Exodus 20:1 – 6 “And God spoke all these words: “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself an idol of any kind, or an image of anything in the heavens above, on the earth beneath, or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on their children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing loving devotion to a thousand generations of those who love Me and keep My commandments.”
The 20th chapter of Exodus is one of the most important chapters in the entire Bible. Here God clearly lays out His standards and explains His reasons.
God begins by reminding the Israelites who He is; God is the One who has delivered them from their slavery in Egypt. Using the ten plagues, God has clearly demonstrated that He is Ruler over all of nature and even over death, and that the Egyptian gods are worthless. As the Deliverer, God deserves all worship. God is fully aware of all the idols, not only those from Egypt but also those from other countries and wants to make it clear that the Israelites are not to make any images of anything, whether in nature or from their imaginations. With God, there can be no exceptions and no compromise!
“ You shall not make for yourself an idol of any kind, or an image of anything in the heavens above, on the earth beneath, or in the waters below.” God knows the human heart better than humans do. Give human beings any leeway, and before you know it, they are off making graven images of the sun, the moon, of stars, etc.
“You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on their children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing loving devotion to a thousand generations of those who love Me and keep My commandments.”
APPLICATION: At first this statement seems totally unfair! Why should God punish children and grand children and even great grand children or great great grand children for the sins of the fathers? But God is actually very merciful and He is issuing a realistic warning. Familial sins repeat themselves throughout generations. One prime example is parents who give children alcohol. Recently in our part of rural Ghana, I attended the traditional funeral for the father of a friend. While our friend is a Christian and does not drink, most of the people attending the funeral were drinking heavily. There were five gallon jerry cans of pito throughout the funeral grounds. (Pito is the local beer.) One of the saddest parts of the funeral was seeing the number of children who were sampling the pito and the women who were carrying large amounts of pito back to their homes for consumption there. These children are quite likely to grow up to become alcoholics. And since their parents gave them alcohol as kids, they will do the same thing to their children, thus repeating this terrible pattern. And then when the children are dying of alcoholism, these same families will come begging, “Doctor, advise him/her to stop drinking!”
Multigenerational legacies are no joke! In a story entitled “Multigenerational Legacies-the story of Jonathan Edwards,” Larry Ballard describes two families, one with a heritage of righteousness and the other with a heritage of evil. Quoting Ballard:Jonathan Edwards, was a Puritan Preacher who lived from 1703 – 1758. He was one of the most respected preachers in his day. He attended Yale at the age of thirteen and later went on to become the president of Princeton college. He married his wife Sara in 1727 and they were blessed with eleven children. Every night when Mr. Edwards was home, he would spend an hour conversing with his family and then praying a blessing over each child. Jonathan and his wife Sarah passed on a great, godly legacy to their eleven children.
An American educator, A.E. Winship decided to trace the descendants of Jonathan Edwards almost 150 years after his death. His findings are remarkable, especially when compared to another man from the same time period known as Max Jukes.
Jonathan Edwards’ legacy includes: 1 U.S. Vice-President, 1 Dean of a law school, 1 dean of a medical school, 3 U.S. Senators, 3 governors, 3 mayors, 13 college presidents, 30 judges, 60 doctors, 65 professors, 75 Military officers, 80 public office holders, 100 lawyers, 100 clergymen, and 285 college graduates. How may this be explained? Edwards was a godly man, but he was also hard working, intelligent and moral. Furthermore, Winship states, “Much of the capacity and talent, intensity and character of the more than 1,400 of Edwards’ family is due to Mrs. Edwards.”
Max Jukes’ legacy came to people’s attention when the family trees of 42 different men in the New York prison system were traced back to him. He lived in New York at about the same period as Edwards. The Jukes family originally was studied by sociologist Richard L. Dugdale in 1877. Jukes’ descendants included: 7 murderers, 60 thieves, 190 prostitutes, 150 other convicts, 310 paupers, and 440 who were physically wrecked by addiction to alcohol. Of the 1,200 descendants that were studied, 300 died prematurely.
Ballard concludes: These contrasting legacies provide an example of what some call the five-generation rule. “How a parent raises their child — the love they give, the values they teach, the emotional environment they offer, the education they provide — influences not only their children but the four generations to follow, either for good or evil.” What a challenging thought! If someone studied your descendants four generations later, what would you want them to discover? Do you want an Edwards’ legacy or a Jukes’ legacy? The life you live will determine the legacy you leave! (https://www.ywam-fmi.org/news/multigenerational-legacies-the-story-of-jonathan-edwards/)
PRAYER: Father God, help us! We have no idea how much influence we have over future generations of our families! Lord, help us to bless our children as did Jonathan Edwards and to strive to live righteous lives so that our children will be encouraged to do the same. Thank you that you are the One who helps us to do this. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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