Do You Question God’s Justice?
By
Jed Greenough
Exodus 34:1, 4-10
“The LORD said to Moses, “Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke.”
So Moses chiseled out two stone tablets like the first ones and went up Mount Sinai early in the morning, as the LORD had commanded him; and he carried the two stone tablets in his hands. Then the LORD came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed His name, the LORD. 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, 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 fathers to the third and fourth generation.”
Moses bowed to the ground at once and worshiped. “O Lord, if I have found favor in your eyes,” he said, “then let the Lord go with us. Although this is a stiff-necked people, forgive our wickedness and our sin, and take us as your inheritance.
Then the Lord said: “I am making a covenant with you. Before all your people I will do wonders never before done in any nation in all the world.”
Whoa! This is awesome and scary at the same time!
If you missed last week’s lesson and you are not familiar with what is going on here then I suggest you go back for that short lesson in which we saw the newly liberated nation of Israel whose representative Moses had just received the 10 Commandments for them, quickly turn their backs on those and everything that they had promised to God. They had created a Golden Calf, an idol to which they gave worship, and if not for Moses interceding on their behalf, Israel
So here we are with Moses and an understanding of why there is this discussion of a 2nd set of stone tablets. Furthermore, we can see why God is proclaiming His compassion, grace, patience, love, faithfulness and forgiveness.
Traits like those are easy for all of us to accept and last week maybe we wanted to see a little bit less of those traits from God due to our disappointment with the people of Israel but what follows might be a little less palatable for some of us, “He punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.”
This is one of those lessons where I would rather we were sitting together because the questions, statements and looks of shock would speak volumes.
Statements would be forthcoming like, “My God is a loving God, He would never do anything like that.” Many people want God to fit into a nice, neat, easy to swallow package. Their God I guess is one who only gives and isn’t allowed to expect anything in return.
Well I am sorry, but OUR God is a holy God and a holy God must have justice. In God’s eyes one sin is the same as the next, there are not levels of sin and all sin must be answered for. Sometimes it takes an entire Bible view of God to see this and accept it.
Notice I said accept not necessarily understand.
God lets things happen sometimes. Choices that we make create consequences rather like ripples in a pond when we choose to throw a rock in the water. As we have all been “punished” down through the generations since Adam so to were subsequent generations of Israelites “punished” after the sins of their fathers.
Are we all punished to the extent that we receive damnation? No, not if in our living we live as God would have us live.
Let’s skip ahead in time roughly 900 years to the book of Ezekiel and read chapter 18
“The word of the LORD came to me: "What do you people mean by quoting this proverb about the land of Israel
" 'The fathers eat sour grapes,
and the children's teeth are set on edge'?
" 'The fathers eat sour grapes,
and the children's teeth are set on edge'?
"As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, you will no longer quote this proverb in Israel
"Suppose there is a righteous man
who does what is just and right.
who does what is just and right.
He does not eat at the mountain shrines
or look to the idols of the house ofIsrael
He does not defile his neighbor's wife
or lie with a woman during her period.
or look to the idols of the house of
He does not defile his neighbor's wife
or lie with a woman during her period.
He does not oppress anyone,
but returns what he took in pledge for a loan.
He does not commit robbery
but gives his food to the hungry
and provides clothing for the naked.
but returns what he took in pledge for a loan.
He does not commit robbery
but gives his food to the hungry
and provides clothing for the naked.
He does not lend at usury
or take excessive interest.
He withholds his hand from doing wrong
and judges fairly between man and man.
or take excessive interest.
He withholds his hand from doing wrong
and judges fairly between man and man.
He follows my decrees
and faithfully keeps my laws.
That man is righteous;
he will surely live,
declares the Sovereign LORD.
and faithfully keeps my laws.
That man is righteous;
he will surely live,
declares the Sovereign LORD.
"Suppose he has a violent son, who sheds blood or does any of these other things (though the father has done none of them):
"He eats at the mountain shrines.
He defiles his neighbor's wife.
"He eats at the mountain shrines.
He defiles his neighbor's wife.
He oppresses the poor and needy.
He commits robbery.
He does not return what he took in pledge.
He looks to the idols.
He does detestable things.
He commits robbery.
He does not return what he took in pledge.
He looks to the idols.
He does detestable things.
He lends at usury and takes excessive interest.
Will such a man live? He will not! Because he has done all these detestable things, he will surely be put to death and his blood will be on his own head.
Will such a man live? He will not! Because he has done all these detestable things, he will surely be put to death and his blood will be on his own head.
"But suppose this son has a son who sees all the sins his father commits, and though he sees them, he does not do such things:
"He does not eat at the mountain shrines
or look to the idols of the house ofIsrael
He does not defile his neighbor's wife.
or look to the idols of the house of
He does not defile his neighbor's wife.
He does not oppress anyone
or require a pledge for a loan.
He does not commit robbery
but gives his food to the hungry
and provides clothing for the naked.
or require a pledge for a loan.
He does not commit robbery
but gives his food to the hungry
and provides clothing for the naked.
He withholds his hand from sin
and takes no usury or excessive interest.
He keeps my laws and follows my decrees.
He will not die for his father's sin; he will surely live. But his father will die for his own sin, because he practiced extortion, robbed his brother and did what was wrong among his people.
and takes no usury or excessive interest.
He keeps my laws and follows my decrees.
He will not die for his father's sin; he will surely live. But his father will die for his own sin, because he practiced extortion, robbed his brother and did what was wrong among his people.
"Yet you ask, 'Why does the son not share the guilt of his father?' Since the son has done what is just and right and has been careful to keep all my decrees, he will surely live. The soul who sins is the one who will die. The son will not share the guilt of the father, nor will the father share the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous man will be credited to him, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against him.
"But if a wicked man turns away from all the sins he has committed and keeps all my decrees and does what is just and right, he will surely live; he will not die. None of the offenses he has committed will be remembered against him. Because of the righteous things he has done, he will live. Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Sovereign LORD. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live?
"But if a righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits sin and does the same detestable things the wicked man does, will he live? None of the righteous things he has done will be remembered. Because of the unfaithfulness he is guilty of and because of the sins he has committed, he will die.
"Yet you say, 'The way of the Lord is not just.' Hear, O house of Israel Israel Israel
"Therefore, O house of Israel Israel
It is not hard to see what God was saying in Exodus 34 about the sins being revisited on the subsequent generations but for some it is. Immediately blinders go up and they are uncomfortable.
We should not pick and choose what we like or what we will study from the scriptures but many do it including some of the most esteemed of Biblical commentators. Check it out and you will see how they will gloss over or ignore verse 7.
Others misinterpret verse 7 in such a way as to use it as an excuse and that is what the people of Israel did for years and why the prophet Ezekiel was used by God to bring clarity and why we cannot just look at one difficult verse and expect to understand it without looking at other scripture for our own clarity.
As I stated earlier the actions we take today both good and bad can affect those that follow us. They might be raised up in a house with God as it’s head or in one that is Godless, regardless it is how each individual lives their life within that framework that determines where their soul spends eternity for it is in fact the soul that sins that will die for our God is just.
Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 Biblica. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.
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