Deuteronomy chapter 23 begins with a series of regulations that start mentioning the concept of generations. Verse two (NLT) says, “If a person is illegitimate by birth, neither he nor his descendants for ten generations may be admitted to the assembly of the Lord.” A few verses later, verse eight mentions another group of people needs to wait until the third generation.

So: what’s this about generations?

To help us understand how we end up with instructions like this, we need to start at the very beginning. In a Scriptural context, how are generations significant?

Well, in Genesis, just after mankind falls into sin and life under the curse is ushered in, God promises redemption in the generations to come: “And I will cause hostility between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.” (Genesis 3:15 NLT). In other words: the serpent (Satan) and mankind are in for a battle, but redemption will come through Christ (her offspring) and He will have ultimate victory.

Scripture takes us into a tale of the passing down through the bloodline very quickly, following the fall - Cain murders his brother Abel, as one generation after the other showcases the effects of this inherited sin nature. And, if we advance all the way to the New Testament in our studies, we can see it was through Jesus’s shedding of blood that sin was covered, as if it had never existed - that we might exist without blemish. This is a fulfillment of much of the Old Testament way of life in which the blood of spotless lambs were a temporary covering for man’s sin. This idea of atonement by the shedding of blood is further reinforced in God’s design for man during life under the Law - the time following the fall, before Jesus: “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.” (Leviticus 17:11 ESV)
For more about the concept of atonement, check out the resource at the bottom of this article.

Deuteronomy is a part of the Torah, or the Books of Instruction, just like Leviticus. For us to understand how this has anything to do with us today, we have to recognize three things:
1 - this is the setting zone of our faith (teaches us important principles about life in the Kingdom)
2 - God’s character doesn’t change
3 - The Old Testament is meant to be read in the context of the New Testament

Since we understand just how important the blood of Jesus has been to our lives, we can ask - where would we be without Jesus? If Jesus’s blood came to cover, heal, and transform us out of our broken state - what would our world be like without the blood of Christ?

This leads us to the reason generations are spoken of in the way they are in the Old Testament. Far from the age of grace (under Christ), heavy emphasis was placed on what could be passed down from generation to generation, specifically in light of life being in the blood. Additionally, in God’s design, there is an expectation of how a previous generation should regard their responsibility to impart to those following: God’s promises were to pass from Abraham to his descendants, God’s covenant with David was meant to run through His line as the Lion of Judah would be David’s descendant, leaving an inheritance for your children’s children is said to be what a “good man” does in Proverbs 13:22, and Psalm 78 is all about the responsibility of a generation to pass down to the next (“We will not hide them from their descendants; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power, and the wonders he has done.” verse 4, NIV).

These are wonderful positives of the concept of the power of bloodline, but what about when it is not in a holy context? Deuteronomy, the same book we find today’s chapter in question (chapter 23), instructs families of their responsibilities to impart their beliefs to the generations to come in Deuteronomy chapter 6. So if this was the way of life, in which children are meant to learn from their parents what is right and wrong, and what is acceptable and pleasing to the Lord, what happens when that isn’t what was being followed? Enter Deuteronomy 23:2 (NLT): “If a person is illegitimate by birth, neither he nor his descendants for ten generations may be admitted to the assembly of the Lord.”

Being “illegitimate by birth” referred to being born apart from the holy standard that was to define the Jewish people. Commentators are split on whether this term refers to incestuous relations or of being outside of the Jewish people, but the concept of “to the tenth generation” indicates not a literal ten generations, but as long as Israel was to be a people. The “illegitimate” were not to be counted among the Hebrew people, for they were not of the people of the covenant, under God’s holy standard of living that had been placed on the people. (Our Understanding the Bible Online class is an excellent resource for how to view the rich teachings of Leviticus and the Law through a New Testament lens - check out the resources at the end of this article)

But what about Deuteronomy 23:8, in which the non-Hebrew people of Edom and Egypt are to be allowed to enter into the assembly in the third generation? The people of Edom were not to be considered an abomination, meaning ritually unclean. Why? Because Esau, Israel’s other son besides Jacob, was the father of the Edomites, meaning they were also in the bloodline of Abraham. Similarly, Egypt had a different role to Israel than many of these other people groups: some refer to them as a type of “mother’s womb” for Israel during the 400 years Israel spent living in their land. Therefore, in time, they could become clean and join the ranks of the Hebrew people.

Generations are a rich and complex topic - but one God clearly takes seriously. Two of the Gospels begin with the genealogy of Christ, both through His physical bloodline (Mary, recounted in Luke) and His legal bloodline, through His adoptive parent (Joseph, recounted in Matthew). For this reason, you may heard the phrase “generational curses” thrown around Christian circles. This idea goes back to the judgement upon a bloodline and the ability to break covenant with our physical bloodline through the redemptive nature of our new bloodline in Christ. How beautiful that though we were once under the curse, we can now be fully accepted into the family of God and be a part of His assembly!

Spend some time today thanking God for gift of His blood and the benefits we get to rejoice in on this side of history!

For Further Study:
Atonement - https://newsongpeople.com/btonline/what-is-atonement-money
The Book of Leviticus in light of Christ - https://newsongpeople.com/resources/understandingthebible
What about verse 8? - https://enduringword.com/bible-commentary/deuteronomy-23/