Exodus 20, 1 through 6, for our
beginning text. And God spake all these words,
saying, I am the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the
land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no
other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee
any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in the heaven
above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water
under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself
to them, nor serve them. Pay attention now. 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, and showing mercy unto thousands of them
that love me, and keep my commandment. In the last half of verse 5 again,
I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous God visiting the iniquity of
the fathers upon the children. Now before we get into our message
today, I'd like for us to add a few other texts above and beyond
this one along the same line and expressing the same sentiment. Exodus chapter 34. If you'd like
to flip there, Moses here is called by God in the second verse
to come up into the mount and to bring two tablets and present
thyself unto me in the top of the mount. And in Exodus 34 and
verses 4 through 7, And he hewed two tables of stone,
like unto the first. Moses rose up early in the morning,
went up into Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, and
took in his hand the two tables of stone. And the Lord descended
in the cloud, and stood within there, and proclaimed, the name
of the Lord. And the Lord passed by before
him and proclaimed the Lord, the Lord God merciful and gracious,
long-suffering and abundant in goodness and in truth, keeping
mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgressions and
sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the
iniquity of the fathers upon the children, unto the children's
children, unto the third and the fourth generation. Now again,
in verse 7, is that statement. Visiting the iniquity of the
fathers upon the children. Then we come to Numbers chapter
14 and verse 18. When Israel had feared to go
in and possess the land because of the giant, visiting the iniquity
of the fathers upon the children under the third and fourth generation. And in Numbers 14 and verse 33,
And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years,
and listen to this, and bear your whoredoms. Your children
shall bear your whoredom." Now, obviously, this is because the
people feared to go into the land of Canaan and they provoked
God in their action. I Kings chapter 21 and verse
29 says this, See how Ahab humbles himself before me? And because
he humbled himself before me, I will not bring the evil in
his days, but in his son's days will I bring evil upon his house."
Another place, 2 Samuel 21 and verse 1, where there was a famine
in the land three years in a row and David went to inquire before
God of the manner and of the cause of it. And the Lord told
David this, and I'm quoting, it is for Saul and his bloody
house Another text will come before us during the course of
our study. Texts like Lamentation, chapter
5, and verse 7. Our fathers have sinned and are
not, and we have borne their iniquities. And as I say, many
more will come up in the course of our study. But we begin and
we work off of the text here in Exodus chapter 20, and especially
verse 4 and verse 5, which is a sort of an appendage, if you
will, to the first two commandments. Commandment 1, you shall have
no other gods before me. Commandment number 2, you shall
not make unto you any graven image. In short, they were not
to prostitute themselves to any other gods besides the God of
heaven. They were not to prostitute themselves
to the idols and the gods of the heathen. For as Thomas Watson
said a long time ago, idolatry is spiritual adultery." To worship
an idol is spiritual adultery. He also said they were not to
make or to use or to reverence any visible representation to
put them in mind of the deity. They were not to use anything
made by hand favoring anything God had created to help them
as an aid, even in the worship of the true God, they were not
to use these things." Now there are two statements here that
we want to notice. Don't do it because I am a jealous
God. Obey this, for I, the Lord thy
God, am a jealous God. Don't do it because I, the Lord,
being a jealous God, visit the iniquity of the Father upon the
children unto the third and the fourth generation. Unto coming
generation shall bear the iniquity and reap the judgment of the
sins of the Father." Now let's look at those two propositions. The reason they were not to make
any graven image is the jealousy of God. Well, by His command,
but by the jealousy of God. As in Exodus 34 and verse 14,
Thou shalt worship no other gods, for the Lord thy God is a jealous
God. And Paul describes his jealousy
over the Corinthian church, if you remember, in 2 Corinthians
11 and verse 2. And their deviation aroused in
