Chapter Three The Jealous God Understanding The Principles Of Habitation That The Jealous God Utilizes To Guide History

Chapter Three

The Jealous God

Most people tend to use the term “jealous” instead of “envious” when talking about people being envious of other people. To be jealous of someone or something is to be possessive and protective of one’s rights rather than longing for something that one does not have.

 The idea of God being a jealous God is often misunderstood. A common misconception is this means God is full of wrath and He is bent on taking out vengeance against sinners. While it is true, God is possessive and protective of what belongs to Him, when it comes to sinners, our Heavenly Father desires us to experience a relationship with Him and enjoy His favor. When we have decided to put our complete trust in God and accept the truth, we will find He is very jealous of His Word, which has been implanted in us—the pearl of great price (cf. James 1:21; Matthew 13:45-46).

The Second Commandment

 “You shall not make for yourselves a carved image, or 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 on 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”—Exodus 20:4-6.

Deliberate Deception

The Second Commandment is omitted in publications of a certain Christian denomination. The denomination's writers claim that the Second Commandment forms part of the First Commandment and need not be mentioned. To cater for this removal of the Second Commandment, the church authorities have split the last commandment to form the ninth and tenth commandments of their version of the Decalogue. Tragically, Christianity is judged by many according to the actions of various church authorities; rather than being judged according to what our Lord Jesus Christ has done. However, if we are seeking the truth, the key is to read the Bible for ourselves and start praying to God to reveal Himself to us, and show us the truth.

Bowing before Images

It is understandable why a Christian denomination would have an aversion to including the Second Commandment within its list of the Ten Commandments if the church practices include having carved images and statues of people placed throughout its buildings and then teaching people to pray before them. Decorating buildings with images of dead people for veneration is rather strange behavior for any church that claims to be the protector of the true faith; especially, when God prohibits bowing down before carved images or any representation of any likeness of anything, as is stated in the Second Commandment.

There is an argument to defend the practice based on the premise that not all people can read or write. The argument goes along the lines that people who cannot read or write are able to understand the gospel message better if they can see images of the people being spoken about.  Images of the dead are also supposed to convey the truth of the resurrection, and thereby encourage faith. In as much as it is insidiously deceptive, the argument is very plausible, and if people cannot read and write, then a pictorial means of conveying the gospel is the next-best thing. This way people can see the images in pictures and carved figurines and statues and know in what they are placing their faith. Even today, in areas where most people can read and write, certain denominations claim that having icons of cherubs and other religious artifacts are helpful in assisting people’s faith and should not be abolished, because they are not icons of other gods.

The difficulty with this view is faith comes from hearing, and the Bible teaches we walk by faith not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7); consequently, there does not appear to be any need for carved statues within a meeting hall or a church building.

Bible-believing congregations do not even have a carved figure of Jesus on a cross to depict His death. Often a cross is placed at the front of the church but not with an image depicting Jesus being crucified. Bible-believing congregations have a cross only for this reason: Jesus is no longer on the cross. Jesus has risen from the dead. This is what the true faith is about—the resurrection of the dead.

Offending denominations have their authorities argue that the images are in line with the Old Testament practice of constructing objects for liturgical purposes. The Ark of the Covenant was adorned with golden cherubim (Exodus 25:18-20) and Solomon’s Temple was adorned with carved fruits, flowers, trees and cherubim (1 Kings 6:18, 29, 32, 34-35) and in the courtyard was a bronze basin supported by twelve carved bronze oxen. While these may be religious objects used to adorn the temple, they were not symbols to be worshiped, or bowed before, or venerated in any other manner.

However, the most convincing argument to justify devotion and prayer directed towards religious objects is supposedly the bronze serpent that was placed on a pole by Moses. This bronze serpent is said to have saved from death all who were bitten by poisonous snakes when they looked to the serpent (Numbers 21:8-9). What these religious authorities overlook is the people in the wilderness were saved by faith in what the bronze serpent represented (i.e. their sin being dealt with on the cross) and not by the bronze serpent itself. The truth is the Ark of the Covenant and all the other practices of the Mosaic covenant and Solomon’s Temple have been done away with because the true reality of Jesus Christ has now been revealed. As Jesus implied, He is the serpent on the pole, who takes away the sting of sin, that poisonous bite of death, through His death and resurrection. To quote Jesus:

 “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life” (John 3:14-15).

As for Jesus being lifted up, this does not necessarily mean on the cross alone; but also in the praises of the congregation, because He has risen from the dead and lives for evermore.

