I can only wonder…how many times over the ages has God just looked down at us from heaven, shaking His head in dismay …and asked such questions as these:

“Why don’t My people take Me seriously? Why don’t they believe My word? Why do they always go astray in their hearts and refuse to obey Me?”

We have it on record in some of the oldest written documents where God expressed His heart’s desire when He declared: “Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear Me and always keep all My commandments, that it might be well with them and with their children forever.” (Deut. 5:29).

So when I suggest that God would ask why we don’t take Him ‘seriously’…may I remind you again, where He included in the second commandment that He is ‘jealous’ for our hearts… and is known to ‘visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations…’ (Deut. 5:9).

But He was also quick to include how He is willing and ready to “show mercy to thousands, to those who love Him and keep His commandments” (10).

Did Jesus Himself not echo this same point, reminding us that ‘IF…we truly loved Him, we’d keep His commandments’? (John 14:15). And then there was God’s declaration found in Hosea 4:6…that ‘because we had forgotten His law…He in turn would forget our children’.

For all those things we wear ourselves out trying to ‘do for the betterment of our children’ (because we claim to love them)…why would we not do the one thing that God promises will guarantee His involvement to bless, protect, and provide for them…by making it our focus and primary ambition…to show our love for Him by doing what He says?

I can almost hear God asking us directly…’If not for yourselves, then why not for your children (and grandchildren)?’

There are more than a few passages found in scripture that I believe are there to give us pause; one of the earlier ones found in Genesis 6, where we read how God’s heart was ‘grieved’…and He was “sorry that He had made man on the earth…because every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” (5-6). And we know how that led to a massive flood that swept over the earth, sparing only a family of 8. You might call that the ‘first reboot’ in the history of mankind, as God ‘cleansed’ the earth and tried once again to establish a lasting covenant with His creation where they could come to know Him, walk with Him, and be blessed and cared for by Him.

And once again…we can hear a holy sigh from heaven as God accuses us once more…how we ‘always go astray in our hearts’. (Heb. 3:10)

We read in Isaiah 5 a few weeks ago, where God was making it known that He had again, reached His limit… and was about to ‘lower the hedge’ and bring judgment on His people, even asking: “What more could have been done to My vineyard that I have not done to it?” (5:4)

Friends…can you not see the parallel here, where God is asking the same question today when He continues to see His people practice sin, and refuse to turn from it completely … despite the great price He paid when He offered up His only begotten Son to set us free from sin…once and for all? (John 8:32-36; 3:16)

How many times do we need to have our attention directed to Matt. 7:21-23 and be reminded that “not everyone who says, ‘Lord, Lord’…will enter the kingdom of heaven, but those who DO…the will of the Father who is in heaven.” Jesus even points out why ‘many’ who claim to have been busy ‘doing great things in His name’….will be turned away: because they continued to ‘practice lawlessness’, which is sin (1 John 3:4).

The apostle Paul would continue to drive home a similar and somber reminder…that ‘those who continue to walk according to the flesh…will die’ (Rom. 8:13). And if there was any confusion as to what ‘walking according to the flesh’ looks like…he gets pretty specific in Galatians 5:16-21, ending on the somber note that ‘those who continue to practice such things will NOT inherit the kingdom of heaven’.

Could it be made any more loud and clear?

What are we do with such verses that tell us that God’s ‘wrath is being revealed from heaven against ALL ungodliness and unrighteousness’…even today (Rom. 1:18), and yet those who ‘abide under the shadow of the Almighty’…need not fear…for though a ‘thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand…it shall not come near you…’ (Ps. 91:1-15). Do you know why this is and how this is even possible? Because ‘those who abide in Him are walking as He walked…and no longer sin’ (1 John 2:6; 3:6)…and “we know whoever is born of Him no longer sins… and the wicked one does not touch him’ (1 John 5:18).

I know this may be ‘heavy stuff’ for a Monday morning to start your week on, but I cannot get away from that which the Holy Spirit is compelling me to share: “IF we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgement, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries…” (Heb. 10:26-27). And that word ‘adversaries’…refers to the ‘enemies of God’. Care to read Romans 8:7-8 where we are told who are the ones that remain ‘hostile’ towards God and will not be subject to His law nor able to please Him’?

So yes, God was serious when He warned that the ‘iniquities of the fathers’ (along with sin’s consequences) …could be passed down to the 3rd and 4th generation of children. Now that’s not to say every issue you are struggling with today is a result of that, but I did want to bring it to our attention these past few days for you to consider. And if there is anything ‘to that’…then I’m confident the Holy Spirit will make that clear to you and ‘confirm’ it in your own heart…so that it can be dealt with once and for all, bringing you more freedom than you have ever dreamed was possible.

But there is something else…that can be ‘handed down from our fathers’ that is equally as destructive…and we’ll talk about that tomorrow, Lord willing.