Background
We are continuing through Deuteronomy, where Moses is relaying God's Law to the Israelites just before they are to enter the Promised Land. Recently we learned that God allows divorces and subsequent marriages, as long as they are not remarriages of the same couple to one another.
Sins of Their Fathers
If you know much about the story of Jesus, you may know that He did not like hypocrites. The Bible mentions hypocrites 18 times. Once is in the Old Testament (Psalm 26:4). The rest come straight from the mouth of Jesus in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. (It is strange that Jesus never says “hypocrite” in the Gospel of John.) So if Jesus really does not like hypocrites, He needs to have a stern talk to God the Father, as we will see in Deuteronomy 24.From last time, you remember that Deuteronomy 24:1-4 dealt with remarriage your ex-wife, which is never a good idea. ;-) The rest of the chapter, Deuteronomy 24:5-22, is largely a collection of really good laws, such as: A newly married man is not obligated to fight in wars. Have zero tolerance for kidnappers. Do not take a man's livelihood as security for a loan, and do not abuse the poor in taking loan securities. Do not take advantage of the poor or aliens. Do not deny aliens, orphans, or widows their justice. Share the remnants of your produce with the poor and the aliens.
Let us take a closer look at one of those good laws which we find in Deuteronomy 24:16:
“Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor children put to death for their fathers; each is to die for his own sin.” NIVDeath penalty aside, this is a good law. You cannot kill a man for something that his kid did, nor can you kill the kid for something that his father did. This is God's holy moral guidance, His code, His very law. We should review the Old Testament so far to see if God practices what He preaches.
First, we begin with the Flood of Noah. Besides Noah and some of his immediate family, God wiped out everyone on earth in a global flood. Life was going on as normal up to the day of the Flood (Matthew 24:38), so undoubtedly there were innocent children who were killed in the Flood for the sins of their parents.
Next, we find that God destroyed the entire cities of Sodom and Gomorrah for the sins of the people, with the exceptions of Lot and his daughters. Again, it is likely that innocent children were in those cities at the time of their destruction.
Moving on to Exodus, we find that God almost kills Moses' son (or possibly Moses himself depending on interpretation) because Moses did not yet circumcise his son.
Remember the plagues prior to the Exodus? In the tenth plague, God killed Pharaoh's firstborn son (and lots of other people's firstborn sons) for refusing to let the Israelites go.
Jumping on to Numbers, there is the tale of a rebellion led by Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. God slaughters these men along with their entire families as punishment.
Finally, and maybe most significantly from an eternal perspective, in the previous chapter of Deuteronomy we learned that the Ammonites and the Moabites were essentially forbidden to ever learn about and worship God, thereby damning them for all eternity, just because of how their ancestors had treated the Israelites while they were wondering the desert.
Keep in mind that this immoral behavior does not stop with the Torah, the first five books of the Bible. In perhaps one of the more famous episodes of the Old Testament, God kills David's son as punishment because David had slept with Bathsheba and had her husband killed (2 Samuel 11-12).
God is a hypocrite. God kills children for the sins of their fathers. Supposedly, God even had His own son killed (in a manner of speaking) for the sins of entirely different people. In Jesus' own words in Matthew 24:51, God the Father should be assigned to a place “where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” for all eternity for His hypocrisy.
Response part 1
ReplyDeleteIf you hate the bible and God and want nothing to do with them, why do you spend so much time trying to destroy the word of God? Why don’t you just go about your merry way? Obviously, you believe there is something, Someone higher up there and you are frustrated by YOUR understanding of His ways. They SEEM contrary to you.
Psalms 18:26 With the pure You show Yourself pure, and with the crooked You show Yourself astute.
Have you looked at your own ways? Are you pure and holy in all aspects of your life? Do you lie? Do you take things that don’t belong to you (e.g. taxes, pens etc.) Do you desire the things that other’s possess (their girlfriends, their wives, their cars, their money, their talents)? Have you ever dishonored your parents? Have you slept with someone with whom you were not married thus defiling her and yourself? Have you cursed people and/or called them fools? Do you really think in your condition you have the right and the wisdom to question a holy God? What is the last planet you created or person you fashioned in his mother’s womb? Can you create and/or calm the storms?
Some things, God is actually willing to explain, if you are willing to listen. Of course we cannot know all His ways, for they are much higher than ours. But, He is certainly willing to give wisdom and understanding at some level to those who ask Him.
Isaiah 55:8 "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways," declares the LORD.
James 1:5 But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
Ironically, I was doing a study on the very same topic as your blog when I came across it because it is a curious thing and I wanted to see what God had to say about it.
As you’ve stated, in Deuteronomy, He says “Fathers shall not be put to death for their sons, nor shall sons be put to death for their fathers.” I think the implication is “by us.” However, He retains the right to do that Himself if He sees fit. We see the worldwide ramifications of Ishmael and his jealousy toward Isaac. Who knows what chaos and evil the sons of these evil men would have done that God has spared us.