Religious organizations that have used all manner of deceptions in the past to control congregations still justify their use of images and statues. That people looked at a serpent on a pole is not seen as typology of Jesus becoming the mediator for all humankind. Instead, because people were healed in the days of Moses from snakebite by looking at an image on a pole, images of canonized saints and the holy family are taught to be just as potent. This is because the saints are part of the resurrection. They are now in Heaven, and religious authorities claim they can be called upon to petition God on behalf of the person seeking assistance. The authorities claim people are not taught to worship the carved images or statues that adorn the church sanctuaries; nevertheless, the festivals in honor of various saints and the Madonna are encouraged. The reality is people actually bow before images and adore them, and this is forbidden.

Praying To Saints

According to the Bible, there is only one mediator between man and God and this is Lord Jesus Christ (1 Timothy 2:5). In which case, praying to saints or anybody else to mediate on our behalf begins to look like contacting other gods and a form of idolatry. For those who would argue men are not gods; well, the Bible states men are gods and not irrational creatures of instinct, because they are created in the image of God and given a spirit. Gods are spirit beings and so are we, even though we might be biological beings as well and possess a soul. Praying to saints is the same as seeking out other gods.

Praying to saints also raises the issue about seeking the dead. In the book of Deuteronomy, chapter eighteen, verses ten and eleven, practices performed by many religions around the world are forbidden. These are walking through fire, practicing divination, being a soothsayer or an augur or a sorcerer or one who casts spells or consults ghosts or spirits, or who seeks help from the dead.

Much depends on what a person believes. If someone subscribes to the belief that nobody really ceases to exist, then the idea of a person having died physically is still capable of hearing prayers, becomes plausible.

When a person dies, the spirit lives on in the eternal realm of habitation. What is astounding is how a human being could, in all honesty, believe he is endowed with powers on Earth to canonize saints to hear prayers and perform miracles and administer blessings. One would think that if a person had such powers to do that, he would have the very powers himself to perform miracles and administer proven divine blessings upon people. Only this is not the case, since there is no evidence of the Pope doing this.

However, anybody seeking help from a person who has died is really committing a gross transgression of what God has forbidden people to do. This is the case even if the Pope has canonized that person as a saint. We are not to seek help from those who have died. We are not to seek help from anyone who has passed away whom we might think has eternal life and, therefore, has not really died; a person who is counted among the living. We are only to seek help through our Lord Jesus Christ.

An example of the difference between praying to a saint and praying to the only mediator between God and man is evidenced in the account of Maria and Nuncio.

Nuncio suffered from large skin ulcers that covered his body for over twelve months, and medical science had no answers for his condition. Nuncio sought help from our Lord Jesus Christ and was completely healed from the condition a few days after having had prayer for healing. Nuncio received Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. He had the assurance of eternal life and his mind was transformed. When he died, he could look forward to spending eternity in the Kingdom of God.

Maria was a very religious woman who prayed to St. Antonio (who was canonized in the year 1232CE by Pope Gregory IX, and was made a doctor of the church in the year 1946CE by Pope Pius XII.) Over a twenty-year period, I saw Maria buckle over as a hunchback to such an extent that, when standing, her chin was below her knees. To look at people, she had to twist her neck and tilt her head upwards on an angle. This gave the impression that she was a hybrid human (part alien—like one of the aliens from the movie Men in Black[i]).When her husband Nuncio was miraculously healed, after having asked Jesus for healing and received Jesus Christ as Lord, she still refused to stop praying to St. Antonio. Eventually, Maria could no longer walk and she refused to pray to our Lord Jesus Christ—tragically, even unto her death.

Queen of Heaven

Another teaching condemned in the Bible is the idea of Mary being Queen of Heaven. God condemned this ancient Egyptian teaching when speaking through the prophet Jeremiah:

“Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, saying: ‘You and your wives have spoken with your mouths and fulfilled with your hands, saying, “We will surely keep our vows that we have made, to burn incense to the queen of heaven and pour out drink offerings to her." You will surely keep your vows and perform your vows!’"

“Therefore hear the word of the Lord, all Judah who dwell in the land of Egypt: ‘Behold, I have sworn by My great name,’ says the Lord, ‘that My name shall no more be named in the mouth of any man of Judah in all the land of Egypt, saying, “The Lord God lives.” ‘Behold, I will watch over them for adversity and not for good.’” (Jeremiah 44:25-27).

There is no queen in Heaven and the Lord God in Heaven, who is the King of Kings, condemns the concept.

Mother of God

A greater abomination than the concept of there being a queen of Heaven is the teaching that the Virgin Mary is the mother of God. Not only is the Virgin Mary, called the Queen of Heaven, she is also called the Mother of God. This implies that God is beholden to a woman who was the offspring of a man. What this actually tells us is certain Christian denominations promote an element of man-made religion and are not necessarily the true religion that provides light to mankind and a path to the true God. It is no wonder that the Islamic religion is so anti-Christ, because its leaders see such abominations in the Roman Catholic Organization, even though the Koran acknowledges Jesus was born of Mary while she was still a virgin. The Orthodox Church, along with the Coptic Church, do not fare much better because they too venerate Mary and have statues erected in their places of worship. Mary needed a Savior (Luke 1:47) because she was just a sinner like every other human being, so it is impossible for her to be the mother of the Holy God Almighty, in Whom Alone dwells immortality (1 Timothy 6:16).

