Exodus 34:1-10 (NASB)
Now the Lord said to Moses, “Cut out for yourself two stone tablets like the former ones, and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the former tablets which you smashed. 2 So be ready by morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and present yourself there to Me on the top of the mountain. 3 And no one is to come up with you, nor let anyone be seen anywhere on the mountain; even the flocks and the herds are not to graze in front of that mountain.” 4 So he cut out two stone tablets like the former ones, and Moses got up early in the morning and went up to Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, and he took the two stone tablets in his hand. 5 And 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 merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in faithfulness and truth; 7 who keeps faithfulness for thousands, who forgives wrongdoing, violation of His Law, and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, inflicting the punishment of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.” 8 And Moses hurried to bow low toward the ground and worship. 9 Then he said, “If in any way I have found favor in Your sight, Lord, please may the Lord go along in our midst, even though the people are so obstinate, and pardon our wrongdoing and our sin, and take us as Your own possession.”
10 Then God said, “Behold, I am going to make a covenant. Before all your people I will perform miracles which have not been produced in all the earth nor among any of the nations; and all the people among whom you live will see the working of the Lord, for it is a fearful thing that I am going to perform with you.”
Today is Father’s Day. Does today’s reading in Exodus seem like a fitting Father’s Day text to you? Maybe not, but for about a year I’ve had it in mind to preach on this text today. I think it is an extremely fitting Father’s Day text because of verses 6 and 7, which say, “Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, ‘The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in faithfulness and truth; who keeps faithfulness for thousands, who forgives wrongdoing, violation of His Law, and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, inflicting the punishment of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.’”
Those verses might seem confusing to some people. Why would God inflict punishment that a father deserves upon that father’s future generations of descendants? Does that seem loving? Is God not forgiving? He just described Himself as, “compassionate and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in faithfulness and truth; who keeps faithfulness for thousands, who forgives wrongdoing.” Is He contradicting Himself? Does God punish children for their parents’ sin? Why does He say He will be “inflicting the punishment of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.” Does this mean what we think it means?
As aways, we should look to the Bible to interpret itself. Deuteronomy 24:16 says, “Fathers shall not be put to death for their sons, nor shall sons be put to death for their fathers; everyone shall be put to death for his own sin alone.” Also, Ezekiel 18:20 says, “The person who sins will die. A son will not suffer the punishment for the father’s guilt, nor will a father suffer the punishment for the son’s guilt; the righteousness of the righteous will be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked will be upon himself.”
Contextualizing this passage with other scripture, we can conclude that God does not punish children for their father’s sins. Therefore, that verse in Exodus cannot be referring to transferring guilt or a sentence of death. In Exodus, God is not saying He will charge a child for the sins of a father, even though the wording makes it sound like that at first reading. Rather, He is simply stating what happens: that God’s punishment, or the consequence of a father’s sin, is inflicted on the “children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.”
The children, grandchildren and great grandchildren of that father are those children to the “fourth generation.” At that time in history, people had children at a relatively young age. A man would still be alive to see his great grandchildren. In our modern times, as people wait longer and longer to have children, that is not so common. If someone lives long enough to see their great-grandchildren, the great-grandchildren are usually quite young when their great-grandparent dies. They would not have had much direct influence on them. In a patriarchal society, as the Israelites had, the Great Grandfather would have been the head of the family, and would have had a powerful influence on the whole family. In the book, Christian Apologetics by Douglas Groothuis, he points out that this infliction of punishment happens for the length of that father’s life, which is to the third or fourth generation. That means the repercussions of someone abandoning God will impact their family for the entire length of their life. Alternatively, a person who follows God will have a positive impact on their family for their entire life.
That is how powerful the influence of a father is upon his family. If a father follows God and strives to be faithful, then God shows Himself faithful and true to that father’s children. If a father rejects God and lives contrary to God’s law, then he will suffer the consequences and so will his children, grandchildren and great grandchildren who see him live contrary to God and follow in his sinful footsteps. They won’t see the goodness and faithfulness of God in their family’s life. They will not get to know God’s goodness and faithfulness firsthand. They will not learn the proper way to live and follow God.
