Generational Curses and Repeated Sins
One of the arguments of generational curses is that you unavoidably repeat the sins or suffer the consequences of the previous generations until you acknowledge those sins and break the curse. The inability to overcome sin, falling victim to it time and again is evidence, proponents claim that shows you are under a curse that goes back to previous generations. The Book of Judges is cited as a prime example of people stumbling into the same old sins time and time again. Is the Book of Judges an appropriate example for proving Ancestral Curses? On honest examination we find that it is not.
First consider this. In spite of the fact that there is an obvious pattern of sin, judgment, restoration, sin, and so on there is no mention of this recurring renewal and restoration coming about through confessed iniquities. In fact the Hebrew word that both Daniel and Nehemiah use in confessing the sins and iniquities of their fathers is completely absent from the Book of Judges.
Second the mention of the word fathers in Judges is especially significant. Of the ten appearances of the word “fathers” four especially demand attention, because these four assert that the people in the times of the Judges are worst than their fathers. Their rebellion and sinfulness cannot be traced back to or blamed on the activities of their fathers, because their fathers were more faithful to God than they were. Look at these passages.
Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served the Baals; and they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, (Judges 2:11-12)
Yet they would not listen to their judges, but they played the harlot with other gods, and bowed down to them. They turned quickly from the way in which their fathers walked, in obeying the commandments of the LORD; they did not do so. (Judges 2:17)
And it came to pass, when the judge was dead, that they reverted and behaved more corruptly than their fathers, by following other gods, to serve them and bow down to them. They did not cease from their own doings nor from their stubborn way. (Judges 2:19)
I also will no longer drive out before them any of the nations which Joshua left when he died, so that through them I may test Israel, whether they will keep the ways of the LORD, to walk in them as their fathers kept them, or not." (Judges 2:21,22)
Who are these fathers? Those who lived between the generations that died in the Wilderness of Paran and the generation that is currently rebelling against God. These passages make it clear that the generation between those who were killed in the wilderness and those who are falling under repeated correction were people who had lived to serve God. Obviously this service was not perfect because no one is perfect. But it was more pleasing to God than that of the present generation.
The Generational Curse viewpoint says a continued struggle with sin demonstrates a curse that came through the sins of an ancestor. Yet the ancestors of this generation in Judges had served God faithfully in Joshua’s time. If the father’s of this generation are not the cause of the people’s repeated sins who then do we blame; the previous generation? Yet those people were punished for their sins by dying in the wilderness? The only other option is to blame these difficulties and failures upon the generation preceding those who died in the wilderness, but wait. Those people did not have the Law including Deuteronomy where all these curses are found and based. This point raises some questions that can only be answered in discussions that lie ahead of us. Still it is clear that previous unrepented sins cannot be the cause of these people’s failures.