True Religion

True religion is about worshiping the only true Creator God, and this can only be done in spirit and truth (John 4:24). This has nothing to do with statues or representations of art; for true worship is only possible if we have a personal relationship with our Heavenly Father through Lord Jesus Christ by means of the Holy Spirit. Being baptized in the Holy Spirit is the very heart of the Christian message, for this baptism is the one that was promised by the prophet Joel, John the Baptist and Jesus Himself.

In the second commandment, God makes a point of including three dominions that are known to man. These are the heavens above, the surface of the planet Earth and the waters below the surface. People worshiped stars and signs that might appear in the heavens. They also worshiped whatever was found on top of the Earth’s surface, along with imaginary creatures of the deep that supposedly existed in the seas and lakes and rivers that were below the Earth’s surface. Man’s tendency towards delusions is clearly stated by the Apostle Paul:

“For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever!” (Romans 1:20-25).

The Second Commandment was given to the Israelites to address this tendency towards creation worship, and it still applies to us today.

God Tempts No One

It needs to be borne in mind that God does not actually come down from Heaven and punish people. In particular, it needs to be noted, God lets people follow the decisions of their hearts. James, the half-brother of Jesus, points this out and describes the process of what happens when people are left to follow the desires of their heart but do not seek the Lord:

“Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God,’ for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death” (James 1:13-15).

This process of temptation was seen when Adam and Eve broke faith with God.

Eve looked and “saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate”(Genesis 3:6).

Eve had to reason out whether she was going to keep faith with God and Adam or go her own way. Unfortunately, the desire to become wise like God was too strong for her to resist as she continued to listen to the voice of the prince of the power of the air (Ephesians 2:2).

The Cosmic Struggle

Even though there is this cosmic struggle going on for the spirits and souls of men and women, God is not going to give up easily. The battleground is being played out in the minds of every man and woman and child. Each one of us has been given the power to choose for ourselves who we will follow, the prince of the power of the air or the Lord God of Creation.

Understanding what is actually going on in the hidden realms of the spiritual domain of existence gives us the ability to make informed decisions and exercise the power that is within us to take control of our own destiny. God is ever-present; dealing justly with every person and trying to bring people to Himself. This is evident in the second part of the Second Commandment, which states:

“…for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing steadfast love to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments” (Exodus 20:5b-6).

The Human Soul

Every person is born biologically as the result of the combination of chemical reactions taking place between a male spermatozoon and the ovum of a woman. This produces a physical being, which is essentially a human body that possesses a soul.

God puts a spirit within each child at birth, which He attaches to the soul. This spirit God jealously yearns over with a jealous love (James 4:5—Amplified Bible). God does this in the hope that each child will grow up and choose eternal life by seeking out the true Lord of life; the Word of God who entered the body of Mary’s baby (cf. Hebrews 10:5). This Christ-event occurred not before the fetus was born as many people like to hypothesize,[ii] but at birth, when the body of the baby Jesus had been prepared for HIM. The Word of God is the pre-existent Son of God, spoken about in the book of Proverbs, chapter thirty, verse four, and Revelation chapter nineteen, verse thirteen.

Generational Sin

When God says he is a jealous God who visits the iniquity of people to the third and fourth generation, this is not to be seen as punishment, but rather as an act of mercy. The reason this is an act of mercy is each generation has the opportunity of seeing the futility of a sinful life and is given a chance to repent from sin and turn to the Living God.

In some cases, it may be the older generation that repents. I witnessed this when a seventy-two-year-old man heard a twenty-two-year-old man curse God with such vulgarity that he was grieved of heart and, consequently, asked Jesus Christ to forgive him for his own sins.

Sometimes it is the younger generation that becomes appalled by what the older generation is doing.To this, also, I can testify.

I once worked with a person we will call John. I actually boarded with his aunt for a while, and shared the same room with him. I was fifteen years old at the time and John was eighteen years old. One day his father visited us and then went out with John. The next night John’s father came around complaining he had been locked out of his abode, and his son was in bed with his unwed partner. The following weekend, John took me around to meet his unwed (de facto) stepmother. When we arrived at her apartment, to my surprise, there was one of my bosses and another man, the boss’s cousin. They, too, had decided to get in on the act. I was so sickened by what I saw going on. There were little children running around the premises, while their mother was drunk and had been entertaining the two men in the bedroom just before we had arrived. I left and, with tears in my eyes, began talking to God about the situation, as I walked home alone.
 