him feelings of jealousy over the church that he had ministered
to and had brought Christ's message unto them. And the reason, Paul
says, for his godly jealousy was that He wanted to present
them as a chaste virgin unto Christ, pure in doctrine and
pure in their practice, standing on the gospel of Christ only,
not espousing any other Jesus. or any other gospel, or any other
spirit, as he said in that passage of Scripture. Now, in the human
realm, in the human relationship, jealousy, when it arouses, can
be a very powerful and even a very destructive force and even a
motive for murder. Jealousy in the human heart can
even lead unto murder. You'll see that if you read in
Proverbs 6, verse 32 through verse 35, where one man commits
adultery with a man's wife. And Solomon writes this, Jealousy
is the rage of a man. He will not spare in the day
of vengeance. He will not regard it any ransom. He will not be pacified by anything. Neither will he rest content
though you give him many gifts. It will not pacify the jealousy
of a husband. God's jealousy, however, is a
holy jealousy based upon the fact that He alone is God. He not only alone is God, but
He alone dictates how He is to be worshipped. There is none
other that is God. All others are impostors, and
any who acknowledge or reverence or worship any beside Jehovah
are committing spiritual adultery and whoredom. in the little book
of the prophet Habakkuk in chapter 2 and verse 18. What profits
the graven image that the maker has graven, the molden image
and a teacher of lies, that the maker of his work trust therein
to make dumb idols, unquote. An old Puritan from way back,
in fact, born in and 20 and was a prolific writer. An old Puritan
responding to the Roman Church's claims that images are layman's
books to guide them into the mind of God, that images serve
them and aid them in their worship. And the Pope's counsels claim,
quote, that we might learn more by an image than by long study
of the Scripture." Thomas Watson reasoned concerning that. He
said, this is as unreasonable and this is as absurd as for
a wife to say that she keeps company with another man in order
to put her in the mind of her own husband. How foolish and
how silly! And coming ever closer unto our
present subject, set forth in the words of our text, visiting
the iniquity of the fathers upon the children. And from this we
can make a couple of points, ere we go on our way, from the
text that we have read. Number one, the reason for the
visitation is iniquity. Iniquity is the cause of the
visitation. Sin, transgression of the law,
idolatry, the worship of other gods. Sin is the reason why God
visits with judgments, judgments great and judgments small. As one said, it creates all of
our trouble. Sin does. We may trace all of
our trouble, all of our affliction unto sin. It is the cause of
all of our misery. One said it this way, that sin
is the gall in our cup and the gravel in our bread. And when
we find that to be the case, it is usually traceable unto
sin. Now the second point that we
make is that the text here in Exodus chapter 20, One special
sin stands out above others for which God visits judgment, though
this is not the only one or the only sin. And that sin is the
twofold sin of idolatry and using images carved or made by hand
as representing some supposed deity. God is jealous. It is not to be done, not even
as an aid unto worship. Listen, if you will, to Jeremiah
chapter 7 and verse 12. Go ye now unto my place, which
was in Shiloh. where I set my name at the first,
and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel."
Again, that's Jeremiah chapter 7 verse 12. God said, Go, go
to Shiloh. Go see it. Go look what I did
because of the sin of my people. Now, the Jews greatly gloried
in their temple. They greatly gloried in that
all of their existence. And while claiming to serve God,
yet were in open defiance and disobedience against their God. You can look at the larger context
in Jeremiah 7, verse 1. Read all the way through. Very
interesting passage of the Scripture. But let's do like Moses and turn
aside and take a closer, longer, lingering look at Shiloh. Note that in Jeremiah 7 and verse
12, the Lord calls it, My place, My place. Go to Shiloh, My place,
which was Shiloh, and again says in the same verse, where I put
my name at the first. Go to my place in Shiloh where
I put my name. That is, when Israel was come
into the land of Canaan, then the ark of the covenant was there
in Shiloh with a tabernacle for many years. And in Joshua 18,
verse 1, We read that under the leadership
of Joshua, quote, and the whole congregation of the children
of Israel assembled themselves together at Shiloh and set up
the tabernacle of the congregation there, end quote. Joshua 19 and
verse 51. It was in Shiloh before the door
of that very tabernacle that the inheritance of the land was
