On Volcanoes and Generational Sins

April 1, 2001
Michael Evans

Last month we considered the legacy of two dead guys, Jonathan Edwards and Joe Kennedy.  What a contrast!

One needn’t be the brightest light on the porch to see that the blessing of God is indeed upon those who love Him and keep His commands.

Deuteronomy 7:9-11 says “Know therefore that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant and His lovingkindness to a thousandth generation with those who love Him and keep His  commandments; but repays those who hate Him to their faces, to destroy them; He will not delay with him who hates Him, He will repay to his face” (NASV).

Whoa! Those are some pretty strong words, yet they are the very words God spoke through Moses to all of the Israelites.

Men, we have an enormous privilege and responsibility to carry the torch of God’s blessing from this generation to the next and the one after that…ad infinitum.

The subject of generational sins is one that has piqued my interest for some time.  I have talked with men who sowed some serious wild oats as non-believing, self-centered, pleasure driven young men.

If that includes you does that then mean that your family and your grandchildren and their grandchildren will be paying for your sin (or the sins of your wife) with the curse of God?

There are many Old Testament verses that speak to this subject.  Exodus 20:3-6, 34:7; Numbers 14:18; Deuteronomy 5:9-10, 7:9-11 are just a few examples.

Let’s take a look at just one representative passage, Exodus 20:5-6 “You shall not worship them (idols) or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing loving kindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.”

Are your and my past failings going to haunt us like a cruel heckler all of our days and beyond? 

Will our children and families suffer because of sins we been a part of in our past?

Does a checkered past become the fatalistic future of our families?

Certainly there is a sense in which even forgiven sin can have consequences that carry on to future generations, or even prevent future generations.  Consider King David and the  consequences of his forgiven sin (Second Samuel Chs 11-24).

My concern is that there are many fathers out there who have been a part of some pretty shameful things in the days before they knew Christ, or perhaps even after.

When the lights go out at night and you are lying awake in bed perhaps you wonder to yourself, “Is this or that sin from my past going to be a cause of God’s curse on my family?”

How we answer this question tells us everything about our comprehension of God’s grace and the efficacy of Christ’s atoning blood.

Take another look at Exodus 20:5-6.  To whom does the iniquity of the fathers fall upon? 

It falls upon the children, to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me…” 

If a father hates God he lays down the welcome mat and sets out the cookies and milk for the terrifying curse of God in his life and home. 

This is not meant to diminish in any way the sanctifying influence a believing wife has on her unbelieving husband and home, and vice versa (1 Cor. 7:14).

But God’s best is for Godly fathers to love and obey Him and to lead their families into the fold of God’s blessings.

We need not look far to see the results of God’s curse on generations.  Prisons are filled with relatives.

Bill Glass is an evangelist known for his prison ministry.  He once asked a group of a thousand prison inmates, “How many of you had parents who told you that you would end up in prison one day?” 

Almost every one of the inmates raised his hand.  This is the curse of God in the flesh.

Again, I ask the question, “To whom does the iniquity of the fathers fall upon?”  It falls upon the children of fathers who hate God.

So, when a father ceases to hate God and becomes a friend and child of God through faith in Christ, the curse is broken. 

The curse is broken!  Do you hear it men?  The curse is broken.  The promise of God’s curse is only upon those who hate God. 

If Jesus is your Lord then you love God and guess what?  God promises to show forth his lovingkindness to thousands within your present and future family line.

That is some kind of good news for truly repentant sinners!  

I am convinced that there are many men who live the self-fulfilling prophecy of a defeated life simply because they will not let the grace of God into some shadowy corner of their lives.

As a sort of constant self-punishment to prove his repentance a man may literally trample upon the grace of God and the work of Christ.   That, my friends, is not a noble deed.

So be encouraged and strengthened by the truth that if you love and obey God the generational curse is broken.

When Jesus went to the cross He took upon Himself all  of our infirmities.  He carried all of our sorrows.  He was crushed for our iniquities.  The Lord has laid upon Him the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53:5-7).

In Second Corinthians 5:20-21 Paul writes “Be reconciled to God.  God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

This is Gospel 101.  The glorious gospel of grace showers forgiveness and healing and blessing and restoration upon those whose hearts are fully devoted to Him.

This does not mean that if your father had a bad temper or was an alcoholic or was physically or verbally abusive that you won’t have to be extra vigilant in these areas.  You will.

Just know and let it sink in deeply that Christ died for all of the sins of His children.  Even the ones we have perhaps unwittingly  inherited.

It is a high and holy calling to be a husband and father.  We dare not let the blessing of God skip our generation simply because we have bad theology.

I close this month’s Patros Logos with an illustration of   volcanic proportions.

When Pompeii was destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, there were many people buried in the ruins.  Some were found in cellars, as if they had gone there for security.  Some were found in the upper rooms of buildings. 

But where was the Roman sentinel found?  Standing at the city gate where he had been placed by the captain, with his hands still grasping his weapon. 

There, while the earth shook beneath him-there while the floods of ashes and cinders covered him- he had stood at his post.  And there, after a thousand years was this faithful man still found. (1500 Illustrations for Biblical Preaching, 1989.  Editor Michael Green. Baker Books) 

Faithful men are men who know the grace and blessing of God and are always about the business of passing it on to their own families.

Would that God find you and me faithfully at our posts, not as petrified artifacts of an ancient disaster but as God’s mighty men whose hearts are fully devoted to Him.  Press on brothers!