In John’s case, I cannot comment on how the iniquity ran down to the third and fourth generation. One thing I do know, a number of years later, he crashed a stolen car and was trapped behind the steering wheel. A voice told him to get out of the car; which he did. He was not caught for stealing the car, but he did find himself in trouble for some other matter and spent time in prison. John started to look to God because of his imprisonment and subsequent events. Then one day he decided he did not want to look to God anymore.—It was as if God was giving this person every chance to seek him out, because his defacto stepmother had seduced him when he was thirteen years of age.—The last I heard of John was he had been caught in an adulterous relationship with someone’s wife, and to avoid a bashing, jumped off a three-storey balcony. When John landed on the concrete below, he smashed both the heels of his feet; so badly, he now has to walk in calipers. Evidently, when John jumped, he did not know the property was built on a gully and therefore was three floors high at the back, because he had come through what appeared to be the ground floor entrance at the front of the apartment block.

A Woman’s View of Generational Sin

To help us understand how the process of generational sin works, we shall consider what psychoanalyst Helene Deutsch describes in The Psychology of Women (Vol. 1).[iii] In this work, she analyzes the three central women characters (Maria, Olga, and Genia) in the book Ways of Lovey, because she senses that they are based on the direct experience of the writer, and believes these three generations coexist historically; because every generation usually has a grandmother, mother and grandchild living at the same time.

What we find is Maria, the grandmother in this saga, possesses similarities with the real-life writer Alexandra Kollontai,[iv] a famed Russian political leader during the years of the Russian Revolution at the beginning of the twentieth century.

Maria begins her break from tradition by marrying against her parent’s advice and has two children to her husband. Maria then falls in love with another man and forsakes her first husband and children to marry a second time. She has a daughter to her second husband. One day she discovers her second husband having an affair with the milkmaid, who becomes pregnant to him; so she leaves him. This time Maria takes her child, Olga.

Olga grows up fatherless and seeks the attention of older men, whereupon she enters into a sexual relationship with a much older man, who is deported later on, leaving her homeless. Olga is employed by Marhk,[v] a married engineer, as a governess in his home. Marhk appears to be happily married and has five healthy children to his wife. Olga gets pregnant to Marhk, and the affair wrecks his marriage. Olga then meets Comrade Romahn,[vi] whom she lives with, but also maintains her affair with Marhk; to whom she has a daughter named Genia. Olga eventually marries Comrade Romahn, and Genia comes to live with them.

Genia has sexual relations with her stepfather, Comrade Romahn and falls pregnant to him. The unwanted child is aborted. Had this child lived, it would have been Maria’s first great grandchild.

What we see here is the sin of each generation increasing in magnitude until the resultant abortion of the child from an incestuous affair—prohibited by God (Leviticus 18:17). The aborted great grandchild would have been the third generation from Maria, the grandmother of Genia, who started the chain of iniquity when she committed the first act of adultery. However, it would have been the fourth generation of that particular sin.

This illustrates how the Lord God visits iniquity to the third and fourth generation. The line of iniquity is cut off at the fourth generation, which prevents the wickedness from increasing further.[vii]

God is in control. He could easily wipe out every person who sins. However, God has decided to work within the framework of the conditions that currently exist. God does this to prove that He Himself is righteous and justifies the ungodly through faith in Lord Jesus Christ (Rom. 3:21-25).

For many, the idea of God needing to prove that He is righteous is outrageous. What is important for us to understand is unless our Heavenly Father is righteous, there is no hope for any of us. Fortunately, the sin issue has been resolved through the death of Lord Jesus Christ, who paid the ransom price to redeem the Earth and its inhabitants from the god of this world, the prince of the power of the air; Lucifer, the Devil, who is Satan, the accuser of God and those who accept His redemption.  The second part of the sin issue is the final judgment when an eternal monument (cf. Rev. 20:10) is locked in place for Creation to witness and acknowledge. Forever and ever, all of Creation will see the evidence of the righteous judgment of God in having demonstrated his faithfulness and mercy to the lost and delivered justice for all according to their deeds.

God Longs for Us to Return to Him

When the archangel Lucifer decided to break faith with God and challenged him by deceiving Eve and thereby trapping Adam into breaking faith with the Father, he got the right to have dominion over the Earth. In heeding the voice of someone other than God, Adam and Eve forfeited their right to continue as Lord—and Lady (if you like)—over their domain on planet Earth. Lucifer’s main aim these days is to keep people from discovering the truth about existence and finding salvation by returning to God through the death and resurrection of Lord Jesus Christ.

The reason why God allows Satan to have dominion over the Earth is He Himself is righteous. God has to demonstrate that He is a lawful Creator, who is principled and does not break His Own Word. If God were to break His Own Word, He would cease to be righteous, holy and worthy of worship by the Creation.

It needs to be understood that God does not enjoy seeing people suffer and loves every human being. The Bible says that God even hates the death of the wicked (Ezekiel 18:23; 33:11).