divided by lot. Thus, even before Jerusalem became
the location of the temple of God, Shiloh was the place where
God put His name, where the Ark of the Covenant dwelt at great
length. Here, as Gil wrote, were the
tabernacle, the Ark, the altar of the Lord. It was where sacrifices
for the sins of the people were made. In other words, it was
that place where God put His typical presence. what we call
the Shekinah glory of the Almighty God. But in spite of the farmer
glory and the honor that God had put upon Shiloh, we read
in Psalm 78, verses 56 through verse 60, especially in verse
57, They dealt unfaithfully like their fathers they turned aside. And in verse 58, they use graven
images. And in verse 60, he forsook the
tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent that he had placed among them. And as a result of their sin
and their idolatry, Then the most holy and the most jealous
God let their armies be routed, their priests were slain, their
ark fell into the hand of the enemy, and the ark of God, that
chest, that covenant, overlaid with gold with a cherubim's on
it, was never again in its place there in Shiloh. Now, there might
be question and objection as to the justice of passing the
sins of the Father upon the children. some might raise a question along
that line. Owens called this the translation
of punishment, whereby the sins of some are punished in others. Is it, therefore, unjust that
God punish the children for the sins of their father? Or punish the citizens for the
sins of the king or of the government, it was sometimes the case that
the children often continued in the sins of their father. And sometimes even worse, at
other times of course it was true, there would come a period
of reformation, would come from God by a good and a godly king. And God would bless the people,
giving them a good king, good laws, and guiding them in a good
way. Now, I don't claim this to be
an argument that has great force to our present case, but it's
just an example. It is often the case that the
diseases and the infirmities of the parent are visited upon
the children and the grandchildren, as from genetics and certain
diseases in children are the result of that. But to repeat,
I do not insist that this is of the same force as spiritual
sins or is in the same class. Though some might too think that
This is unfair that I have this disease because it was common
in my mother, my father's side of the family. But our text here
is very clear, as can be. Visiting the iniquity of the
fathers upon the children. And as we said, this text does
not stand alone upon this subject. We have many good examples of
it being carried out throughout the Scripture. Here's another
quote from one of the most prolific writers of days gone by. That would be the old Puritan
John Owen. He wrote, and I'm quoting, It
is therefore evident that there is no inconsistency with the
nature of divine justice, nor the rules of reason among men,
that in sundry, that is in some cases, the sins of some be punished
in our own others." Hence the sins of the fathers visited upon
the children. Now this might be a valid point
to make. I judge you, you judge the validity
of it when you hear. that under the theocracy, that
is, under the Mosaic institution of Israel in the old covenant,
when the spiritual and the moral law of God was also the law of
the land. Get that? The spiritual and the
moral and the civic laws of God were also the law of the land. And the ceremonial and the civic
laws were directly given to Moses by God and imposed upon the people
as law upon Israel. That this principle was more
strictly applied perhaps then, the sins of one generation brought
trouble upon the generation that was to follow, bearing its bitter
fruit not always fully in the father, but sometimes in the
children. which some say gay pride. to a familiar proverb that was
known in Israel. It went something like this,
The fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children's teeth are
set on edge. You'll see that in Ezekiel chapter
18 and verse 2, Jeremiah 31 and verse 29. That proverb, the fathers
have eaten sour grape and the children's teeth are set on edge. I'll just throw this in for free,
but if you have ever in your life bitten into a green persimmon,
I think maybe you can relate unto this. Except the bitter
wang of it. How bitter the deadness of the
mouth from having bitten into that. The acidity that seems
for a while just to consume you. Not ripe and not sweet at all. Sour grapes, bitter and not ready. Green and bitter. How they draw
the mouth like that green persimmon. Now, we'll meet this proverb
again in our study today. if time permits. But now, let's
make another point that might give us some more light on the
subject concerning the different kinds of, quote, fathers, unquote,
to consider when studying this subject. There are different
kinds of fathers that are referred to in our history. and also in
