Rev. David Holwick C
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
January 22, 2017
Exodus 20:4-6
Ezekiel 18:2-4
CURSED BY GRANDPA?
I. What was your great-grandfather like?
A. Probably no one here knew him in a personal way.
1) Maybe you've seen some pictures of him, heard a few stories.
2) My father shared a bedroom with his grandpa and heard
about the early days of railroading in Apache territory.
Another great-grandfather had a reputation for being harsh
and rather cold to his wife.
Basically, I know next to nothing about them.
B. Have they cursed me?
1) I can be grumpy - is it Great-Grandpa Holwick's fault?
2) Have the mistakes and sins those people made, come down
to haunt me in unknown ways?
3) As God told Moses, have the sins of the fathers passed down
to the fourth generation?
4) If that is so, what punishments am I setting up for my
descendants 100 years from now?
C. We would all like to know why we have problems.
1) A generational curse could be helpful in giving insight.
2) But it would also give a harsh image of God.
II. The principle of corporate responsibility.
A. Many cultures focus on groups rather than individuals.
1) Your identity comes through your family, neighborhood, or
city.
2) Japan is a good example.
From the 1400s to 1500s, the samurai warriors enforced
their lord's rules by punishing an entire family if
one person committed a crime.
From the 1600s through the 1800s, five neighboring
households were grouped into one unit.
They were made responsible for each others' taxes - and
crimes.
Penalties were meted out to the entire unit if one
person among them committed an offence.
Americans like to talk about how neighbors used to yell
at unruly kids in the good old days.
In Japan, they would have gone after them with baseball
bats!
#65484
B. The Bible also has the concept of corporate responsibility.
1) In Numbers 16, a man named Korah raised a group of people
to oppose Moses.
a) God gave his opinion of their rebellion by sending an
earthquake which opened up a crevice and swallowed up
the three main leaders and, quote, "their wives,
children and little ones." Numbers 16:26-33
b) The rest of the opponents were burned up by fire from
God.
2) In the book of Joshua, a man named Achan sinned by hiding
some loot in his tent.
a) All of the loot was supposed to be devoted to God, so
Achan was in effect stealing from God.
b) The Israelites stoned him, his entire family, and even
his livestock. Joshua 7:24
3) If a family can be held responsible for the sins of a few,
then several generations can be punished for the sins
of a few. It is the same principle.
III. Dealing with a generational curse.
A. Charismatic Christians give widespread support to the idea.
1) Big TV evangelists like Joyce Meyers, Joel Osteen,
Tony Evans, Creflo Dollar, T.D. Jakes and Kenneth
Copeland believe in it.
2) They see many of our problems being caused by a curses
passed down by our ancestors.
a) Do you have problems submitting to your husband?
Maybe your grandmother was a practicing witch.
b) Do you have a problem with pornography?
Maybe your great-grandfather was promiscuous and you
have been cursed with a spirit of lust.
c) Do you have problems in your marriage?
A grandmother may have been an atheist.
3) Some charismatics see alcoholism, poverty, anxiety, rage,
obsessive/compulsive disorders and a slew of other issues
being the fault of your ancestors.
a) Your duty is to identify the curse, renounce it, and
have it driven from you by prayer.
b) Some even use an exorcism service. #65355
B. The influence of our past cannot be denied.
1) You don't have to believe in a generational curse to
recognize that the sins of parents can have long-term
effects on their children.
a) Abused boys have a tendency to become abusers.
b) Children of jailed fathers are more likely to commit
crimes.
c) Alcoholics and addicts can pass their habits on as well.
2) The effects of generational sin touches the whole society.
C. But effects are not the same thing as a curse.
1) Another way to say it is that moral consequences are not
the same as moral guilt.
2) Attributing our guilt to a previous generation can be a
form of evasion.
a) The people of ancient Israel perfected this. Ezek 18
b) They came up with a proverb - "The fathers eat sour
grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge."
c) What they meant by this was that all the problems
of their society were due to previous generations.
1> This generation didn't deserve all the bad stuff!
We are just victims.
2> The prophet Ezekiel strongly disagreed.
D. There is only one main curse in the Bible.
1) It is the curse of death that passes on to all of us from
Adam.
2) The good news is that Jesus took that curse upon himself,
on the cross, for our sake.
3) God will never curse someone who has put their faith in
Jesus.
IV. Every human is morally responsible for themselves.
A. The Old Testament teaches this.
1) Moses says explicitly 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."
2) The prophet Ezekiel echoes this in Ezekiel 18:4 --
"The soul who sins is the one who will die."
a) He goes on to say that good fathers can have bad sons
who can have good grandsons.
b) Everything depends on the moral decisions they make.
B. Our responsibility, and spiritual destiny, is up to us alone.
1) While there are examples of entire groups being punished,
usually judgment falls only on the guilty.
2) This is especially true of spiritual sins.
a) The context of Exodus 20 is the Ten Commandments.
b) Today's verses come from the second commandment,
don't have no idols.
c) Note that the punishment goes to those generations
WHO HATE GOD.
Christian writer J.I. Packer writes:
"The assumption is that children will follow in their parents'
footsteps...
The divine form of words is intended to alert parents to the
damage they may do to their families, and to children yet
unborn, by sinning...
...over and above the damage they will do to themselves by
provoking their God to be angry with them.
It remains a stubborn fact that children will do what they
see their parents doing." [1]
3) When multiple generations are punished, it is usually
because they are repeating the same sins.
V. God's blessing has a bigger impact than his punishment.
A. Sin affects four generations, obedience affects thousands.
1) Both numbers are undoubtedly symbolic, not literal.
2) But it shows that God much prefers to love us than
to correct us.
3) Who knows - by loving God and doing the right thing, you
might influence the history of your nation.
Maybe the world!
B. What kind of impact are you passing on?
1) You could be picking up habits that will scar your kids.
2) On the other hand, by praying for your kids and leading
them in God's path, you may bless people far into the
future.
I read a story years about a man who was researching his
family genealogy.
He got it back to a poorhouse in England in the 1700s.
This ancestor was extremely poor and sick.
I believe he had tuberculosis.
He was married to a young woman who was also in the
poorhouse.
After a short time the man died, but not before his wife
became pregnant.
She died while giving birth to a son in the poorhouse.
That orphan grew up with only one personal possession from
his family - his father's small Bible.
In the margins his father had written notes about the
blessings God had given him, and the joy he had from
his faith.
The man who was tracing his family was deeply moved.
Because 200 years later, his family was filled with
missionaries and preachers.
All because of one poor but faithful man. [2]
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
1. “From the Scriptures to the Sermon II. The problem of paradigms,” by
J.I. Packer, Ashland Theological Journal, 22 (1990), p. 54.
2. I read this story years ago in a Christian magazine, perhaps Moody
Monthly or Christianity Today, but have not been able to locate
the exact source. Do any of you remember reading it? Drop me a line.
#65355 “The Truth About Generational Curses,” by John David Brown and
Crusade Church Doctrinal Council, 2012; <link>.
#65484 “The Japanese Parents Who Apologise For Their Children,” by
Yuzuha Oka, BBC News, December 31, 2016; <link>.
These and 35,000 others are part of the Kerux database that can be
downloaded, absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
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