God created men and women to have a free will, so that they would come to the realization that to know the Father and fellowship with Him is better than life itself. God gives each person every chance to know the truth and come to the knowledge of salvation. Right now, a war is taking place for the hearts and minds of us all. Satan and his agents are seeking souls to destroy, and God wants us to obey Him and be saved from destruction. However, we did not ask to be born, so we have to be given every chance possible to make it to Heaven.

The account of Abraham tells us that he believed God was the true Judge of Earth (Genesis 18:25) and, in being a righteous judge, would always do what is right. This means that God would overlook ignorance and consider every mitigating circumstance to show mercy to all who are prepared to be merciful themselves (Matthew 5:7). The scenario is then one of the evil Lucifer trying to ruin the lives of men, women, and children, and turn them against God. Meanwhile, God is calling all men and women to a better life by experiencing an intimate relationship with Himself.

What this means for us is God will do whatever He can to bring us to salvation without over-riding our will. He has to do this to prove that He Himself is righteous (Rom. 3:25; 1 John 2:12). To this extent, God overlooks our ignorance in every situation as He extends His grace towards every person who is born. While God yearns jealously over the spirit that He places in us, this does not mean that we cannot be lost eternally and separated from the Creator. Just as God has prepared Hell for Lucifer and his angels, all who decide to reject the truth and follow the ways of the world will be cast into Hell also; although this is not what God desires. God desires all men to come to the knowledge of the truth and be saved (1 Timothy 2:4).—Thank you, Lord Jesus!

The Doers of God’s Law will be Justified

“For there is no partiality with God. For all who have sinned without the Law will also perish without the Law, and all who have sinned under the Law will be judged by the Law; for it is not the hearers of the Law who are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified. For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them, on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus” (Romans 2:11-16—NASB[viii]).

Amazingly, everybody has the ability to know right from wrong without being taught by way of guided instruction. The spirit that God places within us enables us to think and make judgments about whether what we do is right or wrong. Simply put, no person likes to be hurt; therefore, it goes without saying that it would not be right to hurt another, unless there was a just cause. The idea that there might be a just cause means that we have reasoned out the difference between what is just and what is unjust. What this means is the spirit within us provides us with a conscience that will cause us alarm when something appears unjust; at least, until such time that our conscience is seared (cf. 1 Timothy 4:2) and incapable of feeling any prick or goad (cf. Acts 26:14).

We All Have a Conscience

The word “conscience” means, “with knowledge”. True knowledge means to know the edge or limitations of something. When we know the edge of what is right, we also discover the edge of what is wrong. Our ability to know resides in our spirits and is sharpened with truth.

Our spirits are like pre-programmed software upon which we can write whatever we like. When we do make a conscious entry, we will always be prompted for our next response. However, entries are being made every split second of our existence, and like any software, we can retrieve what has been recorded on it. This is the case, except when bugs get in. They prevent us from having instant recall. Another reason why we may not have instant recall is we have not been trained in developing the ability. Metaphorically speaking, one could say we all have a photographic memory before someone stole the film. Seriously, though, unlike the beekeeper who knows how to collect honey from the beehive, we do not know how to load, remove and develop the film. Not having a brilliant memory is not restricted to our inability to use the software or develop the photographs, and not having a photographic memory has nothing to do with not loading the film. There are also a number of psychological and biological reasons for memory loss, such as when a person suffers amnesia from post-traumatic stress, or Alzheimer’s, or dementia due to malfunctioning neurons.

Memory loss is probably better referred to as loss of memory recall. Our spirits record everything that we do and say, as well as all the information that comes our way. This is why it is possible for hypnotists to place people in a hypnotic trance and recall forgotten events with amazing detail. It is, also, why people will be able to be judged on that great day of reckoning; where they will be judged for not only everything they have done, but also according to the thoughts and intentions behind their actions, and every careless word they have uttered. This might seem hard to believe, but Jesus considered this a matter of fact and was not mincing His words when He said, “I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak” (Matthew 12:36).

Our conscious mind readily recalls the information that we repeatedly concentrate upon or churn over in our minds. There are two reasons for this. One is the fact our brain cells create pathways to recall information through regular use. The second reason is the intentions of our hearts are formed when we focus on our desires and this shapes our predilections and orientation in life, which creates what is known as a mindset; consequently, information that is peculiar to the frame of reference within our mindset is easier for us to recall than isolated facts.

Our spirits are endowed with desire to be united with God the Creator. Unfortunately, the prince of the power of the air also obtains access to our spirits—through sin—and he does his best to terminate our natural desire for securing our roots with our Heavenly Father. Satan does this by luring us away from seeking truth to pursue egotistical and vain lusts for material goods. This way we are caught up in physical wantonness, self-promotion, self-exaltation and personal delusions instead of finding God.

