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
NIV
Yesterday's devotion about that impact of parents and in-laws on a marriage reminded me of something important I need to tell you ...
First, I never liked passages like today's verse from Numbers. It doesn't seem far for God to punish great-grandchildren for the sins of a great-grandpa they never even met!
Having been a pastor for twenty years, however, I am convinced that passages like this are descriptive rather than prescriptive. God is not "prescribing" judgment -- as in, if you sin, I the Lord am going to curse you, your kids, and your great-grandchildren. No, God is "describing" what happens when we sin: Sin often locks generations into a pattern of perpetual dysfunction.
Read that again: Rebellion against God and his ways locks us in a repeating pattern of dysfunction.
Did you ever hate it as a kid when you were forced to endure the "consequences" of your own actions? If you fail to study, you flunk a test. If you're caught drinking at a teenage party, you lose your driving privileges. After twenty years of being a pastor -- and watching families and generations – I’m convinced that when God says that "he does not leave the guilty unpunished," he's usually saying, like a good parent, "I'm going to let you suffer the consequences of your own actions. And rebellion against me, the Lord, may lock you into a repeating pattern of dysfunction."
Have you seen it in families?
· Abusing fathers tend to produce children who abuse their children.
· Sinful choices -- like the rebellion that leads to teenage pregnancy -- can trap the next few generations in a cycle of poverty.
· The worst rebellion is a parent who rejects God. And whether it’s overt (outright atheism) or subtle (a gradual lack of church attendance and failures in devotion), what do these parents pass onto their kids -- often to the third and fourth generation? An absence of God in their lives.
These are natural consequences.
Punishments? Yes ... in one sense. Natural consequences.
And how long does this “punishment” last? Until one thing happens ... someone breaks the chain.
In your family, you can be that person. You can break the generational chains. You can stop the cycle of divorce. You can stop the cycle of abuse. You can stop the pattern of godlessness.
How? Repentance is the key, for as God says in 2 Chronicles 7:14, "if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land."
That’s God’s greatest desire: "I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and heal [your family]."
Are you ready to be the chain breaker?
Question: What forms of generational bondage are in your family?
· Are there generations of divorce in your family? Have you been accidentally taught that it's easier to run than work through problems?
· Are there generations of abuse? or anger? or sarcasm, belittling, or blaming?
· Are there patterns of addiction? Unhealthy habits that don't have to be carried on to the next generation?
· Is there a love of money, a materialism that chokes out deeper meaning and purpose?
· Is selfishness the model you've been unconsciously taught?
· Morals -- has your family taught you to be permissive and to compromise and excuse? or have they taught you to be legalistic and judgmental?
· Has some prejudice been passed to you generationally?
· Most of all, have you inherited a mediocre faith -- a faith that's likely to dissolve even further unless husband and wife "will humble themselves and pray and seek my face."
Here are the two main questions:
1. What are the generational bondages that unfortunately and accidentally define you?
2. Are you going to be a victim? or a chain breaker?
In Christ's Love,
a guy who refuses
to play the victim
No comments:
Post a Comment