We see examples of this in the Bible. 2 Kings 21:20-21 tells us about a king named Amon. It says, “He did evil in the sight of the Lord, just as his father Manasseh had done. For he walked entirely in the way that his father had walked, and served the idols that his father had served, and worshiped them.” Manasseh had been truly evil and had completely rejected God. His son simply followed his example.
We see another example of this in King David’s life. Now David did not reject God, but he failed to follow all of God’s laws. Looking at David’s life, we see that his sins led to his sons’ sins. There is no doubt about it. I’ve always wondered if David had simply married one woman and remained faithful to her if many of his problems would have been avoided? Then also, perhaps, his sons would have followed his example and also married only one woman. Instead, 1 Kings 11:3-4 says this about Solomon, “He had seven hundred wives, who were princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned his heart away. For when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away to follow other gods; and his heart was not wholly devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of his father David had been.” Even though David did not stop worshiping God, his bad example of marrying multiple women surely influenced his son Solomon, and for Solomon, it caused him to turn away from God. Sin always has consequences, and a person’s sin is most strongly seen by its effect on his or her family.
Even popular psychology acknowledges the truth of this passage. The world uses different terms like, “breaking the cycle” or “changing family patterns” or “shifting behaviors” but they all mean the same thing. It’s common knowledge that bad habits or wrong patterns of behavior are passed on to children by their parents. My understanding is most conversations in therapist offices are about a person’s relationship with their parents. If a child grows up with an angry, abusive parent, it takes a lot of work to not adopt those traits and pass them on to your own children. We are all shaped by the examples of our parents. Even if a parent is absent, their absence shapes us. This is the devastating effect sin wreaks on a family.
It’s can be difficult to deal with habits and behavior of generational sin that we get handed to us by our parents. This is something that all people experience, for no one is perfect and all parents fail to live perfectly. But what Exodus is describing is specific to the sin of idolatry. This warning is also mentioned earlier in the Bible in Exodus 20:4-6, it says, “You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath, or in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not worship them nor serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, inflicting the punishment of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, 6 but showing favor to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.”
This time, the warning is even more detailed. We see that generational sin is especially damaging when, as Exodus 20:5 mentions, the father hates God. It is one thing to pass on sins and bad habits. It’s entirely more devastating when the father hates God, which is a simplified way of saying he does not worship God. That is when we see the warning: a father who hates God results in God “inflicting the punishment of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me.”
If a father is an atheist, most likely his children will be atheists as well. This is what God is talking about here in Exodus.
If you come from a family line of unbelievers, you should not consider this passage in Exodus to be despairing, though. You should instead rejoice at the power that your salvation has brought to you, and to your family, if you have one. This is the power of the Gospel message. Sin, either self-inflicted or brought on us by our family, can be broken by the power of Jesus. Because of Jesus, sin no longer has to hold us in chains. Romans 6:1-7 says, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? Far from it! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for the one who has died is freed from sin.”
That passage is explaining that because Jesus died on the cross and was raised from the dead, we too, if we have been born again, may walk in newness of life, for we have been freed from the power of sin. Just like 2 Corinthians 5:17 states, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, this person is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” That verse is proclaiming that when we become a Christian, all the old things, all the generational sin that would want to hold us down, it can all be removed from us. We no longer have to be trapped in generational bondage to sin. All the old things, generational sins, cycles of behavior, or destructive patterns that get passed on to us, they have passed away when we become a new creation in Christ. That means they don’t exist anymore.
If the past sins don’t exist anymore, then we do not have to be trapped in those sins. That is good news! There is true freedom for us in Christ Jesus. That means that no matter what has happened to us in the past, we can find freedom and healing in Jesus. That is the message of the Gospel. That is the power of this new covenant that Jesus has purchased for us when He died on the cross.
Going back to the example of Manasseh and Amon, we see what happens when someone who is from a line of people who hate God, turn to follow God. Amon’s son was Josiah. 2 Kings 22:1-2 tells us, “Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned for thirty-one years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Jedidah the daughter of Adaiah of Bozkath. He did what was right in the sight of the Lord and walked entirely in the way of his father David, and did not turn aside to the right or to the left.”
