Saturday, August 13, 2011

Repenting for Our Fathers' Sins - Part 3/6

We can also see repentance for the sins of the fathers in two prayers of Jeremiah. Here is a first example:

Jeremiah 14:19-22
Hast thou utterly rejected Judah? hath thy soul lothed Zion? why hast thou smitten us, and there is no healing for us? we looked for peace, and there is no good; and for the time of healing, and behold trouble!

We acknowledge, O LORD, our wickedness, and the iniquity of our fathers: for we have sinned against thee.

Do not abhor us, for thy name's sake, do not disgrace the throne of thy glory: remember, break not thy covenant with us.

Are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause rain? or can the heavens give showers? art not thou he, O LORD our God?

Therefore we will wait upon thee: for thou hast made all these things.
This one is not explicit that the fathers have passed on, but the same theme is present. And there is yet another of the same in Jeremiah:

Jeremiah 3:21-25
A voice was heard upon the high places, weeping and supplications of the children of Israel: for they have perverted their way, and they have forgotten the LORD their God.

Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings.

Behold, we come unto thee; for thou art the LORD our God. Truly in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills, and from the multitude of mountains: truly in the LORD our God is the salvation of Israel. For shame hath devoured the labour of our fathers from our youth; their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters. We lie down in our shame, and our confusion covereth us: for we have sinned against the LORD our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even unto this day, and have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God.
Notice that repenting of the fathers' sins is not done in isolation from our own sins. We should not repent of our fathers sins with a self-righteous attitude, like the Pharisees.

Matthew 23:29-32
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, and say, "If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets." Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers.
Notice that Christ does not condemn them for repenting from the sins of their fathers, but exactly the opposite! For not repenting, He condemned them.

(to be continued)
to the Glory of God, at

1 comment:

  1. AnonymousSaturday, August 13, 2011 7:51:00 PM

    Again, again, again!!! Another excellent impartation of the Truth that sets the soul free from the curse that does not diminish from the flesh except when one's mind is opened to accept the Flesh of the Innocent Son of Man with the Blood of His covenant.

    One thought occurs to me to make the point of besides what I just did comes from the teaching Jesus teaches and the emphasis He makes after teaching it. It is about the inherent forgiving power that comes from God when forgiven so we, too, forgive others.

    In the prayer He teaches us to forgive and we will be forgiven. He then goes on and emphasizes that if we will not forgive others their trespasses against us neither will His and Ours, Heavenly Father forgive us.

    Presumably this goes for the sins of our fathers whose sins we bare by our own seeing we all bear the transgressions of Adam to some degree?

    ReplyDelete

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