In the case of Noah, if you have an evil man and evil mom raising a child, how is this child to learn any righteousness? Even righteous Noah himself was barely able to pass his righteousness down to his sons. Canaan was evil. Sin is infectious but holiness is imputed. Noah warned the evil people for 100 years while he was building the ark. They could have repented of their sins and God would have relented and not flooded the earth (as in the case of Jonah and the Ninevites). They chose not to repent. For that reason, the PARENTS subjected their children to death, not God. The same case would apply to Sodom when the angels visited. They could have repented and spared their wives and children. But instead they chose rather to sin.
God almost kills Moses’ sons because Moses failed to circumcise them. God was creating a holy, separate people. An unholy person in the presence of God would die from His holiness, not that God was “killing” him. Light blots out darkness, that is the nature of light. Moses was going to unfold the Law of God. If his own sons weren’t keeping it, it would inspire rebellion and rebellious people were killed, “1 Cor 10:8 Nor let us act immorally, as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in one day.”
In the case of Korah, we know that not all the sons were killed, as many of the Psalms were later written by them (e.g. Ps 84, 85, 87, 88, etc). God warned the people to get away from Korah’s tent (Numbers 16:26). Apparently some of the sons either fled at that point or were not in the tent in the first place and were spared. If the rest of the people stood their ground and did not leave the tent, nor remove their children from the tent, then THEY were responsible for their kid’s deaths, not God.
Response part 2
ReplyDeleteAs far as the Moabites being “essentially forbidden to ever learn about and worship God, thereby damning them for all eternity,” this is simply not true. There is an entire book in the Bible dedicated to Ruth, who WAS a Moabite. She turned from the ways of the Moabites to the people of God when given the choice to remain in her own land or join her Jewish mother-in-law after her husband died. She opted for the latter and God so blessed her she is an ancestor of Jesus Himself.
I encourage you to seek God, and to SINCERELY ask about Him and His ways that you might discover how wonderful and loving He truly is. For He is not far from each one of us. In the parable of the sowers (Matt 13), we see that it is the condition of the soil (heart) that determines whether the seeds (word of God) takes effect or not. Consider the condition of your heart. Thank God, He is even willing to give us a new one if ours is too hard for seeds to grow in it (Ezek 36:26). And He can heal wounds and bitterness that lead to hardness. Sin leads to spiritual death, separating us from God Who is life and light. The only way to undo death/sin is with life. Because life is in the blood, apart from the shedding of blood there can be no remission of sin (Lev 17:11). But, the blood of animals won’t work because it doesn’t last and that of humans won’t work because it is tainted with sin. The only eternal blood/life source is from Jesus. That is why God sent Him. He sent him for YOU. God loves you THAT much.
John 7:17 "If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know of the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak from Myself.
Hello Anonymous. I apologize for offending you, but I am just taking the Bible's word on the matter. In response to your response:
ReplyDelete"If you hate the bible and God and want nothing to do with them, why do you spend so much time trying to destroy the word of God?"
Are you kidding? I love the Bible, and I love the study of religion and God! That should be evident by the labor I put into this site. I am not trying to destroy the word of God. The word of God does a pretty good job of that itself.
"However, He retains the right to do that Himself if He sees fit."
Exactly. I said God is a hypocrite, just like you are saying here. Do as I say, not as I do.
"In the case of Noah, if you have an evil man and evil mom raising a child, how is this child to learn any righteousness?"
Hmmm. That is a good question. Perhaps sending a Savior to be a light in that dark world, to turn peoples hearts to their families and to God? That might work, depending on how it was played out.
"Noah warned the evil people for 100 years while he was building the ark."
I am sorry, but I missed that. Would you please point out the verses where it said that Moses took 100 years to build the ark, and where he warned everybody in the world?
"God almost kills Moses’ sons because Moses failed to circumcise them. God was creating a holy, separate people. An unholy person in the presence of God would die from His holiness, not that God was “killing” him."
So you are saying that baby boys are impure unless they have a piece of their penis removed?
"In the case of Korah, we know that not all the sons were killed, ..."
How many innocent children is it acceptable to kill?
"As far as the Moabites being “essentially forbidden to ever learn about and worship God, thereby damning them for all eternity,” this is simply not true."
Have you read Deuteronomy 23:3-6? Elimelch and Naomi were breaking God's Law. So, true, it did not work out that all of the Moabites were damned for eternity, but that is only because God's Law was transgressed. And what about the Ammonites who were under the same command?
"I encourage you to seek God, and to SINCERELY ask about Him and His ways..."
Thank you. I have, but have come up with no reply. However, if you have not already done so, please let me encourage you to read the Bible. I have, and reading it is what turned me from any hope of belief. That is pretty ironic, considering that it is the word of God, right?