Psalms 103 :6-7
The Lord executes righteousness And justice for all who are oppressed.
He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the children of Israel.
Righteousness and justice towards the poor and needy in society reflects the ethical integrity of the king or president as God’s representative. The Lord revealing His ways to Moses refers to the divine formula describing God’s character
Exodus 34:6-7
And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth,
Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.”
Technically God’s characters are
Mercy ,
Grace,
Long-suffering,
Goodness/love,
Truth,
Forgiveness,
Judgement
For purpose of understanding and clarity, we will discuss the Judgement nature of God and put out of business men who read their greed into God’s word, exploiting the ignorant flocks who lack understanding.
Exodus 20: 4-6
“You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth;
You shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,
But showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
Not to make a carved image ran counter to every instinct of near Eastern cultures, but to do so an affront to a jealous God is concerned to protect the integrity of His relationship with his people
Exodus34:14
(for you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God),
If Israelites made idols to worship, it would be an act of disloyalty and repudiation ( denial of the truth or validity of something). When the Lord made himself known to the Israelites, they did not see any form
Deuteronomy 4:10-20
[10]Remember the day you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, when he said to me, “Assemble the people before me to hear my words so that they may learn to revere me as long as they live in the land and may teach them to their children.”
[11]You came near and stood at the foot of the mountain while it blazed with fire to the very heavens, with black clouds and deep darkness.
[12]Then the Lord spoke to you out of the fire. You heard the sound of words but saw no form; there was only a voice.
[13]He declared to you his covenant, the Ten Commandments, which he commanded you to follow and then wrote them on two stone tablets.
[14]And the Lord directed me at that time to teach you the decrees and laws you are to follow in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess.
[15]You saw no form of any kind the day the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire. Therefore watch yourselves very carefully,
[16]so that you do not become corrupt and make for yourselves an idol, an image of any shape, whether formed like a man or a woman,
[17]or like any animal on earth or any bird that flies in the air,
[18]or like any creature that moves along the ground or any fish in the waters below.
[19]And when you look up to the sky and see the sun, the moon and the stars—all the heavenly array—do not be enticed into bowing down to them and worshiping things the Lord your God has apportioned to all the nations under heaven.
[20]But as for you, the Lord took you and brought you out of the iron-smelting furnace, out of Egypt, to be the people of his inheritance, as you now are.
The best way to know and worship him was to recall what he had already done and said and to be alert to trust him and see what he would do in the future.
Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children involved penalties for successive generations who continued to commit the sins they learned from their fathers. This did not mean in a court case a son would have to suffer the penalty for his father’s crime.
Deuteronomy24: 16
“Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor shall children be put to death for their fathers; a person shall be put to death for his own sin.
Nor that individual standing or fellowship with God was determined by the behaviour of one’s parents
Jeremiah 31:29-30
In those days they shall say no more: ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, And the children’s teeth are set on edge.’
But every one shall die for his own iniquity; every man who eats the sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge.
Jeremiah 31:29-30 (MSG) “When that time comes you won’t hear the old proverb anymore, Parents ate the green apples, their children got the stomachache.
“No, each person will pay for his own sin. You eat green apples, you’re the one who gets sick.
Jeremiah 31:29-30
[29]“In those days people will no longer say,
‘The parents have eaten sour grapes,
And the children’s teeth are set on edge.’
[30]Instead, everyone will die for their own sin; whoever eats sour grapes—their own teeth will be set on edge.
Ezekiel 18:1-4,14-20,23
[1]The word of the Lord came to me:
[2]“What do you people mean by quoting this proverb about the land of Israel:
“ ‘The parents eat sour grapes,
And the children’s teeth are set on edge’?
[3]“As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, you will no longer quote this proverb in Israel.
[4]For everyone belongs to me, the parent as well as the child—both alike belong to me. The one who sins is the one who will die.
[14]“But suppose this son has a son who sees all the sins his father commits, and though he sees them, he does not do such things:
[15]“He does not eat at the mountain shrines
Or look to the idols of Israel.
He does not defile his neighbor’s wife.
[16]He does not oppress anyone
Or require a pledge for a loan.
He does not commit robbery
But gives his food to the hungry
And provides clothing for the naked.
