When I was an unbeliever, I used to think that a loving God shouldn’t hold grudges – especially to those who “don’t deserve it”.
I mean, why should the third and fourth generation suffer for the mistakes of the family who have gone before us?
”The Lord is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.’ Numbers 14:18
The answer is in the first part of this verse
So many times we are quick to judge God in our understanding, or morals, but time and time again, there is Scripture that shows God is loving and merciful, and He does forgive and forget…but only to those who love Him. That is God’s grace to His children
We all know that a parent is more lenient towards their own flesh and blood, as love covers a multitude of things!
So many times, my own Daughter would be screaming in the playground, and I would adoringly look at her, only to have another child running past, doing the same thing, and in my head (within seconds), I would be asking why the parent wasn’t intervening?
Parents can even let go of things that our children have hurt us deeply with, because of the love we have for them. God is the same!
Yet, to those who turn away from God, it is that sin that gets taken through the generations…until one day, someone draws a line in the sand, and gives their life to Christ. Then, and only then, will the generational sin be cut from that family-line.
True freedom comes by asking for forgiveness of not only our wrongdoing but from things that we might not even be aware of because the effects of that sin might be apparent in our lives.
I have looked back and seen the ugly, but it was only after I let go of the past, that I found true freedom. So many times, I blamed God for not being loving, but it was simply because I hadn’t forgiven myself, or others.
I realise now my viewpoint of God being unloving was an oxymoron, because God is love
Categories: Numbers