Josiah did not walk in the way of his biological father Amon, but he walked in the way of his ancestral father David. Josiah is the perfect example of someone who broke the cycle of unbelief. Even though his father Amon worshiped false idols, Josiah was not inflicted with the punishment that comes from not following the Lord. He turned to God and followed God’s ways, breaking free from that generational sin.
Father’s Day can be a difficult day for many people. Not everyone has been blessed with a father who loves God. Many people have fathers who do not follow the Lord. If that is you, then your saving faith is truly a miracle of grace. According to statistics, 2/3 of all Christians came to know Christ while they were children. And only ¼ of people become saved after the age of 21. Half of those who come to Christ are led by their parents (https://ministry-to-children.com/childrens-ministry-statistics/).
That is how important a father (and a mother’s) role is in leading their children to Jesus. That is why the faith of a father is so important in his family. A father will either lead his family closer or further away from God. Just like God spoke to Moses in Exodus, if a father turns to false idols, his disobedience to God is going to negatively impact his children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. His lack of faith will probably lead to those children also suffering the consequences of not following God.
I know if anyone who is not a Christian ever read this, they would disagree with me. They would say, “well, God doesn’t exist anyway, so there is no consequence or judgement that will be inflicted on me.” They don’t believe in God, so they have no fear of Him. That is the problem, isn’t it? I’m afraid our churches aren’t helping the matter, either. So much of Christianity at large has tried to erase the existence of hell and judgement. Yet, the consequences of not following the Lord are dire. There is the eternal consequence of hell, but there are also the negative consequences during this mortal life.
Our main text for today, Exodus 34, explains that God is “compassionate and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in faithfulness and truth; […and] forgives wrongdoing.” If we do not worship God, we do not get to experience His compassion, mercy, and faithfulness. If we aren’t following the Lord, we won’t be reading His word and we won’t get to learn truth. We also won’t experience the forgiveness that He offers us through Jesus’ death on the cross. If we don’t experience forgiveness, then, of course, all that is left for us is the rightful punishment that we deserve for our sinfulness.
It’s not that God wants to condemn and inflict punishment on people. It’s as He explains in verse 10, “Behold, I am going to make a covenant.” God made a covenant with the Israelites. He told them as recorded in Deuteronomy 30:15-20, “See, I have placed before you today life and happiness, and death and adversity, in that I am commanding you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, so that you may live and become numerous, and that the Lord your God may bless you in the land where you are entering to take possession of it. But if your heart turns away and you will not obey, but allow yourself to be led astray and you worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today that you will certainly perish. You will not prolong your days in the land where you are crossing the Jordan to enter and take possession of it. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have placed before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, by loving the Lord your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding close to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days, so that you may live in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.”
This was the covenant that God established for the people: if they follow His commandments, He will bless them by taking care of them. When they failed and sinned, then they would offer a blood sacrifice of an animal and receive forgiveness of sins. Then later, God sent Jesus to die on the cross for our sins, and He established a new covenant. As Hebrews 8:6 says, “But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, to the extent that He is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises.”
Those better promises are given to us through Jesus’ death on the cross. Instead of having to atone for our sin through blood sacrifices, His blood became the sacrifice for our sin. He is why we no longer have to be in bondage to sin. For those of us who are in Christ, even generational sin has no power over us any longer.
This Father’s Day, let us pray for fathers everywhere that they will be compelled to lead their children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren to follow Christ. And let us walk in the freedom that Christ has purchased for us. Let us not be weighed down by generational sin or bondage. Let us embrace the freedom that is available to us in Christ Jesus. For those of us who have been washed in the blood of Jesus, the past does not exist any longer, for Christ has wiped the past clean. As 1 Corinthians 6:11 says, “Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.” Let us rejoice in the freedom Christ Jesus has won for us.
Pray: Heavenly Father, we thank You and praise You for sending us Jesus to be the better sacrifice. Thank You for giving us a way to break off generational sin from our lives. Help us to walk in the freedom that Jesus has purchased for us. We pray for fathers today that You would help them to follow You and lead their families to follow You. We thank You that no matter what our earthly father is like, we have a good and loving Father in You. We love You, and we pray all these things in Jesus’ name, amen.
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