God Visiting Iniquity on Children
“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;” (Exo 20:5)
It sounds like God, in such cases, would be exacting extreme revenge – not just punishing the offender but also their children and their grandchildren and their great grandchildren etc.
Does God do that? If you had something bad happen to you this week was it God punishing you for something your great grandfather did? No. Scripture tells us clearly that God does not actively punish the children for the sins of the parents.
“The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers: every man shall be put to death for his own sin.” (Deut 24:6)
“But the children of the murderers he slew not: according unto that which is written in the book of the law of Moses, wherein the LORD commanded, saying, The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, nor the children be put to death for the fathers; but every man shall be put to death for his own sin.” (2 Kings 14:6)
So what is going on here? The warning in the second commandment sounds like God will impose a degree of punishment on children for the sins of their fathers but this is in direct contradiction to the verses above as well the same principle that is laid out in detail in Ezekiel chapter 18.
The key to understanding this is that “the visiting the iniquity” is describing a natural consequence, which God allows to occur or does not intervene to prevent rather than an active punishment from God. There is now considerable scientific evidence of this. For example, there are natural and devastating consequences for multiple generations of the children of an alcoholic who comes home and beats his children every night.
There is a good explanation of this in a commentary:
“Visiting the iniquity. This seeming threat has disturbed the minds of some who see in it the manifestation of a vengeful spirit. A distinction should be made however, between the natural results of a sinful course of action, and punishment inflicted because of it … God does not penalize one individual for the wrong deeds of another (Eze. 18:2-24). Each man stands before God, responsible only for his own acts. At the same time God does not interfere with the laws of heredity in such a way as to protect one generation from the misdeeds of its fathers, as that would be inconsistent with His character and His principles of dealing with men. It is only through the laws of heredity, which were of course ordained by the Creator in the beginning (See Gen. 1:21, 24, 25), that divine justice visits the ‘iniquity’ of one generation upon the next.” (SDA BC vol. 1, p603, comment on Exodus 20:5)
God does “punish” to the fourth generation only in the sense that He allows natural consequences to occur. This is consistent with the intended meaning in other cases where God is said to punish when, in fact, He is merely allowing the consequences of sin to run their natural course.
This is another example of God saying that He did or will do something when He is merely allowing it to happen.
See more examples of “God taking the blame.“
December 7, 2016 @ 11:07 pm
I do, to some extent, agree with your point here. Although I do not agree with your interpretation of the phrase. I do not have the time to thoroughly expand on this point, but I will give you enough for you to ponder the character of the God we are talking about.
Genesis 3:8 – God is walking in the garden, Adam and Eve hide. The one time in history when God should have been furious (and rightly so!) about the sin of a human. How does God respond to them?
Genesis 3:9 – God asks “where are you?” Is God unaware of where they are? Is God asking this question so that they will reveal themselves to him because he is having a hard time finding them?
So why did God ask this question? Why was God’s first response to their sin the question “where are you?”
The word “visit”, in Hebrew, has the same positive and negative connotation as the English word does. Example 1: If your friend takes your brand new car for a joy ride and crashes it, you might “pay him a visit”. Example 2: if your friend has been in a car crash and is in the hospital on life support, you might “pay him a visit”. The first is a negative example, the second positive.
If we take the text as it is written “visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children” (NASB), then we must ask who is visiting. What is that person visiting? And in this case, who is that person visiting that thing upon?
God is visiting the impact of the parents gross injustice/wicked act (“Iniquity” – https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/iniquity) which has affected the children. Lets say it this way; God sees that the children, because of the affects of the parents choices, are now in the hospital trying to recover from this disease imposed upon them. God is sitting next to their bed, holding their hand, trying everything he can to be able get them healthy again.
Back to Genesis 3:8-9 why does God ask them “Where are you?” I believe God is trying to say “I can see that you are hiding; I can see that you have sinned; and I can see that you are helpless without me. Will you call out to me and draw me near because I can fix the problems sin has created?”
I agree that the children are affected by their parents choices, but I do not agree that “God does ‘punish’ to the fourth generation only in the sense that He allows natural consequences to occur.” In saying “He allows” there is an implication that he is ok with it, he condones it, he could stop it but chooses not to.
God is drawing close to everyone (we are all affected by the choices of our parents) and calling out to them asking if they will allow him to fix it. He can fix it.
