Exodus 34:7 Hidden love

Exodus 34:7 (New International Version)

7 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."

This verse was really bugging me. I struggle with the consistency of the Old Testament Jehovah to the New Testament Jesus. Nevertheless, I feel it is import no matter how I feel to be honest with a passage when I come to it an allow myself to live in the question of, "I can't figure this out." One thing however, that has been very helpful to me is something I learned from Greg Boyd, it is the "Christocentric Principle" approach to Biblical studies. His definition is,

"The Christocentric Principle: All of our thinking about God must be rooted in Christ. Jesus reveals what God has always been like. We thus need to read the Old Testament “through the lens” of Christ"

The first chapter of the book of Hebrews puts it this way,

1 In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. 3 The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. 4 So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs. (emphasis mine)

So as I approach the Old Testament I try to view it through what I know about Jesus. And to me, Exodus 34:7a, is what I would expect of Jesus but then the last part of the verse seems out of place, "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. (b)"

Why would a God who says he will be merciful to the actual perpetrators condemn their children for the sins of their parents and grandparents and even the great, great, great grandparents?

If we step back and read the whole chapter it seems even more out of place.

6 And the LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, 7 keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.”
8 So Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshiped.

The passage's focus is mercy, grace and forgiveness and longsuffering. God say he will not only forgive Israel's sin at Moses request but he also makes a covenant with them that he alone is responsible for which again, makes the visiting punishment on grandchildren seem out of place.

So the next thing I did was to read the passage in a couple different translations but I did not find any new revelations. Then I looked for similar phrases elsewhere in the bible using the "Treasury of Scriptrures" which comes free with E-Sword. If you have never used E-Sword and you have a Windows PC or a Mac running Windows I highly recommend this free bible study software. It is awesome and everything I am writing about here was assited with E-sword and Biblegateway.com.

Here is what I found, if you read Exodus 20:4-6, Deuteronomy 5:8-10, Nehemiah 1:4-6, Psalm 86:14-17, Jeremiah 32 and Daniel 9 you will see a pattern. This phrasing is an acknowledgement that there are consequences for sin but when we are as far from God as we think we can get, His desire is for us change so that we would stop punishing ourselves with our own sin. It is not that God wants to punish us every time we step out of line, it is that he realizes the natural consequence of not abiding with him is punishment. This fallen world will punish us naturally if we are not walking in the protection (commandments in the Old Testament view before Christ's death and resurrection) of God's presence. However, regardless of our actions God will move heaven and Hell to redeem the lost. The Jeremiah passage is a perfect example. Jerimiah quotes this Exodus passage to God and says , "You said this would happen if we did not do what you said. And you said it would effect our children as well and now we are going to suffer the consequences for a long time and it is all our fault. (paraphrase)" God could have looked at Jeremiah and said, "Preach it brother." but he responds like this,
" 36 "You are saying about this city, 'By the sword, famine and plague it will be handed over to the king of Babylon'; but this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 37 I will surely gather them from all the lands where I banish them in my furious anger and great wrath; I will bring them back to this place and let them live in safety. 38 They will be my people, and I will be their God. 39 I will give them singleness of heart and action, so that they will always fear me for their own good and the good of their children after them. 40 I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good to them, and I will inspire them to fear me, so that they will never turn away from me. 41 I will rejoice in doing them good and will assuredly plant them in this land with all my heart and soul." (Jeremiah 32)

Before the people repent God says he will chase after Israel and it's children regardless of their action or unrepentant heart. Nine times he says "I" will do this. He will gather the Israelites (including their children) back to safety. God would appeal to their hearts and make a everlasting covenant where he would rejoice in doing good to them forever and give them his heart and soul. So it seems this phrasing is more an acknowledgement from earth (man) toward heaven (God) that we will pay a price for our decisions. It is how we pray now when we goofed up and are ready to acknowledge all the damage we have caused ourselves and people around us. For instance, "Dear God, forgive my sins. I am sorry I have not taken time to acknowledge that I have a problem with anger and now I can see that my daughter has been infected by anger and has been acting out with her siblings I want to ask for mercy and grace for myself and her. Renew my mind...Amen." This is a prayer I have prayed and continue to pray.

After looking up other passages I returned to Exodus 34:7 and started to brake down each individual Hebrew phrase using E-Sword. One version of the bible that comes free with E-sword is the King James with the Strong's Hebrew definitions attached to each phrase. What I found may surprise you. Here is what it looks like.