The method by which we program our orientation towards sinful passions is also the same for everything we do—repetition reinforces the desire and the ability, and develops within us a natural inclination towards particular sins that become difficult to break from. When we make a choice to do something, there will be a number of factors contributing to our making that choice. These will involve seeing, hearing, touching, smelling and taste, and how we react emotionally to a situation. A pleasant experience will draw us towards repeating that experience. An unpleasant or painful experience will tend to make us want to avoid similar situations. Yet, surprisingly, people grow up in violent environments and are conditioned by them so much that they become uncomfortable when placed in peaceful, relaxing surrounds. Some people are shaped by repeated events in their lives to become rebellious and antagonistic, and only feel comfortable when they can make other people’s lives miserable.

 When the same iniquity is passed down through the third generation to the fourth generation, the generational line is cut off; otherwise, evil would rule; our consciences would be seared, and we would self-destruct as a race of human beings. Meanwhile, God is trying to draw us all towards Himself and encourage us to see that goodness and mercy are better than evil and injustice. It is God’s hope that we will seek Him out because we are repulsed by the injustice and evil that exists in the world.

God Always Lets Us Decide

When Pharaoh, the ruler of Egypt, refused to let the Israelites go, God brought about plagues upon the nation. Each plague was designed to encourage Pharaoh to make a decision to release the people. If Pharaoh did not recognize the hand of the Almighty God at work, the opposite would happen, and he would harden his heart. God evidently knew which way Pharaoh was going to go (Exodus 4:21). However, God is just. In all fairness, Pharaoh had to be given every chance to make the right choice and repent at every level of the process.

The first sign and  two worsening introductory plagues Moses performed in front of Pharaoh, the Egyptian ruler was able to get his own magicians to duplicate, so he was unimpressed. The next seven plagues sent by God also progressively became worse; none of which the Egyptian magicians were able to duplicate. Nevertheless, with each plague, Pharaoh hardened his heart a little more and refused to let God’s people go. Yet with every plague there was sufficient pain for Pharaoh to change his mind, if he so desired.

The tenth and last plague placed on the Egyptians was the overnight slaying of the first-born child of every family. This got Pharaoh’s attention, as none of the other plagues was able to do. Pharaoh could not get rid of the enslaved Hebrews quick enough—the pain was too much!

The Egyptian taskmaster had second thoughts once the Hebrew slaves had gone. The slaves meant a loss of cheap labor. More than this, they also had become a new threat, since they were a large number and could seek vengeance. Besides who knows what sort of mischief people will devise in a desert wilderness. Pharaoh, tormented of mind, thought the best option now was to chase after the slaves and recapture them.

 When people make decisions with the same intent, they develop a habitual state of mind that makes it difficult to allow anything different to occur. This is often called stubbornness. This is what happened to Pharaoh. He stubbornly refused to let the Hebrews go after each plague, until the pain was too great to bear. Then after having let the Hebrews go free, Pharaoh’s fears of the Hebrews returning to harm him for his unjust treatment of them, created even more pain. For Pharaoh, adored as a living god, this would be an insult to injury too great to bear. Consequently, he pursued them to enslave them once more.

Pharaoh’s decisions would have been based on what he perceived to be the facts. Facts can be true or misrepresented. More often than not, much depends on the interpretation of the facts. Misinterpretation leads to continued ignorance and ultimately greater pain. In Pharaoh’s case, he was given the chance with each plague to repent; instead, he hardened his heart because he probably believed that the plagues were of a natural origin, and Moses had discovered some secret that his magicians had not learned yet. Pharaoh would have known his own limitations, even though he was worshiped as God. Having only an anthropomorphic concept of godhood, rather than a divine revelation of God, Pharaoh probably did not believe Moses was in communion with the Lord God Almighty. Ultimately, Pharaoh’s decision to release his slaves appears to have been based on feelings of pain rather than knowledge. Until the slaying of all the firstborn children in Egypt, Pharaoh had not been inflicted with sufficient pain to cause him to release the Hebrews from slavery. Likewise, we will make our decisions more from pleasure or pain rather than knowledge. There is pleasure to be found in knowledge of the truth, but—as is evident in the account of Pharaoh—pain will motivate us more.

The pain of childbirth has been said to cause women to call upon God; whereas men are not given the same opportunity. In the Book of Genesis, when Enoch witnessed the birth of Methuselah, he began to walk with God. The reason for his decision to walk with God, we do not know. It may have been because of the pain he witnessed his wife suffer. It may have been because of the pleasure he had experienced at the birth of his child. (King David wrote that in the presence of God, there is much pleasure.) It may have been that the presence of God was evident in the birth of Methuselah (who was to become the longest living human), and Enoch found so much pleasure that he made a decision not to leave God’s presence. For we read:

“Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him” (Gen.5:22-24).

