God spoke all these words: I am God, your God,
   who brought you out of the land of Egypt,
   out of a life of slavery.Â
No other gods, only me.Â
 No carved gods of any size, shape, or form of anything whatever, whether of things that fly or walk or swim. Don’t bow down to them and don’t serve them because I am God, your God, and I’m a most jealous God, punishing the children for any sins their parents pass on to them to the third, and yes, even to the fourth generation of those who hate me. But I’m unswervingly loyal to the thousands who love me and keep my commandments.Â
No using the name of God, your God, in curses or silly banter; God won’t put up with the irreverent use of his name.Â
Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Work six days and do everything you need to do. But the seventh day is a Sabbath to God, your God. Don’t do any work—not you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your servant, nor your maid, nor your animals, not even the foreign guest visiting in your town. For in six days God made Heaven, Earth, and sea, and everything in them; he rested on the seventh day. Therefore God blessed the Sabbath day; he set it apart as a holy day.Â
Honor your father and mother so that you’ll live a long time in the land that God, your God, is giving you.
 No murder.
 No adultery.
 No stealing.
 No lies about your neighbor.Â
No lusting after your neighbor’s house—or wife or servant or maid or ox or donkey. Don’t set your heart on anything that is your neighbor’s.
 All the people, experiencing the thunder and lightning, the trumpet blast and the smoking mountain, were afraid—they pulled back and stood at a distance. They said to Moses, “You speak to us and we’ll listen, but don’t have God speak to us or we’ll die.”
 Moses spoke to the people: “Don’t be afraid. God has come to test you and instill a deep and reverent awe within you so that you won’t sin.”
“No other Gods, only me”
How easy it is to have other gods…celebrity….money….etc etc. If only we could learn to keep God in his rightful place in our lives rather than being distracted by things of the world.
If only it was that easy!!!
“I’m a most jealous God, punishing the children for any sins their parents pass on to them to the third, and yes, even to the fourth generation of those who hate me.” – that’s hard and totally unfair, isn’t it? Being punished/killed for what others did in the past. And if there is a feeling I really dislike in me and others it is jealousy. I have difficulties with a jealous God. LOVE needs neither fear nor threat to convince!
Sitham, I think you are right about that passage being difficult….I find some of the images of God in the Old testament really tough….however that needs to be balanced by God\’s love shown through Jesus and His death for us…sorry if that sounds glib but I don\’t think we should read the Bible in isolated little bits but look at it with a knowledge of what is to come.
Even in that passage I feel it is balanced as God is only punishing those who hate Him…hate is a very strong anti reaction…it is an active process. The counterpoint to that is the next bit that says \
This bit got cut off so I’m adding a follow up post….the next bit says “But I’m unswervingly loyal to the thousands who love me and keep my commandments”
Simple answer love God and keep His commandments.
“Deep and reverant awe, so that you won’t sin”
Do you think that this section means, that God will help you to keep these commandments?
Do people today still have an awe of God in this way?
Ant, thank you for your reminder! I am well aware of the bigger picture. Of course all leads to Golgatha and the Ressurection – several hundred years of a spiritual process later.
Just imagine, standing there at Mount Sinai, having survived the challenges and hardship of the Exodus until now, and then receiving this resentfulness being (possibly- you never know!) condemned for the wrongs others did. This is very unsettling on an emotional individual level, agitating on a social level and threatening on a spiritual level. As an individual I am willing to take over full responsibility for my own goods and wrongs, as a social person in a social relational context (small or big) but I am not accepting to be punished (physical, psychological, spiritual) for what generations before me did. Although I am certainly more than aware of the responsibility I have – being the person I am with all the implications in a genealogical sense.
This unforgiving resentfulness, coming from a weak place – as I see jealousy as a sign of emotional weakness – is the aspect of the Godhead of the OT I find highly disturbing for myself and politically extremely dangerous for a healthy society.
There is definitively lots of potential for emotional maturation.
It is really unsettling you are right I don\’t like this idea of God either. Personally, I think it actually comments on how families often work. If you think about it the sins of the parents do directly affect the lives of their children and therefore possible further generations.
I.e. alcoholism / domestic violence often can follow down generations due to children experiencing this when they are growing up and never learning another way and acting this way when they become an adult. This sin must have started at one generation of a family.
I\’m not saying this is part of God\’s direct vengeance / work (I don\’t presume to know anything about how God choses to work) but we do see this pattern every day. It\’s a bit much obviously to say that children should suffer punishment because of their parent\’s sin but unfortunately it just often seems to happen this way. It takes a very strong person not to fall into the same old patterns they were taught as a child, and it requires a knowledge that the ways they were taught were wrong, so it\’s no wonder that often certain destructive behaviours can follow down generations of a family.
It\’s a toughie :S