Exo 34:7 KeepingH5341 mercyH2617 for thousands,H505 forgivingH5375 iniquityH5771 and transgressionH6588 and sin,H2403 and that will by no means clearH3808 H5352 H5352 the guilty; visitingH6485 the iniquityH5771 of the fathersH1 uponH5921 the children,H1121 and uponH5921 the children'sH1121 children,H1121 untoH5921 the thirdH8029 and toH5921 the fourthH7256 generation.

The H next to the number means the word is Hebrew and the number is a corresponding phrase or word that gets translated to English. There is a Hebrew word for every word till we get to the word sin and then the phrase, "and that will by no means clearH3808 H5352 H5352 the guilty;" is made up of only two Hebrew words with one word being repeated and the word guilty in the phrase was added by translators because they felt it was implied (that is why it is italicized). The repeated word H5352 "nâqâh" can mean to be stipped bare or to be made blameless or even set free.

The Treasury of Scripture has this note to share, "that will by no means clear the guilty: The Hebrew nakkeh lo yenakkeh, has been rendered "Acquitting him who is not innocent." Nothing can more strongly express the goodness of God to frail mortals than this declaration, "which has been misunderstood and misinterpreted by all our translators." (Emphasis mine)

So God is saying I am merciful and forgive those who don't deserve it. Now that sounds like Jesus! But what about that last part about visiting the sin on the children? Lastly, I took the Hebrew phrase and googled it and here is something interesting I found.

"Nevertheless, acts of mercy, pardon, pity, and grace should more frequently be performed by the governor of a country than acts of punishment; seeing that all the thirteen middothof God are attributes of mercy with only one exception, namely, "visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children" (Exod. xxxiv. 7); for the meaning of the preceding attribute (in the original ve-nakkeh lo yenakkeh) is "and he will not utterly destroy"; (and not "He will by no means clear the guilty"); comp. "And she will be utterly destroyed (ve-nikketah), she shall sit upon the ground" (Isa. iii. 26). When it is said that God is visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, this refers exclusively to the sin of idolatry, and to no other sin. That this is the case may be inferred from what is said in the ten commandments, "upon the third and fourth generation of my enemies" (Exod. xx. 5), none except idolaters being called "enemy"; comp. also "every abomination to the Lord, which he hateth" (Deut. xii. 31). It was, however, considered sufficient to extend the punishment to the fourth generation, because the fourth generation is the utmost a man can see of his posterity; and when, therefore, the idolaters of a place are destroyed, the old man worshipping idols is killed, his son, his grandson, and his great-grandson, that is, the fourth generation. (Guide for the Perplexed, by Moses Maimonides, Friedländer tr. [1904], at sacred-texts.com)

So to the Hebrews in their unique time and place would have understood that God was saying if they worshiped idols their children would be affected for at least four generations. How many of us can relate to this truth and are probably feeling the effects of the sins of our parents and their parents and so forth. Another result of idolatry would be the trust in another God for everyday needs and redemption and if you are looking to something else to "fix and restore you" you are choosing not to partake of the mercy and grace God is always extending by your own volition.

So I will end with my own paraphrase of Exodus 34:6-8

"I am the only true creator God. The essence of who I am is merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth. therefore I will always extend mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression to those who cannot earn it or deserve forgiveness. However, if you choose to worship another god you are choosing not to partake in the greatness of who I am."

Eternal Love,

Abba.


Ref. Verses

Exodus 20: 4 "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand {generations} of those who love me and keep my commandments.

Deuteronomy 5: 8 "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 9You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 10 but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.

Nehemiah 1: 4 When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven. 5Then I said: "O LORD, God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and obey his commands, 6 let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel. I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father's house, have committed against you. 7 We have acted very wickedly toward you. We have not obeyed the commands, decrees and laws you gave your servant Moses.

Psalm 86: 14 The arrogant are attacking me, O God; a band of ruthless men seeks my life— men without regard for you. 15 But you, O Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.
16 Turn to me and have mercy on me; grant your strength to your servant and save the son of your maidservant. [b]
17 Give me a sign of your goodness, that my enemies may see it and be put to shame, for you, O LORD, have helped me and comforted me.

Jeremiah 32 and Daniel 9: (you have to read the whole chapter it is beautiful)