We inherit more than material possessions from our parents. The inheritance from parents includes their sins as spiritual inheritance. The good news is that we do not have to suffer the sins of our parents.
Exodus 20:5 states, “You shall not bow to them [idols] 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,”….
God does nothing arbitrarily or out of favouritism: He is just in what he does. He does not punish the innocent for the sin of the culprit, and, he does not let the culprit go unpunished. It means that the only way God could punish the children for the sin of their fathers is when the former (children) share in, or commits, the sin of the latter (parents), or sin like their fathers.
It seems to me that the reference to “the third and fourth generation” indicates the period God’s grace is withdrawn, the time the sin of parents is allowed to rule unrestrained. Please note that third and fourth generation is nothing compared to a thousand generation (see Exodus 20:6). God is gracious, indeed.
The word of God to Cain comes to mind: Genesis 4:7, “If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door, it desires to have you, but you must master it.”
In other words, sin is just waiting for you to fail doing what is right so that it could have a claim over you, and rule over you -Did you know that sin is a merciless chastiser? This is significant because the bible reveals that “sin reigned in death” (Romans 5:21) and “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).
The following question is in order: How did sin get to Cain’s door? The bible says “sin entered the world through one man [Adam, Cain’s father]…” (Romans 5:12). Here is a case, the first case, of the sin of parents visiting their children: Adam opened the door of disobeying God, by failing to do what is right, and his descendants have fallen to the same sin of disobedience, which does take different forms (stealing, killing, lying, fornicating,….) resulting in increasing evil on earth as to draw God’s punishment.
Some of us have been affected by our fore-parents and parents sin(s) to the extent that we struggle to fulfil our God-given destiny on earth. Sometimes it feels like some specific sins (thoughts, words, behaviours, and attitudes) have a hold on us to the extent of undermining everything good we try to do and costing our happiness. The good news is, it does not have to be so. We can break the chain for the sake of the generations to come from us, as did Abraham.
Please note that God’s call for Abraham to leave his country, people and father’s household was in essence a call to leave their idolatry (disobedience) and walk with God (Genesis 12). He was to distance himself from their practices (sin) for God, in so doing he refused to allow their sin to have him or rule over him and thus became a blessing for many nations.
Hence, the best inheritance parents could pass onto their children is to walk with God in their lifetime. Like Cain we all have a choice to do what is right when God warns us. Obeying God is an act of worship which goes beyond us to affecting our descendants for good.
May God help us in Jesus Christ’s name!
