“Parents are not to be put to death for their children, nor children put to death for their parents; each will die for their own sin.”-Deuteronomy 24:16
We next move on to the law banning trans-generational punishment.
We’re told it is forbidden for the parents to be put to death for the crimes of their children and vice versa.
Notice that no specific crime is called out here.
This was to be a universal instruction that would be applied to all laws.
Now I know what you’re thinking.
How do we square this instruction with the following verses from Numbers chapter 14?
‘The Lord is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; He punishes the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.”-Numbers 14:18
Are we dealing with a bonafide contradiction here?
No, there’s actually a huge difference between this instruction here in Deuteronomy 24 and Numbers 14:18.
Numbers 14:18 is referring to what happens when the punishment due one generation is passed on to a future generation…
…and that future generation may in turn pass on the punishment due them to their next generation.
This passing the buck so to speak could literally repeats itself across several generations from when the first transgression was committed.
I know this sounds weird as all heck, but this principle was very real and practiced by the Israelites.
I’m sure you’ve heard of the idea of generational curses.
Or maybe you yourself feel like you’re suffering from a generational curse.
For example…
…somehow, no matter what you do, you’re not able to get ahead financially.
Or any relationship you enter into with a member of the opposite sex always seems to go south.
Or you are plagued by addictive habits involving alcohol, drugs and/or illicit sex that you just can’t seem to shake.
Whatever it may be, in some strange way, you feel like you’re currently being affected NOT by something you did but by something your father, grandfather, or maybe an ancestor even further back did!
There are even intense prayers sessions held on behalf of those suffering from generational curses to free them from their bondage.
And there are a ton of verses in both the “Old” and new testaments testifying to this reality.
However, this is different than what we’re dealing with here.
So, let’s get back to the main question.
How do we square Deuteronomy 24:18, which says “Parents are not to be put to death for their children, nor children put to death for their parents”…
with Numbers 14:18 which says the the Lord “…punishes the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation”?
The answer is simple.
Numbers 14:18 is NOT part of the civil or criminal law code.
It is a principle decided on and carried out exclusively by the Lord.
It is His prerogative to decide when, where and how to apply this principle.
It is not man’s decision to make.
On the other hand, Deuteronomy 24:18 banning trans-generational punishment is dealing with human beings carrying out the legal system that God has established.
This is quite a huge difference.
Therefore, if a son commits a murder, the father doesn’t owe his life for the crime his son committed and it would be forbidden for a court to order the father be executed.
Under the Lord’s justice system, only the one who commits the crime is to be held liable.
Leave a Reply