"You shall not make for yourself a carved image--any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments. Exodus 20:4-6
One last comment on this parenthetical portion of the second commandment (v.5-6). There is a curse pronounced on disobedience and a blessing on obedience. Please note that the curse for disobedience and the blessing for obedience involves the children of the disobedient and obedient. How are we to understand this?
First, there is a biblical principle that children are not to be punished for the sins of their parents.
Ezekiel 18:20 The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.
Though children are not to be held responsible of their parents sins, parent’s sins do affect their children negatively. Likewise, the righteousness of parents does affect their children positively. Never underestimate the influence of parents on their children and grandchildren, for better or for worse!
Second, note also that the sinful influence of parents last 3 to 4 generations.(1) However, the positive influence of parents follows to a thousand generations. How are we to understand this? I believe this is a symbolic rather than a literal difference. In Hebrew thought and literature, and in a pre-calculator world, the number 1,000 was commonly a figure of speech to convey something that is virtually innumerable, and not to be taken literally.
The difference between 3 to 4, and 1,000 generations may be a symbolic indicator that God’s mercy is vast compared to His judgment. This doesn’t apply to the eternal bliss of Heaven compared to the eternal torment of Hell. Both of those are eternal! But in this life we are comforted that God’s blessings last longer than His judgments.
Note:
(1) I read a secular psychological study some years ago that concluded that the negative influence of parents takes 3 to 4 generations to cease altogether. Hmmm… were the psychologists just catching up to what God had said in His Word long ago?