Opus 2024-294: Innocence or Inheritance

I’ve been reading the 16th chapter of the book of Numbers which deals with the rebellion of Korah.  As God deals with the rebels, He ends up punishing entire families.  There’s a very graphic picture of the women and children gathered in front of the tents and the ground opening up and swallowing all of them.  That seems a bit cruel to us today.

This brings to mind the way in which the Canaanites were condemned as families.  It wasn’t just the fathers or the warriors, it was every living thing.

Why is it, that we see entire families being labeled as evil and being destroyed?  It would seem that perhaps what God is saying is that the evil of the parents, specifically, the fathers, has already been passed on to the children, and they are polluted past redemption.  I know that in modern times the sociologists have said that the key element, and how children come out is the father.  We know that fatherless homes as a result of divorce or abandonment are tragic.

At the same time, widows and orphans are given a special place in the heart of God.

Is it possible that the children of evil parents cannot be redeemed?  As a general rule I have trouble with that.  I believe anyone can respond to the call of God.  At the same time I can see that there are some families where the children are so indoctrinated in hatred that they will never listen to anything we say or recognize anything we do.

The challenge is knowing which is which.

homo unius libri