Generational Sin

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        Our Sunday school quarterly has been walking us through I and II Kings. As I read through the middle portion of II Kings this week in studying the background for the lesson, I began to notice a pattern emerging. Some 200 years after his reign, the evil kings were still associated with Jeroboam son of Nebat with the notation that he not only led Israel, and ultimately Judah, into sin but also caused them to remain there. As the Assyrian captivity neared, it seems the long line of poor role models began to catch up with the nation. One example of this that stood out to me is found in II Kings 15. King Azariah's reign was long (52 years) and he actually did what was right in God's sight, just like his father Amaziah did before him (II Kings 15:3). This sounds good, but at the root of the problem was generational sin, as the next verse makes clear. Azariah allowed the high places to remain, just as his father and grandfather had done before him. As a result of this, he was struck with a severe skin disease that he had until the day he died, which caused him to live in a house separated from others (II Kings 15:5). Then in chapter 16, Jotham, his son, became king and did what was right in God's sight as well, but he allowed the high places to remain just as his father did before him. Finally his son Ahaz became king and walked totally off God's path, apart from God's ways to the point that he even sacrificed his own son in a pagan fire (II Kings 16:2-3). This led to the last king of Judah before the Assyrian exile, Hoshea, who was Ahaz's son. His description is interesting: "He did evil in the eyes of the LORD, but not like the kings of Israel who preceded him" (II Kings 17:2, NIV). Imagine being described as bad, but not so much as your father and some of your relatives that preceded you as king. II Kings 17:20 ends with a sobering thought: "To this day their children and grandchildren continue to do as their fathers did." There is application there for us. When we refuse to turn from our sins, it affects those closest to us--our family. It is our responsibility as parents to train our children up in the Lord so that they will not turn away from Him when they are old (Prov. 22:6). The consequences of not doing this are huge. The kings of Israel and Judah that followed Jeroboam's introduction to pagan worship practices were caught in a web of generational sin that they could not escape. The easiest route would have been to do what God told them to do to begin with--to follow Him alone instead of the practices of the nations God had driven out before them. We too have the same choice in front of us: follow Him whole-heartedly or leave behind generations wrecked by our choices.

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