Jeremiah 32:18-20 - Great are your purposes

32:18

Jeremiah here references Ex 20:5,6. The sins of one generation do have an effect on the following few generations (3 or 4 according to Ex 20:5). Some might say this unfair, but it isn’t . What we do with our lives affects others, and affects future generations. If we do good things we leave a good legacy, if we do bad things then we leave a sour legacy. What we do with our lives matters. It is also worth noting that the talk of systemic racism and “whiteness” visits sins to the thirteenth or fourteenth generation, or even beyond! When people complain about the judgement of God we can always be sure that God is far more merciful than we ever are.

32:19,20

“Great are your purposes and mighty are your deeds”. We do well to remember that today. God knows what each one of us does, and the underlying motives. And He acts with perfect justice. Jeremiah then to recall the past history, starting with God’s great act of salvation in bringing Israel out of Egypt. Note that he says God has continued the “signs and wonders to this day”. They were not just a thing of the past.