the sacred scripture. Of course, number one, there
are our fathers after the flesh, as we read in Hebrews chapter
12 and verse 9, meaning our physical, or literally, our biological
fathers, those that fathered us or that begat us. There are
what we might call political fathers, I suppose, such as founded
a nation or governed as some in the early days of our own
country. Those who wrote the Constitution
and the Bill of Rights, we hear the expression sometimes the
city fathers, referring to those bureaucrats who usually spin
the city into bankruptcy. Thirdly, there are some that
might be called spiritual fathers under the people who in time
past guided the churches, were very influential and steady in
guiding the church in the way of God. And I suppose also that
it could mean ancestors. Our fathers are our ancestors. And it seems fair to say that
the text in general is capable of being applied to each of these
kinds of fathers that we have just mentioned. Somewhere there's
a text that is applicable. foolish things which might wreak
havoc on their family and on their children and even destroy
their home. Think about Aitken. in Joshua
chapter 7, whose sin was not only the cause of Israel being
soundly defeated in a battle at Ai, that they thought they
could win with few soldiers while the women were fixing breakfast
that morning. They thought it would be almost
nothing to go. But we read, as a result of Achan's
sin, in Joshua chapter 7, verse 22 through verse 26, his sons,
his daughters, his herds, and his livestock. In fact, in verse
24, it says, all that he had they were stoned to death and
burned with fire. and buried under a heap of stone
or rocks. And the Lord's anger then was
pacified, and the place from which was called the valley of
Achor, that is, a valley of trouble. So consider Achan, his sin, and
his family. Now under the theocracy, back
when Israel was a theocracy, it was seen that the political
and the spiritual father were very closely related or allied. That under them we sometimes
hear, under what we sometimes hear called the gospel dispensation,
For the law of God was also the law of the land and the law of
the people under that theocracy. So that both the king and the
priest were bound by the law of God and either could lead
the people astray and sometime bring judgment upon the whole
nation. For an example of that, see the
sin of Solomon described in 1 Kings chapter 11, verses 1 through
13. From what Nehemiah 13 and verse
26 says are called outlandish women, for outlandish women did
cause Solomon to sin. Many of the kings of Israel led
them into sin by tolerating heathen gods to be set up among them,
by building and worshiping in the groves as the heathen, prostituting
the temple of God while they claimed to serve God at their
booths and their prostitute right outside of the temple. Now, as
for the transfer of sin from the one committing it upon the
one not committing it, it is the decree of God that the sins
of some shall pass upon and be endured by others. And there are two great examples
of this in the Scripture, which as Owen said, and I'm quoting,
this translation of punishment by divine dispensation is the
foundation of the Christian religion, end quote. The first great example
is our first father, Adam. Our first father, Adam, whose
sin has passed upon all of his children. They suffered the penal
consequences of Adam's sin in that death had passed upon or
through all. Romans 5, verse 12 through verse
19 is clear. And verse 14 even said, Even
over them that have not sinned, after the similitude of Adam's
transgression. Adam sinned against a clearly
revealed law. The penalty, which was death,
has passed upon all. Death on account of Adam's sin
reigns over all. and none are exempt except by
a special dispensation of God, such as Enoch and Elijah. Now, the second great example
of the transfer of the sins of one unto another is Christ's
suffering for the sins of His people. He that knew no sin was
made sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians
5, 19 through verse 21. So we might remind those who
object to the transfer of the sin of one unto others, that
if sin cannot be reckoned from one to another, then neither
can righteousness be reckoned from one to another. And these
two things are the essence of the gospel, that our sins are
reckoned to Christ and the righteousness of Christ is reckoned unto us. But then, let's be more specific. Let's consider some examples
from the Scripture where the sin or the sins of some or one
were inflicted on others whose consequences they endured. In other words, the sins of the
fathers were visited upon the children after Adam One of the
first great cases we read about is in Genesis chapter 9 and verse
18 through 27. where in that passage of Scripture,
Canaan, the son of Ham, was cursed for the sin of his father. Cursed be Canaan. Noah pronounced it in verse 25.
