HOW CHILDREN BEAR THE INIQUITIES OF THEIR FATHER OR MOTHER

 Deuteronomy 5:9b-10 
 “for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,
 
10 And showing mercy and steadfast love to thousands and to a thousand generations of those who love Me and keep My commandments.”
 
Dear people of God, there are some Christians who are of the view that the above Scripture does not apply to Christians since we are now operating under the New Testament and that the Lord Jesus Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law.
 
One could even rightly reference the infallible Word of God in the Bible to buttress this point whilst quoting what God says in Ezekiel 18:20 (AMPC), “The soul that sins, it [is the one that] shall die. The son shall not bear and be punished for the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear and be punished for the iniquity of the son; the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him only, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon the wicked only.”
 
Can a son or daughter therefore share in their father or mother’s sins? Let me tell you a true story and then we return to the Bible to see the corroboration.
 
A friend recently told me how a man’s son confronted the father and accused him (father) of being a very wicked man responsible for himself and his elder sister’s inability to make progress in life.
 
Now, the father had told these children some years ago how his own siblings wanted to kill him and that was why he avoided them. He stopped relating with them, told his wife and children to stop relating with his siblings also.
 
He even had not called his own biological mother in years.
 
The interesting thing is that this man usually received financial assistance from his brothers once in a while and did not refuse this generosity even whilst accusing them of wanting to eliminate him!
 
Now, this man’s son escorted his friend one day to the friend’s church to pray. As they were praying the pastor of the church was passing and suddenly called the man’s son.
 
The pastor told him he had a message for him from God.
 
This pastor told the man’s son that the reason he was not making any progress in life was because his father was not relating with his siblings. The pastor also told him that his father had not spoken to his mother in years.
 
The pastor then asked him if he (man’s son) had ever seen him before, and the young man said no. The pastor then asked him to confirm or deny what he, pastor just told him and the young man confirmed it.
 
The pastor finally stated that unless his father reconciled genuinely with his mother (young man’s grandmother) and siblings, he, the young man could not make any progress in life no matter what he tried his hands at.
 
The young man at this time for a long while had no source of livelihood having completed his university education. His elder sister also though of marriageable age had no means of livelihood and had not received any suitor asking for her hand in marriage.
 
It was this encounter with his friend’s pastor that made the young man upset and so he confronted his father with the story.
 
The father though not believing his son’s story however decided to start calling his mother every week but is yet to reconcile with his siblings.
 
Now, one may ask, why is the father’s sinful behaviour in refusing to relate with his mother and siblings affecting his children who have done nothing wrong?
 
I will give 3 reasons why this is so:
 
(1)  The children are of age and know good from evil. However, in this case, they have believed and acted on their father’s evil counsel not to relate with their grandmother and uncles.
 
(2)  They know that their father’s siblings send money regularly to their father but they chose to believe their father’s lies that his siblings are wicked and out to kill him and that he, their father, is the only good person amongst them.
 
Do evil people render help to someone they want to eliminate? Certainly not.
 
(3)  Let us see what the Bible says in Ezekiel 18:14, 17c, “But if this wicked man begets a son who sees all the sins which his father has committed, and considers and fears [God] and does not do like his father,
 
he shall not die for the iniquity of his father; he shall surely live.
 
Dear friend, can you see why this man’s son and his sister under reference in the true story share in their father’s sin?
 
They have believed and done according to the wrong counsel their father has given them against his mother and siblings.
 
This is why some children today are suffering for their parents’ sins through wrong counsel they believed and acted upon.
 
It does not matter whether you are born again or not. If you take and act on any advice from your father, mother, sibling, uncle, aunt, relatives, friends, acquaintances, etc that goes contrary to God’s commandments, that is sin and you share in that person’s sin.
 
In the case under reference, God says we should pursue peace with everyone and holiness without which no human would see God – Hebrews 12:14.
 
The father’s wrong counsel to his children violates this command and therefore the father sins and the children sin by taking and acting on the wrong counsel.
 
The solution is simple - if the young man and his sister are to make progress in life. they should first go on their knees in genuine repentance, ask God for forgiveness for their sins, then go out and visit their grandmother and uncles and aunts who have done no wrong to them.
 
This is why I would counsel parents to fear God and stop misleading their children through wrong counsel.
 
As a parent, what do you teach your children about others? To suspect and mistrust everyone? To tell lies? To run after men to sleep with them to obtain money?
 
To cheat in examinations? To see themselves as financially and socially superior to others?
 
What about the parents in the South East of Nigeria who claim to be free born and counsel their children against having anything to do with a group of people created by the same God Who created them but whom they have labelled as slaves or Osu or Ohu?
 
Are there not parents who fight their children that they can never marry the so called Osu or Ohu and the children listen and take such evil counsel?
 
How dare you label a fellow creature from God like you as a slave while you call yourself freeborn?
 
What about those who take and act on evil counsel to go outside of their marriage to get a child because their wife at home is YET to conceive a child?
 
What about parents who fight their son or daughter to divorce a spouse who has done nothing wrong all because they never liked the spouse in the first place and the son or daughter acts on such evil counsel?
 
What about parents who counsel their children not to greet or respect a neighbour with whom they have a personal quarrel that has nothing to do with the child?
 
Dear friend, let us pray to God to open our spiritual eyes of understanding for there are many things we do and overlook that are offensive to God and which would be used against us on Judgement Day unless we repent sincerely and take God’s counsel.
 
The only counsel you should take from any human being no matter who the person, is the counsel that is consistent and agrees with what God has said in His Word in the Holy Bible.
 
Any counsel to the contrary spells doom for the giver and the receiver of such evil counsel. Parents should not give evil counsel to their children and children should never accept evil counsel from anyone including their parents so they don’t share in their parents’ sins.
 
A Word is enough for the wise.
 
Remember that Jesus Christ is coming NOW to take ONLY those who are qualified according to His righteous standards in the Holy Bible.
 
Are you ready for Him?
 
May the good Lord bless you as you heed His Word today, act on it and share with others in Jesus’ Most Righteous Name, Amen.
 
Gabriel Ama.
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