Does God Punish Children For The Sins Of Their Fathers?

Introduction 

God declares to Ezekiel that he does not punish the fathers for their children’s sins, and does not punish the children for their fathers’ sins. Yet when we go through the bible, we encounter many scriptures where God himself seems to be punishing people for the sins of their fathers.

Is this a contradiction within God, or are we misunderstanding his ways?

There are two main principles that we shall look at

1. The Principle of Agreement
2. The Punishment of Sin vs the Consequence of Sin.

We shall then look at the verses that seem to contradict what God says to Ezekiel, and we shall see that they don’t contradict but actually affirm the principle that God punishes every man for their own wickedness. God does not punish the righteous along with the wicked.

 God the Just Judge 

Before getting into our subject, I thought it best to talk about God’s justice. God is a just judge, and as a just judge, it means he will not punish the innocent and he will not let the guilty go unpunished. That is the basic meaning of justice.

We see this in a conversation between Abraham and God just before the judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Abraham declares:

 Genesis 18:25 (ESV) 

 25 Far be it from you to do such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?” 

And God responds:

 Genesis 18:32 (ESV) 

 ” 32 Then he said, “Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak again but this once. Suppose ten are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of ten I will not destroy it.” 

God was willing to save the two cities, for the sake of ten people. He could not find ten. But still,  he did not destroy the cities until he had allowed Lot and his family, who were the only righteous people, to leave the city.

God does not punish the innocent together with the wicked.

 What Happened in the Time of Ezekiel? 

In the time of Ezekiel, the nation of Israel was now under bondage in the Babylonian exile. They came to a conclusion that God was punishing them for their fathers’ sins.

Let’s read.

 Ezekiel 18:1-4 (NIV) 

 1 The word of the LORD came to me: 2 “What do you people mean by quoting this proverb about the land of Israel: “‘The parents eat sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge’? 

 3 “As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, you will no longer quote this proverb in Israel. 4 For everyone belongs to me, the parent as well as the child—both alike belong to me. The one who sins is the one who will die. 

Ezekiel prophesied from Babylon, from among the exiles. God had promised for several generations that he was going to punish Israel. So, why did the nation of Israel come up with this proverb? It came from their reading of the following writings of Moses.

 Exodus 34:6-7 (NIV) 

 6 And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, 

 7 maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.” 

You can see that the Israelites felt justified in saying that their fathers had sinned, yet they were the ones being punished by God.

A few decades before this, Jeremiah even quoted this, during his prayer to God.

 Jeremiah 32:18 (NKJV) 

 18 You show loving kindness to thousands, and repay the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them—the Great, the Mighty God, whose name is the LORD of hosts. 

However, years later, during the exile, God swears by his own life, and declares that he never wants to hear that ‘sour grapes’ proverb again, because he does not punish a righteous child for the wickedness of his Father.

 Ezekiel 18:3-4 (NKJV) 

 3 “As I live,” says the Lord GOD, “you shall no longer use this proverb in Israel. 

 4 “Behold, all souls are Mine; The soul of the father As well as the soul of the son is Mine; The soul who sins shall die. 

 19 “Yet you say, ‘Why should the son not bear the guilt of the father?’ Because the son has done what is lawful and right, and has kept all My statutes and observed them, he shall surely live.  

 20 The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself. 

So, is God changing his mind, or is he contradicting what he declared to Moses? Not at all. God is saying to Ezekiel what he had always said, what has always been true concerning his judgment. He is saying the very same thing that Abraham knew about God as the just judge of the earth.

We need to understand the principle of agreement, and the consequence vs punishment of sin, in order to grasp how these scriptures harmonize.

 The Principle of Agreement 

If you practice, agree with, and approve of another person’s actions, then you will receive the same judgment as that person.

 Romans 1:32 (ESV)  

 32 Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them. 

The principle of agreement, works both for the positive and the negative.

If your father was a rapist, and you approve and agree with his wicked actions, then the same judgment that was upon him, will come upon you. Because in your heart, you are also a rapist.

But if your father was a rapist, and you despise his actions and reject them, then you will receive the reward of righteousness. You will in no way have the punishment of a rapist upon you.

If your father was a righteous man, and you agree with and approve of his righteous works, then the same blessing that was upon him, will be upon you. It’s the principle of agreement at work.

This is what God is explaining to Ezekiel. If you do the works of your father, you will receive the reward of your father.

Let’s start with Moses.

When God revealed his glory to Moses, he explained clearly under what circumstances the sins of the fathers would be visited upon the children.

 Exodus 20:5-6 (ESV) 

 5 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,  6 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. 

Take note, that the judgment of God is visited on the generation of children that HATE GOD. Because the children are as evil as their fathers, they receive the same judgment that was pronounced on their fathers. The reason is given in Exodus 34. God will not clear the guilty. But take note that he explains that he will show his love to those who love him and keep His commandments.