Cursed be Canaan. A servant of servants shall he
be unto his brethren. A slave of slaves. What was the sin of Ham? If you read there in Genesis
chapter 9, the sin of Ham was uncovering the nakedness of his
father Noah who lay drunk in his tent. There is another one
in 2 Samuel 21 verse 9. And verse 14, Saul's sons were
slain for their father Saul's shedding of blood. Because he
was a bloody man, his sons were shed, we're told in that passage
of Scripture. In 2 Kings chapter 21, Manasseh
caused Israel to sin and Judah to be with idol. There was a
time, 2 Samuel 24, 15 through verse 17, when an avenging
angel from God Almighty slew 70,000 on account of a sin of
David, when David, you remember, numbered the people and it was
reckoned a sin. We read David's intercessional
confession in verse 17. He said, Lo, I have sinned, I
have done wickedly, but these sheep, meaning the people, what
have they done? Let thy hand, I pray thee, be
against me and against my father's house." That's the prayer of
David when God came in awful judgment. As mentioned earlier,
Ahab's sin was punished in his son's days, not in his. I Kings 21, 29. But one of the
clearer examples of this principle is to be seen in God's dealings
with King David after his sin with Bathsheba. Whether or not
you want to turn is your discretion. But in 2 Corinthians, I'm sorry,
2 Samuel chapter 12 and verse 10 through verse 14. I want to
turn to that passage of the Scripture and read that for our consideration. 2 Samuel chapter 12 and verse
10 through verse 14. Here is the prophet's pronouncement
of David's punishment. Verse 10, Now therefore, the
sword shall never depart from thine house, because thou hast
despised me, hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy
wife. 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 own eyes, giving them unto
thy neighbor, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of
the sun. For you did it secretly, but
I will do this thing before all Israel and before the sun." And
David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said to David, The
Lord hath also put away thy sin, thou shalt not die. Howbeit,
because by this great deed thou hast given great occasion to
the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also that is born unto
thee shall die." There's David's punishment. Isn't it a sovereign
work of God that the guilty David is allowed to live? And his punishment
is visited upon his house, his wife, and upon his children. And when we look at David, oh,
what trouble came upon David's family on account of his sin. The sword shall never depart. As before, it was told David,
the mercy of God would never depart from his house." 2 Samuel
7 and verse 15. But now it's the sword that shall
never depart from his house. Matthew Henry wrote this. I got
it out of his commentary. His children, Amnon, Absalom,
and Adonijah shall die by the sword. And they did. Three of the sons
of David died by the sword. Evil would rise up against him
out of his own house, his wives taken and publicly debauched
before all of the people. Yet, David is spared. Let's jump to 2 Chronicles then
and chapter 25. There's an interesting passage
here that we might read. 2 Chronicles it is, chapter 25,
verse 3 and verse 4. Now it came to pass when the
kingdom was established to him that he slew his servants that
had killed the king, his father. But he slew not the children,
but did it as written in the law of the book of Moses, where
the Lord commanded, saying, The father shall not die for the
children, neither shall the children die for the father, but every
man die for his very own sins. Now we're coming to another aspect
of the question, and that is, what about this question? First
it is said, the children shall be visited with the sins of the
father. Then God says through the prophet
Ezekiel chapter 18, 1 through 4. If we want to turn there,
don't use this proverb anymore, he said. This proverb is not
true anymore. Don't be using it. Don't be putting
it into your mouth. Don't be quoting that proverb
any longer among yourself or among the people. Ezekiel chapter
18, and I would like to read for our consideration verses
1 through 4. The word of the Lord came unto
me again, saying, 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? As I live, saith
the Lord God, Ye shall not have occasion any more to use this
proverb in Israel. Behold, all souls are mine, as
the soul of the Father, so also the soul of the Son, the soul
that sinneth, it shall die." Down in verse 19 through verse
21, Yet, you say, why did 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, done them,
He shall surely live. 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. Now, they combine together these
sayings, and they use them as an excuse for their sin. But what does God do? He lays
the blame squarely at the feet of the individual sinner. In other words, they may have
been punished for it, but no one is damned for the sin of
their father or of another. just as none are eternally saved
for the goodness or the righteousness of their father or of their parents. But we do see, I think, in our
time, how many a womanizing husband or father has raised a womanizing
son. How many drunken fathers have
raised also a drunken son who walked in their way. And we read
in the Scripture, like mother, like daughter, as God charged
that upon Israel. So we need to be careful Because
we are examples unto others. We are examples unto our families
and unto our children and unto our grandchildren. And we ought
to be careful. Walk circumspectly before them,
keeping the ordinances of God that they learn not by ill behavior
their own way of seeing. And then I would just mention
in closing a couple of minutes How about our own nation? Could we make the application
that the present generation is bearing the sin of our earlier
fathers? I think that in a way that certainly
is true. And it was true in Israel that
the children bore the sin of the father. When the fathers
went astray, brought in idols and idolatry. Judgment often
came upon the people. You remember last week that they
didn't get to go into the land of Canaan, but they wandered
forty years because their fathers were unbelieving at Kadesh Barnea? So, we need to be careful how
we live our lives, living them in the fear of God And some people
say, well, I just don't care what anybody thinks about what
I do or the way I live. Well, you should, because you're
setting an example for others. The sins of the fathers may be
visited upon the children by God's great or by God's sovereign
design.