How Do You Stamp Out the Fire?

Sunday I preached a sermon on Genesis 3 which I entitled “The First Lie.” It concentrated on the Serpent’s communication strategy with Eve (using Adam as a passive partner in his plan). I began with a quotation from the Charlie Daniels Band and ended with a quote from C. S. Lewis.

I don’t know how many of you have read The Silver Chair. That story involved two children sent on a mission in a magical world to rescue a missing prince. In this world (or the fictional version of it), the boy and the girl were basically trapped in a progressive school called “Experiment House,” where they were propagandized and bullied.

“Visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children.” Part 3

A continuation of Part One and Part Two…

You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for 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, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
Exodus 20:4–6 ESV

This passage in the ESV is misleading. The word “generation” is nowhere in the text. All it says if that God visits “the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth of those who hate me…” Third and fourth what? The context of fathers and sons implies it is talking about generations. So the ESV puts the word in there. That is appropriate. But what about the “thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.” Suddenly, the context drops away in the ESV. Thousands of what?

Thousands of generations of those who love God and keep his commands. We see this explicitly in the Hebrew in Deuteronomy:

Ezekiel’s Proverb & Hereditary Guilt, Part 2

The word of the LORD came to me: “What do you mean by repeating this proverb concerning the land of Israel, ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge’? As I live, declares the Lord GOD, this proverb shall no more be used by you in Israel.
Ezekiel 18:1–3 ESV

Was this proverb repeated in Israel ever good theology?

I ask this because, when I was taking a Bible course at a Christian college, it was suggested that this was a declaration of a new way of God dealing with humanity. At some point before his message to Ezekiel, it was metaphorically accurate to say, “The fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children’s teeth are set on edge,” but not anymore.

But if you believe the Bible is reliable as God’s word, then you can’t make Deuteronomy later than Ezekiel. Moses clearly prohibited punishing the sons for the sins of the father. There is nothing new in what God says here.

Then why did God address the issue?

Hereditary Guilt & the Bible, Part 1

So this has become a topic among Evangelicals (though, to be honest, I’m not sure that term is meaningful any more). I thought I should address it.

The Bible teaches that the sin of our first father condemned the entire human race. That is why the Bible can be interpreted of teaching some form of “hereditary guilt.” So I need to comment on what the Bible says about that. I plan to do so in these posts.

When Proverbs 17:22 says that “A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones” it’s not simply describing two states that people find themselves in. “Medicine” is an intervention you bring into someone’s life to end sickness and encourage health. Solomon is encouraging you to pursue a joyful heart and experience blessings from it rather than cultivate a crushed spirit and suffer the problems that it brings. A parallel text is Proverbs 14:30, “A tranquil heart gives life to the flesh, but envy makes the bones rot.” The point is to not nurture a crushed spirit, but to do something about it that demonstrates your faith in Jesus.

Solomon Says