I don’t know about you, but the last thing I want to do is be on the bad side of the Creator of the Universe.
There’s literally nowhere you can hide, nowhere you can go to avoid His piercing gaze. Moreover, He understands everything you did; explaining away your actions is impossible.
I’m sure nobody in Israel thought of themselves as someone who “hated” God, and they probably didn’t hate God—at least any more than people today do.
But there’s a difference between loving God fully and loving God “kinda.” One is exclusive, whereas the other is split up between others.
For instance, if I tell my wife that I love her, that’s loving her fully. But if I tell her and someone else that I love them, that’s only loving her “kinda.” I’m splitting my devotion between her and someone else, so even if my actions aren’t malicious and hateful, they still tarnish what should be an exclusive relationship.
God deals with those types of people in very specific terms. If someone says that they love God and yet also love other gods, that’s a slap in His face. They “hate” Him, and, in response, God says that He will “visit that iniquity” for three or four generations down the line.
I’ll be honest: For the longest time, I had no idea what that phrase meant. I assumed it just meant that God made sure a family felt the effects of their sin so that later generations would be careful to follow God.
A little digging revealed the real idea behind this phrase.
For people then and now, if we’re lucky, we’ll get to see three or four generations down the line, which includes grandkids (three generations) and great-grandkids (four generations). That’s a full life.
When God says that He will visit those iniquities to multiple generations, what He means is that someone could very well view the effects of their disobedience for the rest of their life.
We saw this play out with David. His sin with Bathsheba meant “the sword would never depart from his house” (2 Samuel 12:10). Sure enough, that’s what happened. David dealt with the aftershocks for decades to come.
On the other hand, it shows a special kind of charity to others. God told King Josiah that He would delay the punishment of Judah until after Josiah died, so that he wouldn’t see it in his lifetime (2 Chronicles 34:28).
Someone may argue that all of this is unjust of God, but we see in Scripture that while God’s people were punished as a whole, individuals can be saved.
In talking about the destruction of Judah, Ezekiel 14:14 says that even if Noah, Daniel, and Job were in Judah, “they could only save themselves.” The nation would be destroyed, but they would be saved.
In saying that, God reveals that there’s a difference between physical punishment and spiritual punishment. I may feel the physical effects of my grandparent’s terrible choices (inheritance lost through gambling, abusive and alcoholic father, or something else), but that doesn’t mean that I’m held spiritually liable for those things.
As Ezekiel 18:4 says, “The soul that sins shall die.”
This statement by God in Deuteronomy 5:9 is not meant as a threat to grandchildren but as a deterrent to the grandparent. Unless you want to see your children suffer as a result of your sins, make sure you follow God’s Word.
You may be the one that commits adultery and has a child with someone who is not your spouse, but it’ll be your grandkids that deal with the ramifications of that extended family after you’re gone.
Think about how your actions affect the ones you love the most. Use it as extra fuel to stay true to God’s Word.