God Punishing the Innocent (2)
God created us a community and he works with us as a human community. This is a matter of critical importance. If we look not only at "sin/curse" texts but also at blessing texts we see that God's works just as surely in a community/humanity way in blessing as in cursing. We see it in life, everywhere in life, and we have Christ's affirmation of God sending rain/sunshine/fruitful seasons/heart gladness on humanity (Matthew 5, Acts 14,). Then there's Acts 17 where we're told that God gives "life and everything else" to humanity and that "in him we live..."—this is true of humanity.
God's visiting sin on children of those who hate him means they bear the consequences of the fathers' crimes when God punishes the guilty fathers. The innocent are not regarded as actual sinners so God has no intention of punishing them. But God does not exempt the children from suffering though he does not "punish" them. An earthly judge who sends an embezzling father to prison does not "punish" his four children though he certainly knows his decision means loss for the children. The earthly judge has no option but to act within the "community" nature of life that the Holy Father has chosen to create and within which he insists on working. The earthly judge (so to speak) "visits the sin of the father on the children."
The reverse is also true. "Showing mercy" to the children of lovers of God (an Old Testament doctrine) has nothing to do with attributing "moral goodness" to a child who has done neither good nor evil. It is the reverse process of "visiting sin". It is the God-determined and "natural" overflow of blessing that comes to a child whose parents are blessed by God. The blessing of the children is the result not of their personal holiness and love of God; it comes to them through the love of their parents and God's consequent blessing.
But even in passages like Exodus 20:6 we aren't being taught that mercy is only shown to the children of God-lovers—see the universal texts above from Acts. Nor are we to conclude that Exodus 20:5 or Deuteronomy 5:8 are iron clad retributive threats much less "imputation" texts. These promise/threats are part of a larger picture and over-arching purpose. God extends and retracts them as suits his purpose. Lovers of God suffer and non-lovers are blessed.
©2004 Jim McGuiggan. All materials are free to be copied and used as long as money is not being made.
Many thanks to brother Ed Healy for allowing me to post from his website, the abiding word.com.