Exodus 20: | 4: Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: 5: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; 6: And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. |
Exodus 34: | 5: And the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. 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. 8: And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped. |
Recently I received a letter from Nigeria. I'll quote one small section of the letter, because it concerns this issue of whether or not Yahweh punishes children for the sins of their forefathers.
Ezekiel 18: | 1: The word of the LORD came unto me again, saying, 2: What mean ye, that ye use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge? 3: As I live, saith the Lord GOD, ye shall not have occasion any more to use this proverb in Israel. 4: Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die. |
verses 19 | Yet say ye, Why? doth not the son bear the iniquity of the father? When the son hath done that which is lawful and right, and hath kept all my statutes, and hath done them, he shall surely live. 20: The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him. 21: But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die. 22: All his transgressions that he hath committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him: in his righteousness that he hath done he shall live. 23: Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord GOD: and not that he should return from his ways, and live? 24: But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and doeth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doeth, shall he live? All his righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned: in his trespass that he hath trespassed, and in his sin that he hath sinned, in them shall he die. 25: Yet ye say, The way of the Lord is not equal. Hear now, O house of Israel; Is not my way equal? are not your ways unequal? 26: When a righteous man turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and dieth in them; for his iniquity that he hath done shall he die. 27: Again, when the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness that he hath committed, and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive. 28: Because he considereth, and turneth away from all his transgressions that he hath committed, he shall surely live, he shall not die. 29: Yet saith the house of Israel, The way of the Lord is not equal. O house of Israel, are not my ways equal? are not your ways unequal? 30: Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, saith the Lord GOD. Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin. |
THE ANSWER, I believe, is: No they are not the same thing. There is subtle difference between direct punishment and the inevitable repercussions of actions which are judged to be iniquitous. The Hebrew word translated 'visiting' is paqad. It means to look over, or after, to inspect, to judge. In other words God will inspect and examine the results on future generations of parental iniquity. He will take note of how each generation influences the next. Let me explain further.
Iniquity has far reaching effects: effects that continue from generation to generation: effects that are already detailed in Yahweh's law: irreversible effects which are the divinely ordained outcome of disobedience. Iniquity triggers a terrifying series of harvests which overtake the sinner, his immediate family and succeeding generations: and though the innocent are not actually being punished for their parents sins, they are, nevertheless affected by them: just as a drunken driver could cause chaos to his fellow travellers; or a drug addict cause pain and suffering to his immediate family. In short the repercussions of iniquity are legion. They have
Isaiah 3:9 | "The shew of their countenance doth witness against them; and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not." |
2 Peter 2:16 | "But was rebuked for his iniquity: the dumb ass speaking
with man's voice forbad the madness of the prophet."
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Numbers 25: | 1: And Israel abode in Shittim, and the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab. 2: And they called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods: and the people did eat, and bowed down to their gods. 3: And Israel joined himself unto Baal-peor: and the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel. 4: And the LORD said unto Moses, Take all the heads of the people, and hang them up before the LORD against the sun, that the fierce anger of the LORD may be turned away from Israel. 5: And Moses said unto the judges of Israel, Slay ye every one his men that were joined unto Baal-peor. 6: And, behold, one of the children of Israel came and brought unto his brethren a Midianitish woman in the sight of Moses, and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, who were weeping before the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. 7: And when Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose up from among the congregation, and took a javelin in his hand; 8: And he went after the man of Israel into the tent, and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the woman through her belly. So the plague was stayed from the children of Israel. 9: And those that died in the plague were twenty and four thousand. |
Leviticus 26: | 39: And they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity in your enemies' lands; and also in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them. 40: If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against me, and that also they have walked contrary unto me; 41: And that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity: 42: Then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land. 43: The land also shall be left of them, and shall enjoy her sabbaths, while she lieth desolate without them: and they shall accept of the punishment of their iniquity: because, even because they despised my judgments, and because their soul abhorred my statutes. |
Matthew 7: | 21: Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. 22: Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? 23: And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. |
Isaiah 13: | 9: Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it. 10: For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine. 11: And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible. 12: I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir. 13: Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger. |
Cursing for Disobedience | ... Deuteronomy
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Idolatry | 27:15
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Deceit | 27:18
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Illicit sex | 27:20-23
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Bribery | 27:25
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Violence | 27:24
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Disrespect for parents | 27:17 |
Blessing for Obedience | ... Deuteronomy
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In the city and field | 28:3
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Fruit of the womb | 28:4
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Basket and Store | 28:5
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National Defence | 28:7
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Employment | 28:8
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A good name | 28:9
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Spiritual prosperity | 28:10-12 |
Exodus 34:7 | "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." |
2 Samuel 12: | 9: Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the LORD, to do evil in his sight? thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon. 10: Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house; because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife. 11: Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbour, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun. 12: For thou didst it secretly: but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun. |
Numbers 23: | 20: Behold, I have received commandment to bless: and he hath blessed; and I cannot reverse it. |
This means that though a person is unable to escape the immediate
consequences of ancestral iniquity: poverty, physical or mental disability
etc., he/she can, through faith and obedience, enter the arena
of mercy, blessing and eternal life. That is what salvation is all about.
That is what Yahweh promises.
Ezekiel 18: | 20: The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him. 21: But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die. |
The only way to escape the curses listed in God's law is to accept salvation by faith: and then to demonstrate that faith in acts of obedience. In the process of time the incoming blessing will far outweigh the curses brought about by ancestral iniquity. The Bible makes it abundantly clear that the only way to escape eternal death is through faith and obedience. See the SBS Gospel page for information on the Everlasting Gospel.