You stagger beneath the implications and are crushed by its weight. When you truly ponder its meaning, the enormity of this truth becomes unbearable. It means that the sins you commit today can directly impact your children, your grand-children, and even your great-grandchildren. The verse is directed to parents, not just fathers. God punishes the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and the fourth generation. But as a parent, no verse scares me more than Exodus 20:5. The book of Revelation paints terrifying images of the end times. For example, the Bible contains many sobering passages dealing with judgment and eternal punishment. Not that there aren’t other frightening passages in the Bible. It was too much to try and cover both idolatry and generational sin all in one message, so I promised to treat this portion of the verse in more detail this week.Įxodus 20:5 is perhaps the most frightening verse of Scripture I know.

We looked at verse 5 in its context of idolatry last week, but this verse also raises the problem of generational sin. INTRODUCTION: Our message series is “The Ten Commandments for Today.” Last week we looked at the second commandment, which has to do with idolatry, and right in the middle of the commandment on idolatry we encountered verse 5:Įxodus 20:5 – “You 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.” (NIV) Click here for more messages on The Ten Commandments.Ĭlick here to return to the Sermons page.

Breaking the sins of the father