God is investing heavily in this group of people, and he is requiring that they, in turn, live a certain way.īut this is actually Moses’ second time atop Mount Sinai, formalizing Israel’s covenant with God. God has just rescued the Israelites from slavery and oppression in Egypt, and the covenant relationship he’s forging with Israel will display his loving character to the nations. In fact, it’s set against the backdrop of an extremely important description of God’s character.Įxodus 34 finds Moses at the top of Mount Sinai, formalizing Israel’s covenant relationship with God while everyone else stays below. Like any challenging biblical claim, this verse doesn’t come out of nowhere. God’s Justice is About a Covenant of Loveįirst, let’s look at the context. God is warning his people that each generation will be held accountable if they repeat the sins of the previous generation. But if we dig a little deeper, we’ll see that God isn’t saying he’ll bring his wrath upon totally innocent children for their parents’ actions. In this text, we’re confronted with the intimidating concept of generational accountability. But will we really be punished for something our parents did?

It is clear that who our parents are, and even the choices they make, affect us greatly. We inherit things like physical features, health issues, mannerisms, and ways of viewing the world from them. And this seems a little harsh, right? It’s one thing to say we are shaped by our parents - we all know that.

So does God hold us accountable for the mistakes our parents make? These verses in Exodus seem to say so. does not leave the guilty unpunished he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth. It makes the next words in the passage all the more challenging (and potentially shocking). It’s not hard to understand why this passage in Exodus is the most referenced Scripture throughout the Hebrew Bible - who doesn’t want to be reminded of some of the most beautiful aspects of God’s character? It’s wonderful, gracious, and encouraging.

Sins of the father quote meaning