This is the 17th article in a series entitled Wonderful Counseling. The rest of the articles in this series can be found by clicking on the link in the previous sentence.
Those who argue that there is no need to address generational devastation at all in light of the New Covenant usually use Ezekiel 18 as a proof text.
"Yet you say, 'Why should the son not bear the punishment for the father's iniquity?' When the son has practiced justice and righteousness and has observed all My statutes and done them, he shall surely live. 20 "The person who sins will die. The son will not bear the punishment for the father's iniquity, nor will the father bear the punishment for the son's iniquity; the righteousness of the righteous will be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked will be upon himself. Ezekiel 18:19-20 (NASB)
Properly interpreting and applying this passage in a New Covenant context is the focus of this article.
In order to understand Ezekiel 18’s impact on the subject of generational devastation, it is necessary to separate judicial judgment and sentencing from the law of sowing and reaping.
For example, if a father is a drug dealer and is apprehended by the law, his children will not go to jail with him. However, they will be negatively impacted by his incarceration. This is simple enough to grasp. The children will suffer the absence of their father in the home, with all that means – lack of income, lack of presence, lack of affirmation, lack of discipline, lack of wisdom and guidance, and lack of protection. The negative effects of the father’s imprisonment may last for a lifetime or even generations, especially if the sons in the family buy into the lie that their lot in life is to follow in their father’s footsteps. Or the daughters may accept the embedded lie that they are not loved and cannot depend on men. The poverty that will likely accompany the loss of their father may limit the children’s access to many things in life and may tempt them to try to better their situation illegally. Also the absence of a father may contribute to the proliferation of the single mom household pattern, which is all too prevalent today. Many low income communities are experiencing this type of generational devastation.
Children often suffer generationally; even though, they are not judicially sentenced for their father’s crimes.
The mechanics of reaping generational devastation, as described above, consists largely of the planting of deeply embedded lies in the hearts and minds of children which often persist into adulthood. In addition, it involves the creation of traumatic and painful wounds in the hearts of children, which, left unhealed, can negatively influence decision making and behavior into adulthood. It may also involve demonization, since people, especially young children, may be tempted to befriend evil spirits posing as imaginary friends and “helpers.” This may sound strange, but it happens a lot and will be covered later.
But let us consider Ezekiel 18 from another angle. Even though God commands us not to punish children in courts of law for the crimes or sins of their fathers, God may do so in his heavenly court.
We have that from no less an authority than our Lord Jesus himself.
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous,30 and say, 'If we had been living in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partners with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.'31 "So you testify against yourselves, that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets.32 "Fill up, then, the measure of the guilt of your fathers.33 "You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell? 34 "Therefore, behold, I am sending you prophets and wise men and scribes; some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city,35 so that upon you may fall the guilt of all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.36 "Truly I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.37 "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling.38 "Behold, your house is being left to you desolate! Matthew 23:29-38 (NASB)
Jesus wept over the children of Jerusalem, knowing that they would reap the whirlwind of God’s judgment, when it finally fell upon the nation in 70 AD at the hands of the Romans. Those children in his hearing would be somewhere around 37 years older when judgment came. They would be the adults in positions of power and influence at that time of reckoning. Children who not even yet born were “in” their fathers when their fathers sinned. Children who were alive when their fathers sinned, as was the case with the children present when Jesus spoke the words above, still reaped the consequences for what their parents did – the judicial punishment for killing the Messiah. The only way out was for them to repent and renounce the evil deed, which is exactly what happened on the first New Covenant Pentecost.
"Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ—this Jesus whom you crucified." 37 Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Brethren, what shall we do?" 38 Peter said to them, "Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 "For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself." 40 And with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, saying, "Be saved from this perverse generation!" 41 So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls.Acts 2:36-41 (NASB)
Those who responded in faith to the Gospel message, were released from the awful prospect of being judged by God after death for rejecting and killing the Messianic King, but they still lived in a land that was under God’s judgment, because the vast majority of the leadership and populace refused to acknowledge their awful sin.
Unrepentant sin, even that of long dead ancestors, demands that God’s justice and judgment be released. When a person dies, their guilt does not evaporate. It gets passed to succeeding generations, who often replicate and participate the sins of their fathers.
When children do not renounce the sins of their fathers, according to Jesus, it puts them in agreement with their forefathers.
It’s not enough for descendants merely to say, “I did not do it.” From God’s point of view, we did do it, indirectly, perhaps, in and through the actions of our fathers.
As I pointed out earlier, this is hard for a Westerner to swallow; yet, if we are to be biblical in our thinking, we must.
God requires repentance from us on behalf of our fathers, which is one of the first steps in undoing the effects of generational devastation.
The Bible gives us numerous examples of this very thing. (E.g. Nehemiah 9:2; Jeremiah 14:20; Daniel 9:16-21)
In addition to forgiving those who repented, Jesus warned his forgiven followers to flee Jerusalem when they saw God’s wrath in judgment approaching. (Matthew 24:16) As is usually the case, I suppose that there were some who did not heed Christ’s warning and were caught up in the destruction of Jerusalem. Those who did obey escaped. Lot’s rescue from Sodom and Gomorrah was a Old Covenant picture of this. Sometimes, however, descendants cannot escape. An entire nation may get caught in the trap of reaping the whirlwind of God’s judgment. I fear what may be ahead for the USA for the horrific sin of slaughtering over sixty million innocent babies! May God have mercy on us and turn this nation back to him!
Summary
In conclusion, Ezekiel 18 states a principle that human courts of law should not judicially sentence children for the sins or crimes of their parents. However, in God’s heavenly court, when it comes to the judgment due our sins and the sins of our ancestors going back to Adam, this is only true for those who come under the New Covenant through believing the Gospel message and declaring allegiance to the risen Lord Jesus. Jesus took our guilt and punishment upon himself.
Believing the Gospel, however, though it releases us from condemnation to the lake of fire, does not necessarily release us from reaping the consequences of parental and personal sins.
God’s judgment looms over unconfessed and unrenounced generational sin. If the people and leadership of the United States were to suddenly reverse course regarding legalized abortion, repenting, confessing, and renouncing that sin, would that be enough to avert judgment? Only God knows the answer, but it will surely go better for those who do, especially at the final judgment.
Ezekiel 18 does not absolve children from reaping the non-judicial consequences of their forefathers’ sins. Suffering, embedded lies, traumatic pain, and demonization can devastate families for generations, unless someone decides to stand in the gap. God is raising up intercessors who will approach God’s throne on behalf of their families to ask forgiveness and release from any previous sins and looming judgments, and to pray for blessings to be released in keeping with God’s purposes in the New Covenant. Will you be one of those people? I will show you how in the next articles.
"Those from among you will rebuild the ancient ruins; You will raise up the age-old foundations; And you will be called the repairer of the breach, The restorer of the streets in which to dwell. Isaiah 58:12 (NASB)
