“Moses Receiving the Tablets of the Ten Commandments” by Gebhard Fugel (c. 1900), Source https://freechristimages.com/bible-stories/ten-commandments.html, (PD)
While it may be surprising to find the Old Testament discussed on a blog about abuse, spirituality and abuse are closely entwined.
Satan attempts to use the abuse we suffered as a weapon to destroy victims’ faith. Many of us do lose our faith as a result, seeing God as harsh and cruel, if we continue to believe in Him at all.
Even those who were never victimized may have difficulty reconciling the God of the Old Testament with the God of the New Testament. God, of course, has never changed.
Because of this confusion, it is worth examining God’s true nature.
Mercy and Justice
God described Himself to Moses in this way:
“And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, ‘The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation'” (Ex. 34: 6-7).
God is, therefore, both merciful and just. These two qualities are in tension with one another in human beings. Not so with God.
- The Hebrew word translated as “mercy” or “merciful” is associated with the love of a mother, with compassion from the very womb [1A].
- Graciousness refers to undeserved favor or grace [1B].
- Longsuffering refers to patience with our mistakes and sins [1C]. Indeed, God is not only willing to forgive our sins, but desires to take them upon Himself [1D].
The phrase “visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children” will have special resonance for abuse victims, since it conveys the idea of generational sin or abuse. Children are not punished by God for the sins of their parents [2]. Patterns of sin often, however, continue from one generation to the next. Continue reading
ANNA WALDHERR A Voice Reclaimed, Surviving Child Abuse 