Steadfast Mercy

With this Second Commandment, God says that he will show steadfast mercy to us who love him and keep his commandments to the thousandth generation. This does not mean God only loves those who love Him; rather we who love Him are those who appreciate mercy. As Jesus said: “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy” (Matthew 5:7). When we show mercy to others; we are the ones who actually take it upon ourselves to extend the divine favor that has been extended to us, so we can give glory to our Heavenly Father. The reason we need mercy ourselves is we all need a chance to prove ourselves, and sometimes we need even more mercy because of our inability to overcome some obstacles and our need to be strengthened to do so. Whatever the case, God is merciful and gives us all ample opportunity to make up our own minds, and take up the offer of mercy today, while we can. Only there will always be a day of reckoning if the right decisions are not made, as has been evidenced in the Egyptian Pharaoh’s case—but, then, after death in this world, we have to face eternal judgment. Lord God Almighty only tolerates iniquity to the fourth generation and then that particular lineage is discontinued.  By this means, as strange as it might seem to our way of thinking, God has been able to preserve many of the nations of the world and set the boundaries of their habitation (Acts 17:26), while allowing people to have freedom of choice.

Genealogy of Those Who Found Faith

As for us who desire to know God and demonstrate this by keeping His commandments—for nothing else matters much (1 Corinthians 7:19)—we extend the favor to the next generation. This favor is seen extended throughout the generations, and evidence of this is recorded in the gospel of Matthew. The genealogy of Abraham to Jesus Christ is not a record of physical descent; rather, this is a record of those who have found faith and who held the promise of the gospel that was given to Abraham (Galatians 3:8). The genealogy records forty-two generations from Abraham to the Christ (Matthew 1:17), that is, the church—the body of Christ.[x]

The Church of God began at Pentecost and has been growing, and will continue to grow, until Jesus returns to receive her as a Bride. As the book of Romans teaches, if we are faithful and keep God’s word in our hearts, then we are numbered among the children of Abraham for he is the father of all who keep faith with the Lord. This also means that we, who keep our faith, are numbered in the generations of the faithful.

While we understand the grace of God is extended to everyone, and Jesus died so every person could have salvation, not all have taken up the gift of salvation that has been obtained for them through the death and resurrection of the only-begotten Son of God. This is why some of Abraham’s descendants are missing in the lineage down through King David to Jesus—some chose to go their own way, and in doing so they forsook the promise of salvation; others were just saved by their deathbed repentance.

Nevertheless, those who lived prior to the death and resurrection of Jesus, were saved through the sacrificial offering on the Cross of Calvary, and have been raised from the dead. The book of Matthew records how the dead were raised after Jesus’ death:

“And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many.  When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, ‘Truly this was the Son of God!’” (Matt. 27:50-54).

A very important truth is expressed here about the resurrection of the righteous. Those who  were saved from Hell and died prior to Jesus’ death and resurrection, were kept in a place known among the Jews as Abraham’s Bosom, which is alluded to in the story about Lazarus and The Rich Man. The resurrection of the righteous (or just) has two stages. The Apostle Paul talking about the resurrection in the book of First Corinthians points this fact out:

”But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ” (1 Cor. 15:23).

Jesus had to be raised first, before the saints (the firstfruits) who had died prior to His crucifixion could be raised from the dead. This is why they came out of the graves after Jesus’ resurrection. Those who belong to Jesus at His Second Coming will also be raised from the dead just before those who are alive are caught up to meet Him in the clouds (1 Thessalonians 4:15-17). Those who are raised from the dead at Jesus’ coming, and those who are alive and are caught up to meet Him, all belong to the forty-second generation, which is the (Body of) Christ that is recorded in Matthew. This is why the genealogy of Matthew is different to the genealogy in Luke (ch.3, vv.23-38). Luke is about Jesus’ physical descent; this is why it goes back to Adam. Matthew is about the promise to Abraham and those who did not reject the truth; this is why it begins with Abraham the father of the faithful (Romans 4:11-12, 16).

Lazarus and the Rich Man

Death does not necessarily mean the cessation of existence. Death may mean the cessation of existence, as we know it on Earth in our physical bodies. Physical death does not mean that our spirits and souls cease to exist (cf. Matt 10:28; Mk 9:48; 1 Thess. 5:23; Rev. 6.9). The reality for us on Earth is death means there is no communication between those who have died physically and those who are alive on this planet. Jesus illustrates this when he tells the story about Lazarus and the rich man:

“There was a rich man, who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day.  And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, full of sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table; moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.  The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried; and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes, and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus in his bosom.  And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy upon me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in anguish in this flame.’  But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish.  And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’  And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’  But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.’  And he said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if some one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’  He said to him, ‘If they do not hear [that is, believe] Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if some one should rise from the dead’” (Luke 16:19-31 RSV).

