Second Word - Part 2 - Exodus 20:5-6

20:5-6 - There’s just a quick note that I want to make about verse 5-6 from the 2nd commandment we talked about yesterday that discusses “for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generations of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.” First, let’s discuss the use of the word “jealous” here. We’ve talked about this extensively historically throughout the scriptures but let’s do it again since it’s been a while. The reason that the word usage here of “jealous” has always made me feel so uncomfortable is perfectly summed up by TB when he says, “that has always kind of bothered me because frankly when we think of a man or woman being jealous it’s a negative statement. IN some ways when we harbor the emotion of jealousy it reveals serious faults in us even if there might be reasonable cause for it.” I’m not a jealous person, and I agree that jealousy in the way that we understand it in English is indicative of character flaws in the jealous person. Jealousy in people denotes unhealed trauma, insecurity, and abusive traits such as possessiveness, control, and distrust. So how do we trust this perfect God if he’s exhibiting signs of unhealed trauma and insecurity. That’s a hard sell.

All this confusion can be explained with English being an in perfect language that fails to adequately denote God’s meaning of that word. Both TB and the IM talk about the use of the word “Qanna,” although the IM spells it “kanah” which I think it s close enough difference to accept both, as the Hebrew original word used that is translated as “jealous.” The IM notes, “The Hebrew root kanah denotes ‘ardor, zeal, jealousy.’ The implication is that the Lord possesses ‘sensitive and deep feelings’ about idolatry. The reason seems clear. The only power to save mankind from sin lies with God. Any false worship cuts the sinner off from that power. Since God loves His children and wishes only their best eternal welfare, He is jealous (that is, feels very strongly) about any vain or false worship they perform.” I think it’s like when you have teenagers and you know what they need to do to improve themselves and secure their future, but they don’t listen to you. Just not listening and making their own way would be fine, but if they are actively rude, disrespectful, or if they start to do things that you know if going to cause them problems in the long run, then that’s probably how God feels in cases such as this. It’s actively going to hurt you and no parent wants to see their kid get hurt, but nobody ever listens to me.

Additionally, TB comments that the word kanah or qanna, as he spells it, “has a sister word, ‘qinah’, which also means jealousy. Here is the difference between the two: Qinah is used some 43 times in the OT, and it refers to human activity. Qanna is reserved explicitly and EXCLUSIVELY for when referring to a characteristic of Yehoveh. Qinah is used to denote jealousy of rival lovers, or envy of another’s wealth and possessions. It is, if you would, the HUMAN form of jealousy in all its unflattering qualities. Qanna, on the other hand, is not so much about jealousy as about being passionate; not the erotic form of passionate, but rather in the sense of great intensity, of being impassioned toward an ideal. It is the Lord in all His unwavering righteousness. Used here is it an expression that means that God accepts NO RIVALS, that He is utterly and absolutely intolerant of sins against Him.”

Continuing on in the verse, God says that he will be “visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.” I touched on this briefly yesterday, mostly to discuss the significance of what we are taught in childhood and how hard it is to break that, either way good or bad. This statement could bring up the question, “if God is really just, then why would He punish kids for the sins of their parents?” Obviously I don’t think he does it in the sense that he actively seeks out ways to make their lives miserable because their parents made poor choices. I think it’s more of a natural consequences type of situation where the parent create an environment where sin abounds and that’s the way that the children grow up so that’s what they think is normal and then they perpetuate that cycle then teach it to their kids, etc. It’s also hard because when one generation rejects or distorts the gospel, then the kids don’t have it, or they don’t get the purity in a form where they can make their own decision about it’s validity.

When the gospel is taught to children as a tool of hate and manipulation then it's no wonder that the children reject it the first chance they get. People accept or reject the gospel for a lot of different reasons, and they are all valid. We have to remember that we are all here on this earth because we accepted the gospel once before already, when we knew it straight from God’s mouth. Rejection of the gospel today, after the veil has been drawn, after we only learn it from deeply flawed and often maliciously motivated people, is something totally different. We have to trust that when God says that everyone will get an equal chance to accept the gospel when they understand it fully, that they will accept it then, because they already did accept it before. All this is to say that we are on an eternal journey and there are a lot of things going on behind the scenes that we don’t know about. God is running the show in a way that will (eventually) be equitable and just and merciful. We just have to wait to actually get there.

Another fact that I thought was interesting was the TB taught that the words for “love” and “hate” weren’t the same as they are for us today because we see these two words as emotions that we feel but anciently these words were verbs, action words. This changes the connotation of the statement to not mean “those who feel love or hate for me” but “those who prove their love for me through obedience” or “those who are disobedient show contempt for me,” and that makes sense because the contempt can’t be rewarded. Finally, TB notes that the statements of time such as “third and 4th generations” and “the 1000th generation” are just expressions of speech, meaning a short time or forever. Interestingly, those who are disobedient are punished for a short time where as those who are obedient are rewarded forever. The IM comments, “The explanation given as a footnote to verse 5 is helpful. Commenting on the phrase ‘visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children,’ the note says: ‘insofar as the children learn and do the sinful things the parents do; but see v.6 concerning those who repent and serve the Lord.”