Unwanted Visitors

I have been hearing recently about the concept of generational curses. Generational curses are believed to be passed down from generation to generation. If you have ungodly patterns in your family, you're likely under a generational curse. If your father suffered from anger, he probably got it from his father and you likely got it from him -- a generational curse. The source of this kind of thinking is two-fold. First, it is unavoidably true that children often inherit the sins of their parents. You know, the problem of nurture. If you grow up with a constant example of alcoholism, it isn't outlandish that you might have a tendency toward alcoholism, as an example. But the second source is Scripture.

The LORD passed before [Moses] and proclaimed, "The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation." (Exo 34:6-7)

Well, there you have it. God visits the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the 3rd and 4th generation. A generational curse. (Interestingly, most who talk about "generational curses" do not acknowledge that it is God who visits these things on subsequent generations.)

The concept is problematic. While it does say that God visits the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation (here and in Exo 20:5 and Num 14:18), Scripture also says that children are not punished for the sins of their fathers (Deut 24:16; Ezek 18:20). Jeremiah wrote, "Everyone shall die for his own iniquity" (Jer 31:30). So, no, God does not judge children by their parents' sins (nor vice versa). So what does it mean when it says God "visits iniquity" on people?

In the Exodus passage, God is clear. He visits iniquity on subsequent generations "of those who hate Me." That is, a condition of this visitation is that they hate God. So "visiting iniquity" can be understood by saying, "Those who hate God will continue the same sort of sins that they learned from their parents." That is, by hating God, they produced their own sin and earned their own judgment. It is similar to God's "wrath of abandonment." Romans 1:18-32 gives a clear demonstration of God's "wrath of abandonment," where He acts in wrath by withdrawing, not intervening. His first line of wrath is to give us up to more sin. At the same time, God provides a way of escape. By His grace, He offers repentance and absolution. In Leviticus God told Israel, "Those of you who are left shall rot away in your enemies' lands because of their iniquity, and also because of the iniquities of their fathers they shall rot away like them" (Lev 26:39). He goes on to say, "But if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers in their treachery that they committed against Me, and also in walking contrary to Me, so that I walked contrary to them and brought them into the land of their enemies -- if then their uncircumcised heart is humbled and they make amends for their iniquity, then I will remember My covenant with Jacob, and I will remember My covenant with Isaac and My covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land" (Lev 26:40-42).

I don't believe, then, in "generational curses" as the term is commonly used today. That simply blames our problems on the prior generation. "It's not my fault I'm like this; it's a generational curse." We are each responsible for our own sin and each able to repent and be healed by God's grace. We certainly do "inherit" sin from our parents, mostly by nurture, but those sins need not remain. Remember, God declared Himself to Moses, "The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin." In fact, it is that God that is the fundamental component of the Gospel. "Yes, there is a really bad problem -- sin -- but there is a glorious solution!"