nerd-dom...

i love my seminary professors. [insert nerdy expression of glee here] like, I wrote a ten page paper last semester and my prof sent me back two pages of insight on the paper. wtf. wonderful. so i was thinking and writing about generational sin a lot last semester and included some thoughts in my paper. in his response, my prof included this section from a commentator, Douglas K. Stuart, from his commentary on Exodus (p.454). (forgive the typos, i'm transcribing it)

"This explanatory section of the second commandment, with its assertion that God is 'jealous...punishing the children for the sins of the father,' has been widely misunderstood. [what a relief that can be!] It does not represent an assertion that God actually punishes an innocent generation for the sins of a predecessor generation, contrary to Deut 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'; cf. 2 Kgs 14:6). Rather, this oft-repeated theme speaks of God's determination to punish successive generations for committing the same sins they learned form their parents. In other words, God will not say, 'I won't punish this generation for what they are doing to break my covenant because, after all, they merely learned it from their parents who did it too.' Instead, God will indeed punish generation after generation ('to the third and fourth generation') if they keep doing the same sorts of sins that prior generations did. If the children continue to do the sins their parents did, they will receive the same punishments as their parents.

But to this is contrasted his real wish: to show 'covenant loyalty' [NIV 'love'] to 'a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.' By the greatest numerical contrast in the Bible (three/four to thousands), God identified eloquently his real desire: to have his people remain loyal forever so that he might in turn show them the rich blessings of his resulting loyalty to them."

Wonderful!