THE LIVES OF THE PATRIARCHS #145 | THE LIFE OF MOSES #126
Pastor Christopher Choo
Lesson 3830
THE LIFE OF MOSES #126
MOSES AT MT. SINAI #25
THE TRANSFORMING GLORY OF GOD #9
NOW SHOW ME YOUR GLORY ( PART 4)
CURSE OF GENERATIONAL SIN
1. THE CURSE IS UPON THOSE WHO COMMIT THE SAME SINS AS THEIR FATHERS
This is such a hotly disputed topic that I must qualify from the outset that it is my personal view.
Let us read the context of the words first before we begin our study.
The Bible mentions “generational curses” in several places ( Exodus 20:5; 34:7; Numbers 14:18; Deuteronomy 5:9).
God warns that He is “a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me ”
It sounds unfair for God to punish children for the sins of their fathers.
However, there is more to it than that. The effects of sin are naturally passed down from one generation to the next. When a father has a sinful lifestyle, his children are likely to practice the same sinful lifestyle.
Implied in the warning of Exodus 20:5 is the fact that the children will choose to repeat the sins of their fathers.
A Jewish Targum specifies that this passage refers to “ungodly fathers” and “rebellious children.” So, it is not unjust for God to punish sin to the third or fourth generation – those generations are committing the same sins their ancestors did.
There is a trend in the church today to try to blame every sin and problem on some sort of generational curse.
This is not biblical. God’s warning to visit iniquity on future generations is part of the Old Testament Law.
A generational curse was a consequence for a specific nation (Israel) for a specific sin (idolatry). The history books of the Old Testament (especially Judges) contain the record of this divine punishment meted out.
The cure for a generational curse has always been repentance. When Israel turned from idols to serve the living God, the “curse” was broken and God saved them (Judges 3:9, 15; 1 Samuel 12:10-11). Yes, God promised to visit Israel’s sin upon the third and fourth generations, but in the very next verse He promised that He would show “love to a thousand [generations] of those who love me and keep my commandments” (Exodus 20:6). In other words, God’s grace lasts a thousand times longer than His wrath.
For someone worried about a generational curse, the answer is salvation through Jesus Christ. A Christian is a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). How can a child of God still be under God’s curse (Romans 8:1)? The cure for a “generational curse” is repentance of the sin in question, faith in Christ, and a life consecrated to the Lord (Romans 12:1-2).
2. THE CURSE IS UPON THOSE WHO HATE GOD.
Let us read Exodus 20:5 again.
Exodus 20:5: “I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate Me.”
In other words, the hatred of God is the embodiment of what the father’s problem was.
Those who experience the penalty of the father’s sins are those who hate God, according to that verse.
We are not told how the father’s sins become the children’s sins. That is a mysterious thing left in God’s mind. But they do.
What we are told is that when father’s sins are visited on the children it is because the children have become sinners like the fathers. The father’s sins are the children’s sins.
So no innocent child has ever been punished for a father’s sins; only guilty children are punished and are guilty of the very sins that their fathers sinned.
That is the second observation.
Conclusion
1. When it comes to generational curses, Christians should lay hold on Galatians 3:13: “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us — for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.’”
Christ has paid every debt and broken every curse.
The key is to believe that and act on it. The blood of Christ covers all curses.
2. So nobody is trapped in anybody’s sin — their own or someone else’s — because of the cross.
3. We are free from any kind of curse, from God’s law, or from any voodoo, any hex or any black magic because Christ bore every curse for us.
