How is it just for later generations to be punished for their forefathers' sins?
A viewer asks how it can be just for future generations to be punished for the sins of their forefathers, in light of Exodus 20 saying God visits the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation.
Answer
Exodus 20 verse five says that God is a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. These are corporate judgments; that is how we make the distinction. There is another passage in Ezekiel 18 that says the father shall not suffer for the sins of the son, and the son shall not be punished for the sins of the father. It can say that because that is on the individual basis: one father, one son. The principle is that if the father sins, it is not right for the son to suffer in that individual crucible. But when you get to a corporate level, where the whole nation of Israel goes off worshiping false gods, God says he will punish the whole nation, and the punishment goes to the third and fourth generation. That is what we saw when Israel went to Babylon for seventy years, because the whole nation was worshiping false gods; the whole nation suffered for three or four generations. So that is the difference between those two commandments in Scripture: one speaks of corporate judgment, the other of individual judgment.