So, the children who hate God receive the judgment of their sinful fathers, and the children who love God will experience the love of God.

Moses even prophesied concerning the Babylonian exile, and what you will note is that God explained clearly that each generation had a responsibility to repent of their own sins and come to God. God’s judgment is only carried over to the next generation, if that next generation refuses to come to God, but continues in the sins of their fathers.

Let’s hear him.

 Leviticus 26:14-17 (NKJV)  

 14 ‘But if you do not obey Me, and do not observe all these commandments, 15 and if you despise My statutes, or if your soul abhors My judgments, so that you do not perform all My commandments, but break My covenant, 

 16 I also will do this to you: 

 I will even appoint terror over you, wasting disease and fever which shall consume the eyes and cause sorrow of heart. And you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. 

 17 I will set My face against you, and you shall be defeated by your enemies.

Those who hate you shall reign over you, and you shall flee when no one pursues you. 

This is the generation that disobeys and goes into exile. God continues in relation to the next generation.

 Leviticus 26:18 (NKJV) 

 18 ‘And after all this, if you do not obey Me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins. 

God continues to the second generation

 Leviticus 26:21 (NKJV)  

 21 ‘Then, if you walk contrary to Me, and are not willing to obey Me, I will bring on you seven times more plagues, according to your sins. 

And the third generation

 Leviticus 26:27-28 (NKJV) 

 27 ‘And after all this, if you do not obey Me, but walk contrary to Me, 28 then I also will walk contrary to you in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins. 

Now look at the generation that does not continue to walk according to the sins of their Fathers.

 Leviticus 26:40-42 (NKJV) 

 40  ‘But if they confess their iniquity  and the iniquity of their fathers, with their unfaithfulness in which they were unfaithful to Me,  and that they also have walked contrary to Me,  

 41 and that I also have walked contrary to them and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if their uncircumcised hearts are humbled, and they accept their guilt— 

 42 then I will remember My covenant with Jacob, and My covenant with Isaac and My covenant with Abraham I will remember; I will remember the land. 

Take note that they have to confess their own iniquity, and that THEY ALSO have walked contrary to God. If they stop walking according to the wicked ways of their fathers which they continued to walk in, God will heal their land.

God was reminding the exiles that they were not there because of their fathers’ iniquity, but because they themselves were unrighteous just like their fathers. They needed to repent and come to God. It was they who had an issue to repent of.

 Ezekiel 18:30-31 (NKJV)  

 30 “Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways,” says the Lord GOD. “Repent, and turn from all your transgressions, so that iniquity will not be your ruin. 31 Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. For why should you die, O house of Israel? 

Jesus explains this same concept to the Israelites of His generation. Because they were walking in the same sins of their fathers, the same judgment given to their fathers would come upon them.

 Matthew 23:29-36 (NKJV) 

 29 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, 30 and say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.’ 

 31 “Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. 32  Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers’ guilt.  

 33 Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell? 34 Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, 

 35 that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. 36 Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. 

When Jesus says, fill up the measure of your fathers guilt, he means that the people of His generation, will bring the completion or the peak of the iniquity that had been started generations before. Their fathers had killed the prophets, and now this generation was going to kill the Christ himself and His Apostles, thereby bringing the highest level of that iniquity. As a result the full judgment would come upon them.

It’s the same principle of agreement. Those of Christ’s generation who approved and did the same wicked works as the fathers would receive the same judgment as the fathers, because they partake of the same guilt.

However, this judgment would not be upon those who are righteous, the followers of Christ. Those who are righteous like the righteous fathers: Abraham and Noah and the like, will received the blessing of Abraham. 

If you practice the same works as your fathers, then you will receive the same judgment that as your fathers. But it’s your own sins that bring forth the judgment upon you. 

God will not punish the righteous, for the sins of the wicked. He is just.

 Punishment of Sin vs Consequence of Sin 

There is a difference between punishment of sin and consequence of sin. Let me give an example: Let’s say your parents tell you not to climb trees. If you climb a tree, they will punish you by taking away your phone for a month.

However, you go to climb the tree anyway, and then you fall and break your leg. The broken leg is not a punishment, it’s simply a consequence of your actions. Your parents will come and take you to the hospital and you will heal. Then afterwards they can choose whether to punish you or if the consequence was enough for you to learn the lesson.

Let me give another example.

Sex outside of marriage is a sin. Let’s say your teenage son goes and sleeps with a girl, then the girl get’s pregnant, and it also turns out that she is also HIV positive.

The unexpected, unwanted pregnancy, and the HIV are not a punishment from God for this sin. It’s simply the consequence of two teenagers sleeping having unprotected sex.

