Paying a Visit
June 5, 2025
This Scripture, Numbers 14:18, came to mind this morning, and was a hard thing for me to fully understand. Knowing the nature and character of God, the first part about loving kindness was easy for me to understand. The second half, however, threw me a knuckleball which I swung on and missed.
As is my usual procedure, I went first to several translations, next, to the Greek/English Interlinear Bible. Finally, to what seemed to me to be the key word which I was stumbling over, “visit,” in its Greek definition.
For the first time my method wasn’t clear enough, and I couldn’t clearly see the ball. It was like a swirling cloud of dust was getting in my eyes. There were just too many divergent definitions listed where the words did not have anything close to being synonymous…
So, I said, “Lord, I’m still confused. Please help me understand. I know you are merciful, but this other ‘visitation’ seems awfully harsh.”
Then, going back to the various translations at biblehub.com, the New Living Translations made a whole lot more sense to me.
I had started here with this and similar translations:
‘The LORD is slow to anger and abounding in loving devotion, forgiving iniquity and transgression. Yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished; He will visit the iniquity of the fathers upon their children to the third and fourth generation. — Numbers 14:18 — Gerean Standard Bible (BSB).
There’s that word “visit” that seemed to develop into a very vengeful scenario in my understanding. So, here is my next favored translation:
The LORD is slow to anger and filled with unfailing love, forgiving every kind of sin and rebellion. But he does not excuse the guilty. He lays the sins of the parents upon their children; the entire family is affected — even children in the third and fourth generations.’ — ibid, New Living Translation (NLT)
Still and all, I remained unsatisfied…
Marching onward through the bullpen of my mind…
I decided not to quit but to go back to again look at other translations. I found the Amplified Bible had an interesting clarification:
[…that is, calling the children to account for the sins of their fathers].’
I felt encouraged and getting closer by keeping my eye on the ball, concentrating on the Pitcher’s style of being “slow to anger and abounding in loving devotion, forgiving iniquity and transgression.”
So, I went back to the Greek definition in Strong’s Lexicon which had this: paqad: To visit, attend to, muster, appoint, punish, care for… Maybe you can understand my difficulty to understand, not being a linguistic scholar and having so many unequal choices… (Translating is hard!)
Being contextual, I of course chose “attend to” and “care for” to expand my comprehension of this verse which otherwise seemed at odds with itself.
It’s important to note here that I strongly believe and am totally convinced in these two precepts:
- the inerrancy of the Bible and
- the constant errancy of Man.
In the Old Testament there is this supporting verse:
“I am the LORD, and I do not change. That is why you descendants of Jacob are not already destroyed. Ever since the days of your ancestors, you have scorned my decrees and failed to obey them. Now return to me, and I will return to you,” says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies. — Malachi 3:6–7, NLT.
So, at this point, I could conclude with the peace of a satisfactory understanding of that Scripturet.
God would visit them to persuade them not to punish them, but to persuade them.
Just like Jesus proclaimed at the very beginning of His ministry, Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
God consistently would try to visit and to convince those children to stop the wrongdoing they had learned from their parents. God intended to stick with His consistent method of convincing people to repent and seek Him and His kingdom, turning away from the fallen world.
The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent. — 2 Peter 3:9, NLT.
I should also note here that this consistency is also found in the New Testament Gospel of Jesus Christ:
For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. — John 3:16–17, NLT.