Learning to Recognize the Truth

If we do not recognize the truth about life is expressed in the words of Moses—that is, how we should act towards each other, and what God expects of us—the reality is nothing else will convince us of our need to do what is right before God. This is why we see people growing up in Christian families and professing faith in God, but later on demonstrate they lack faith in Jesus Christ and begin to accept the ways of the world, and doctrines like the Theory of Evolution and other fabricated philosophies to explain existence.

The Second Commandment, therefore, instructs us about the expectations God has of us: how God truly cares about every person that lives, having given each one of us freewill, so we can choose, whether or not, we want to love our Lord and keep His commandments (1 John 5:3) and be numbered among those who are resurrected to eternal life.

The Second Commandment warns about the dangers of false ideas and teachings that are not in accord with a devotion to the true God of the Universe. Other than the Author of Life, we are not to worship anything that exists in the Heavens or on the planet Earth; including anything within the waters on the planet. It also states that we are not to bow down (or kneel) before any graven (sculptured) image of any likeness of anything in Heaven or on Earth or from waters below Earth’s surface. Such practices lead people astray from a pure devotion to the Lord our God and looking for other means for forgiveness of sin (like performing unnecessary acts of penance or paying indulgences); therefore, the Bible instructs us not to do this. Jesus died for the remission of sins and we are to look directly to Him for forgiveness of our sins, so we can receive the mercy of God to do what is required of us. 

It is worth noting that the Bible teaches God has created the boundaries of man’s habitation. This applies to the extent a nation may have dominion over a given geographical area, and also to the extent sin may reign in people’s hearts, until it results in the death of the individual. The edict is sin that is fully grown brings forth death.

God jealously beholds His creation and He is not prepared to let anyone destroy the purpose He has established; consequently, God ensures that iniquity is dealt with at the fourth generation.  (This is like fruit flies that mutate until they can no longer reproduce, except we are talking about morality and sin; not physical dysfunction.) Stopping a particular sin at the fourth generation prevents it from continuing in that lineage and bringing about the destruction of humankind. Social dysfunction and anarchy are brought about by following the prince of the power of the air who reigns in the lives of those who disobey their conscience, and follow the passions and lusts of their ungodly desires of destruction.

It appears that sin grows in magnitude as it passes from one generation to another. When we repent of our sins, we are changing more than our own ways; we are in effect assisting God change the course of history by helping to save other people from condemnation.[xi]  Israel was given every chance to participate in the changing of the world. The people failed as a nation to do so. Christians also are given every opportunity to be lights to the world. This should not be any problem if we all are lit by the spark of life in Christ and are filled with the anointing oil of the Holy Spirit. Our lights should shine before men, who then will be able to see our good works and give glory to our Heavenly Father (Matthew 5:16).

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[i] Men in Black starring Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith and its sequels are based on the comic series “Men In Black” about aliens that infiltrate human civilization.

[ii]Many wrongly assume that when John the Baptist kicked, when in the womb of Elizabeth, the time she heard the sound of Mary’s voice, the eternal pre-existent WORD of GOD was inside Mary’s body, rather than the fact that this event was brought about by the Spirit of God that was hovering over Mary.

[iii] Helene  Deutsch.The Psychology of Womam: a psychoanalytic interpretation, Vol 1., Grune & Stratton, New York, 1944, pp358-375.

[iv] Alexandra Kollontai died in 1952, aged 80yrs. Her book Ways of Lovey is virtually forgotten, whereas other writings of hers that please the socialists are often quoted.

[v] Deutsch does not provide a proper name only the initial M.

[vi] Deutsch does not provide a proper name only the initial R.

[vii] Interestingly, after Kollontai wrote Ways of Lovey, the loose sexual morals that were abounding during the years of the Communist Russian Revolution were purportedly frowned upon and a more conservative milieu pervaded Russian society regarding sexual behavior and marriage.

[viii] New American Standard Bible © 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used with permission.

[ix] Not every sin gets passed down the generational line and grows in magnitude. God has set a limit at the fourth generation, but many people repent of certain sins in the second and third generation, even though they may begin to get engrossed in new sins. While people sin, the sin often changes with each generation, and the sins of the previous generation do not get to grow.

[x] The Genealogy of Matthew is that of the Promise to Abraham and only those who are included among the faithful are mentioned (some are deathbed repentances, but they are saved). This is why there are physical generational gaps. Furthermore, Jesus is the forty-first generation from Abraham. The Christ is the forty-second generation. This generation refers to the multitudes that number the stars, who are the descendants of Abraham by faith, who are baptized into the body of Christ.

[xi] This point is poignantly illustrated in the 1946 film, It’s A Wonderful Life, starring James Stewart, Donna Reid and Lionel Barrymore.—Recommended viewing.