thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them; for I, Jehovah thy God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the sons to the third and to the fourth [generation] of them that hate me,
God forbids bowing to any image, and He gives the reason: who He is. Three hard ideas meet here — a jealous God, iniquity visited on children, and a limit at the third and fourth generation — and each is easy to misread.
The word "jealous" here is not petty resentment. It is the response of love that will not share the heart it has claimed.
He is jealous because He cannot bear any rival to have a place in the hearts of those He loves. He must have the whole heart, because He alone is worthy of it, and He alone can fill and satisfy it forever. And if His people turn away from Him and go after idols of their own making, He must leave them to reap the bitter fruit of what they have done.
The rival need not be a carved statue:
Nothing is so jealous as true love: it cannot bear rivalry. "Little children, keep yourselves from idols" is a word that is often forgotten and greatly overlooked. Anything that takes the place of Christ in the heart of a Christian is an idol, and ought to be judged and put far from us.
Verse 4 forbids the images man makes to picture God. God Himself gives one true likeness.
God is jealous about His glory being given to another, but that only underlines that the Son is one with the Father. All images that man might make can only stir up jealousy. But here is "the image of the invisible God." He is jealous for His Son, "that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father."
This is God's government of the world now, and its effects are easy to see.
What we get in Exodus 34 is not sovereign grace bringing a soul to eternal life, but governmental power, and we may see it at work every day around us. For if a man wastes his fortune, or ruins his health by intemperance of any kind, his children suffer for it. This is an invariable principle.
That is a different question from where a child spends eternity:
It is always true that our children will suffer because of our disobedience to God. This does not affect the question of eternal salvation. Any one of the children may still call on the Lord and be saved. But their parents' wrongdoing will still mark their lives on earth.
The threat does not reach every descendant. It reaches those who carry on their fathers' hatred of God.
He has Himself assured us that He "visits the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation." But then He adds a most necessary guard, without which the words would be misread: "of those who hate Me." Elsewhere the Lord condemns, in the strongest terms, the proverb Israel had taken up from just such a misreading: "The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge" (Ezekiel 18). He not only says but swears that they will have no reason to use such a proverb. The son will not bear the father's iniquity, and the father will not bear the son's.
Some took this verse to mean that all suffering traces back to someone's sin. Jesus answered that when His disciples asked who had sinned to cause a man's blindness.
The question the disciples raised may seem odd to us. But it expressed thoughts that were common among the Jews, based on Exodus 20:5, which speaks of the iniquity of the fathers being visited on the children. The Lord's reply shows that affliction may come with no element of punishment in it. It may come simply so that God's work may be displayed.
Sinai states the terms; it does not supply the remedy.
Least of all should Israel forget that Jehovah is God armed against sin. He is a jealous God, who visits the fathers' iniquity on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Him. He shows mercy to thousands of those who love Him and keep His commandments. But how could the sinner appear before God armed with such terrors? Not a word to that effect appeared in the ten words God spoke that day. It was meant to fill the heart of man with terror because of his sins. But it is the goodness of God that leads to repentance; it is faith in our Lord Jesus that gives assurance of salvation.
- Jealous — God's jealousy is love refusing a rival; He asks for the whole heart because only He can fill it.
- Image — man's images degrade God; the Son is the one likeness God gives, and God is jealous for His honour.
- Government — "visiting the iniquity" means consequences running down through families on earth. It is not a verdict on a child's soul.
- Limit — the words "of those who hate Me" fence the threat in, and the answering promise of mercy is the way out.
- Gospel — Sinai can terrify a sinner, but it cannot clear him. Assurance comes through faith in the Lord Jesus.
and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.
The second commandment does not end with the warning about children suffering for their parents' sin. It ends with a promise: steadfast love, or mercy, "to thousands." How far does that mercy reach? And what does it mean to love God and keep His commandments?
The first half of the commandment is what most readers remember. But it does not stop there. Its last words show another side of God's character.
This is so serious that people's sin would bring suffering on their children. It reaches to the third and fourth generation of those who hate God, those who despise His commandments. On the other hand, His character is such as to show mercy to those who love Him and keep His commandments. So, though God is perfectly holy and righteous, He is not harsh and cruel, but compassionate.
Some later complained that God was making them suffer for their fathers' sins. One writer answers them straight from this half of the commandment.
They admit that their fathers ate the sour grapes, but not themselves. But the commandment says something quite different. Those who love God and keep His commandments have in it the definite assurance that God will show them mercy. So they could not fall under the opposite rule of inheriting their father's sins.
Mercy also runs on into a family's future. One writer finds that same promise elsewhere in Scripture: a man will live to see his grandchildren.
The promised blessing is widened still further: "Yes, you shall see your children's children!" So the favour of God will rest on the descendants of His people. This is just what He promised at the giving of the law — showing mercy to thousands of those who love Him and keep His commandments.
The ten commandments fall into two halves. One writer shows that both halves ask for love.
Looking at the commandments together, we see that the first four relate to God, and the last six to man. That is, they define responsibility towards God and towards man... So God laid two things on Israel: love to God — perfect love to God, perfect according to their capacity — and love to their neighbour, measured by the standard of self-love.
That standard is higher than it first sounds. One writer asks who could ever claim to meet it.
What a law was this! Who could dare to say that the one absorbing object of his heart and soul is God? — and that his entire strength is devoted to God's pleasure? This law is a perfectly righteous one, but man in the flesh is totally incapable of obeying it. The Lord Jesus is the only one who has done so.
The mercy is real. But one writer points to what these words never told a sinner.
Least of all should Israel forget that the LORD is God armed against sin. He is a jealous God. He visits the fathers' iniquity on the children, to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Him. And He shows mercy to thousands of those who love Him and keep His commandments. But how could the sinner come before a God surrounded by such terrors? How was he to get rid of his sins to stand before Him? Not a word to this effect appeared in the ten words God spoke that day. He said little then, but every word was beyond doubt overwhelming and fatal to the guilty. It was meant to fill man's heart with terror because of his sins. But it is the goodness of God that leads to repentance; it is faith in our Lord Jesus that gives assurance of salvation.
Commentators differ on how far this mercy reaches. Some read it as mainly a matter of how God governs families here on earth. A child harmed by a parent's sin, one writer notes, "can still be saved eternally by receiving Christ as Saviour" (Leslie M. Grant).
- Character — The clause exists to show what God is like: holy and righteous, yet "not harsh and cruel, but compassionate."
- Contrast — Judgment reaches three or four generations; mercy reaches thousands. The commandment tips the scales toward kindness.
- Certainty — For those who love God, this is a "definite assurance of mercy," not a fear of inheriting a father's sins.
- Cost — The love it asks for is total: heart, soul and strength. "Man in the flesh is totally incapable of obeying" it. Only the Lord Jesus has kept it.
- Completion — Sinai promised mercy, but it never told a sinner how to get rid of his sins. Faith in the Lord Jesus gives that assurance.