May 16, 2021 @ 5:56 pm
I like that Mike. Really good thoughts. Thank you for not just having a different point of view but also sharing. Such conversation amongst the brethren results in iron sharpening iron and allows greater riches to be discovered. I so wish people would not get stuck in the place of disagreement and defensiveness but allow the ” relational” dynamic that God created us to experience, result in something greater than can be discovered by the two than the one! I love the opportunity that conflict brings if we embrace it as something that can result in a greater discovery or creation.
November 22, 2021 @ 2:52 am
So….just read the above article and response…and as I’ve been studying myself …. there is the reality that God seems to hand people over to their own desires as He doesn’t force people to see things through His Truth….
Where I have landed is that yes…we all have certain things that we just won’t know… like how many scales were on the snake that Moses’s staff got thrown down to and made a new creation…and if the number of scales were equal to the number of rings on the tree it came from…. pointless rabbit trails to distract from the overall message.
And while we also don’t like to hear that the Bible is complicated and written by man’s hands and we shouldn’t trust it and it is full of contradictions…is this just the gossip being promoted and spread more than the Gospel?
We all seem to have our own opinions and where Jesus prayed for His disciples to be on the same page with Him as He is with His Father… that’s pretty intimate! The very nature of God in flesh. Not doing what He (Son) wanted …but to do His Father’s will. Yet also was prophecied to be called the Everlasting Father and Prince of peace… why do we as followers find it so easy to just “agree to disagree”? For the sake of maintaining peace?
I can see where Jesus wanted to protect the children as a hen does (this does NOT mean that Jesus self identified as poultry of the opposite sex) but as a protecting nurturing provider….but the people weren’t willing to let Him… which goes to the side of free will…that often has us bound to leaning on our own understanding…where Jesus promised us the Holy Spirit (when we are born again) to guide us in all truth.
I see the visiting of the iniquity of the sins as both a place where generations of sin can be discussed between the Savior and sinner and there is an opportunity to have the slate washed clean and break the cycle…and yet the child of the sinner prior that passed down has their own responsibility to repent if so desired by the parent….the child is not gonna be punished in place of the parent for the parents sin…but for their own (that was taught or caught).
I pray that all the denominations that seem to have their own set of bread crumbs they put down to in essence say. “Come along little ducklings” “follow us as we follow Christ” can seemingly make their own version of Who God is “to them”.
I may just be venting to others that are like minded…yet does God want us to be like minded with people that are in their safe spaces and holy huddle groups…while tip toes on thin ice over hot water as to not offend?
I may be all over the place with my thoughts…for that I’m guilty and still in my holy boot camp called sanctification. I do pray for unity and not just for unity sake. The tower of Babel represents people that were all on the same page and yet not following God…
Jesus was never afraid to speak truth and gave us not a spirit of fear..but of power. The power to forgive others as we have been forgiven in Him… forgiveness is huge and necessary for redemption.
It bothers me that “love” has been hijacked by the culture and redefined to affirm people in their sins…and the watered down gospel becomes a contradictory thing when people are basing their ministry on feelings…
Not wanting to “push people away”…yet we see that the Bible says the preaching of the cross is foolishness to those that are perishing… God’s desire is that none should perish…and yet the path to destruction is wide and narrow is the path to life (through the One door Jesus)
I’m glad to see others that study as well and I pray that we don’t lose sight of Jesus through theological rabbit trails.
Another place I seem to differ from a large group that see things differently is eternal conscious torment…. I don’t believe that God will punish beyond the crimes offense. Why subject a sinner who is here for a vapor to an eternity of never-ending torment?? Why are we trying to scare people out of hell and yet call God merciful and just? Hell is the default and we all would go there if it weren’t for the sacrifice of Jesus in our place…but He doesn’t go to the cross guilty of idolatry (loving the creation more than the Creator) but there is a necessary Way to restore and that tree(cross) was the vehicle that the Father chose and Jesus was willing even unto death to trust and obey…
Just a few more things to add to the discussion…
April 20, 2024 @ 9:43 pm
God always has the same attitude at all times towards sin and that is to remove it, redeem it, deliver a person from it and restore that person to wholeness. Therefore, any visiting that He does is with the view to remove sin from a bloodline and if this is His ultimate goal then if punishment brings that about more quickly – in other words that person finds out that God is not condoning the sins of the forefathers but rather hates sin and its life-destroying power – then a punishing visitation is a good thing.
At some point in time, a person must, in the midst of all of their life’s pursuits, take account of any and every sin in their family line because that is what is negatively affecting their life more than anything else.
April 21, 2024 @ 9:15 am
Hi Bradley
Thanks for your comment. I would just clarify a little by pointing out the Biblical meaning of how God punishes – https://characterofgod.org/punishment-definition/