Exodus 20:5 You shall not bow down to them (anything we make a god) or 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 the fourth generation of those who hate me.
Exodus 34:6-7, 6 The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”
Deut. 5:9 You shall not bow down to them or 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 generation of those who hate me.
I was so pleased to hear an outstanding sermon by John MacArthur this last week, which shares the same title. I encourage you all to listen to it as well.
For years now, the good Lord has laid on my heart the dyer need for myself and other godly men to step up and answer God’s call of training up young men in the fear of the Lord. To be a godly example in accordance with the Scriptures, and to engage with and walk with our young men as we lead them into manhood. And when I say manhood, I mean the true biblical manhood that God calls for.
So, what makes a man? Does the extremely feminist world or the incredibly passive American Christian church get to dictate and define what a man should be? Or are we going to take or marching order from God’s inerrant word? In short, a real man is one who embraces responsibility and rejects passivity. There isn’t one time in the Scriptures that God calls for a man to be passive, yet that is exactly what our churches and communities are filled with. On the other hand, the Bible calls for men to be strong and courageous 10+ times. Men, why have we fed into this feminist societies view of how we should be and act, just for the sake of being politicly correct? As men, we have a responsibility to God, our families, our churches, and our communities, to be every bit the men that God commanded us to be.
Don’t take lightly the above passages. In each one, the Lord is declaring that whenever a man rebels against God commands and pattern for his life, it could indeed reach into the behaviors of four generations later, before the cycle is broken. These passages are not saying that the sins of a great-great-grandfather would be carried over to four generations, but that the sinful learned behaviors would still be lived out in the lives of generations to come. That’s scary, and these patterns need to be broken. Men, ask yourselves, what kind of legacy do I want to leave?
The truth is, 85% of all prisoners grew up in a fatherless home, without the guidance and discipline of a father. That’s the facts, and the fact is fathers are failing. We can’t just say “Our society is broken,” without fixing the home. For out of the homes, a society is made. This is a major root cause to this wicked and perverse world that we see today.
So, where are the real men who will answer the call God had put on your lives? Where are these God-fearing men that will commit to God and His word above all else? Where are these men that will commit to their wives and children, no matter the past, no matter the cost? Where are the men that will commit wholeheartedly to their responsibilities?
Know this brother’s, if God convicts you to take a stand now, you WILL be tested, you WILL be rejected by this world. But take courage, for a man that kneels before God, is given the strength to stand before anything. For we stand and walk in the strength of the Lord of heavens armies. Therefore, we cannot be beat, for the Lord is with us. So, let’s act like men.
By Daniel C. Rodgers