So even if God forgives your sin, you still have to face the consequence of your sins. If you steal money from the Mafia, you may ask God for forgiveness, and he will forgive you, but after God has forgiven you, the Mafia may still come and kill you. The Mafia killing you in revenge is not God’s punishment, but simply consequences of your actions.

 ADAMS SIN 

Genesis 2:16-17 (ESV) 

 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” 

I want you to take note of God’s words. God did not say, if you eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, I WILL KILL YOU. No. He said, in the day that you eat of it, YOU WILL DIE.

Death for Adam was not a punishment from God, Death was a consequence of eating of the tree of knowledge of Good and evil.

 Practical Example 

It’s like when you have a garden that you tend with your son. And you want to stop snakes and other pests from entering your garden. So you put poisonous plants at the edge of the garden, and you teach your son saying, you can eat everything in the garden, but don’t eat those plants at the edge, they are poisonous, and the day you eat them, you will get sick and die.

Someone, then comes and says to your son, ‘No, you will not die, in fact by eating those plants at the edge you will become bigger and stronger.” Your son then eats those plants, get’s sick and dies.

Will people say, you punished your son by killing him for breaking your rules. NO.

Your rules were designed to protect your son from dangerous and harmful things. When he disobeyed, he was killed by those things which he did.

It is the same with God. God gives us rules to protect our souls from those things that cause spiritual and physical harm. When we disobey, we suffer the  consequences of our actions both physically and spiritually.

The tree of knowledge of good and evil, had effects and consequences on Adam’s body and Adam’s Spirit. 

God’s punishment for Adam was:

1. Chasing him out of the garden
2. Cursing the ground for his sake.

By this time, Adam was now already spiritually dead. 

 Spiritual Consequences of Sin 

Our actions do not only have physical consequences, they also have spiritual consequences. Those consequences are not a punishment, but simply a result of our actions.

 Bible Example 

When David slept with Bathsheba, and killed Uriah, he asked God for forgiveness, and God forgave him. So David will go to heaven. However, his sin, opened a spiritual door of attack to his nation and to his family.

Let’s read:

2 Samuel 12:9-13 (NIV) 

9 Why did you despise the word of the LORD by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. 10 Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.’

11 “This is what the LORD says: ‘Out of your own household I am going to bring calamity on you. Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to one who is close to you, and he will sleep with your wives in broad daylight. 12 You did it in secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all Israel.’”

13 Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.”

Nathan replied,  “The LORD has taken away your sin. You are not going to die. 

Take note that God forgave David when he confessed his sin. But the spiritual consequences of his sin remained. There are spiritual laws and spiritual consequences for our actions.

Though God had forgiven David, yet David’s actions had already opened a spiritual door for calamity, that would affect both David and his sons. 

There are certain abominations and sins, which when committed will make the land upon which they have been committed unclean, and the land itself will vomit out the inhabitants. It’s a spiritual consequence for certain sins that God calls abominations. There are sins against the Land.

Leviticus 18:21-23 (ESV) 

 21 You shall not give any of your children to offer them to Molech, and so profane the name of your God: I am the LORD. 22 You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination. 23 And you shall not lie with any animal and so make yourself unclean with it, neither shall any woman give herself to an animal to lie with it: it is perversion. 

In modern day words, the sins would be called, Abortion, Homosexuality and Bestiality.

God explains:

 Leviticus 18:27-28 (ESV)

 27 for the people of the land, who were before you, did all of these abominations, so that the land became unclean, 28 lest the land vomit you out when you make it unclean, as it vomited out the nation that was before you. 

Another spiritual consequence of sin, is that when you sleep with other people your bodies become one flesh. This means the spirits that have access to that person’s flesh, begin to have access to your flesh also. These are sins against your own body. Paul explains.

1 Corinthians 6:15-16 (ESV) 

 15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! 16 Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.” 

These are examples of spiritual consequences of certain sins. God forgives you, and you will not go to hell, but the consequences of these sins can come upon a land or upon people’s bodies. However through the grace of Christ, it is still possible for us to be delivered from all the spiritual consequences of sin.

 Are We Being Punished for Adam’s Sin 

We are not being punished for Adam’s sin, but we are suffering the consequences of Adam’s sin. If it was just an issue of punishment, God could have simply forgiven the whole world. But when Adam ate of the fruit of knowledge of God and evil, that fruit interfered with his make up and function as a being. His children are born with the effect of this fruit in their bodies. The effect of this fruit introduces sin into their souls. 

And this is why it required for Christ to die, resurrect and ascend, in order to reverse the effects of that fruit.

 Romans 5:12 (ESV)  

 12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned 

All men sinned, and that is why all men inherited death.

 Romans 3:23 (NKJV)   23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God 

All men die, because all men sin. All men sin because they live inside a body inherited from Adam. Adam’s body was corrupted by the fruit of knowledge of good and evil.

 Romans 5:18-19 (ESV) 

 18 Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. 19 For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. 

 STAY BLESSED