[17]He withholds his hand from mistreating the poor
And takes no interest or profit from them.
He keeps my laws and follows my decrees. He will not die for his father’s sin; he will surely live.
[18]But his father will die for his own sin, because he practiced extortion, robbed his brother and did what was wrong among his people.
[19]“Yet you ask, ‘Why does the son not share the guilt of his father?’ Since the son has done what is just and right and has been careful to keep all my decrees, he will surely live.
[20]The one who sins is the one who will die. The child will not share the guilt of the parent, nor will the parent share the guilt of the child. The righteousness of the righteous will be credited to them, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against them.
[23]Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? Declares the Sovereign Lord. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live?
It meant that excuse, “ They don’t know any better ; it’s how they were raised,” doesn’t work with God. But the Lords mercy would far exceeds His judgment ( to thousands;
Leviticus 26:39-45
[39]Those of you who are left will waste away in the lands of their enemies because of their sins; also because of their ancestors’ sins they will waste away.
[40]“ ‘But if they will confess their sins and the sins of their ancestors—their unfaithfulness and their hostility toward me,
[41]which made me hostile toward them so that I sent them into the land of their enemies—then when their uncircumcised hearts are humbled and they pay for their sin,
[42]I will remember my covenant with Jacob and my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land.
[43]For the land will be deserted by them and will enjoy its sabbaths while it lies desolate without them. They will pay for their sins because they rejected my laws and abhorred my decrees.
[44]Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them or abhor them so as to destroy them completely, breaking my covenant with them. I am the Lord their God.
[45]But for their sake I will remember the covenant with their ancestors whom I brought out of Egypt in the sight of the nations to be their God. I am the Lord.’ ”
Isaiah 65:6-7
[6]“See, it stands written before me:
I will not keep silent but will pay back in full;
I will pay it back into their laps—
[7]both your sins and the sins of your ancestors,”
Says the Lord.
“Because they burned sacrifices on the mountains
And defied me on the hills,
I will measure into their laps
The full payment for their former deeds.”
Jeremiah 11:9-12
[9]Then the Lord said to me, “There is a conspiracy among the people of Judah and those who live in Jerusalem.
[10]They have returned to the sins of their ancestors, who refused to listen to my words. They have followed other gods to serve them. Both Israel and Judah have broken the covenant I made with their ancestors.
[11]Therefore this is what the Lord says: ‘I will bring on them a disaster they cannot escape. Although they cry out to me, I will not listen to them.
[12]The towns of Judah and the people of Jerusalem will go and cry out to the gods to whom they burn incense, but they will not help them at all when disaster strikes.
Jeremiah 32:17-19
[17]“Ah, Sovereign Lord, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you.
[18]You show love to thousands but bring the punishment for the parents’ sins into the laps of their children after them. Great and mighty God, whose name is the Lord Almighty,
[19]great are your purposes and mighty are your deeds. Your eyes are open to the ways of all mankind; you reward each person according to their conduct and as their deeds deserve.
Daniel 9:8-16
[8]We and our kings, our princes and our ancestors are covered with shame, Lord, because we have sinned against you.
[9]The Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against him;
[10]we have not obeyed the Lord our God or kept the laws he gave us through his servants the prophets.
[11]All Israel has transgressed your law and turned away, refusing to obey you. “Therefore the curses and sworn judgments written in the Law of Moses, the servant of God, have been poured out on us, because we have sinned against you.
[12]You have fulfilled the words spoken against us and against our rulers by bringing on us great disaster. Under the whole heaven nothing has ever been done like what has been done to Jerusalem.
[13]Just as it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come on us, yet we have not sought the favor of the Lord our God by turning from our sins and giving attention to your truth.
[14]The Lord did not hesitate to bring the disaster on us, for the Lord our God is righteous in everything he does; yet we have not obeyed him.
[15]“Now, Lord our God, who brought your people out of Egypt with a mighty hand and who made for yourself a name that endures to this day, we have sinned, we have done wrong.
[16]Lord, in keeping with all your righteous acts, turn away your anger and your wrath from Jerusalem, your city, your holy hill. Our sins and the iniquities of our ancestors have made Jerusalem and your people an object of scorn to all those around us.
In conclusion God demonstrate His compassion through His mighty works of victory and the sustenance of His people in the wilderness.