Matthew 23:34-36

Matthew 23:34-36
In condemning the Jews, Jesus connects them with their forefathers who rejected the prophets of their day just as these Jews would reject Jesus and the apostles and prophets of the first century. The Jews were confident that they would not have acted like their fathers, but were instead proving they were not only like their fathers, but worse. They would not just kill a prophet; they would kill the Son of God.
Therefore, Jesus makes a remarkable and revealing statement. Upon them would come “all the righteous blood shed on the earth” from Abel to Zechariah. This statement is a reference to an often misunderstood passage in the Old Testament. Exodus 20:5 states: “for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me.” Many have taken this verse to mean that the sins of the fathers are passed on to the children so that God would be punishing the children for their parents’ sins. However, look at the text more carefully.
First, we know from Ezekiel 18:20 that God promises that He will not punish the children for the sins of the fathers. Second, the text in Exodus states that God will visit the iniquity of the fathers to the children of the third and fourth generation “of those who hate Me.” In other words, if the children continue in the sins of their fathers God will continue to mount up the punishments.
This is exactly what Jesus is telling the Jews of His day. They have continued the pattern of many generations before them in killing those whom God had sent to turn them away from their sins. They had the lessons of their fathers in the past on the results of disobedience, and yet they did not learn. Therefore, on them would come the punishment of all the righteous blood shed from A to Z; from Abel in the very beginning, to Zechariah who lived near the end of the kingdom of Judah. What would be the result of God visiting all this blood upon them? It would be the complete and utter destruction of their land and their nation. In 70 A.D., God would send the Romans who would level every fortified city in Israel. As verse 38 states, their house would be left desolate.
Berry Kercheville