Hebrew, where many things are left unwritten and thus must be assumed; sometimes the things left unwritten are quite important, but such was their reliance on context to fill in the blanks.

The “thousandth generation” is used here as a way to indicate an extremely long time, basically forever. The point being made is that, while God does punish sin fully because He is a holy God, He is always compassionate and merciful; He only punishes when punishment is absolutely warranted. His patience with the children of Israel is amazing to observe in Scripture. His patience with us is amazing to see as well.

8

In the context of a covenant relationship, “hate” means to disobey, and “love” means to follow and obey.