Bulletin Articles
“Teach Your Children”
Categories: Iron sharpens iron“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”
(Deuteronomy 6.4-9)
Moses included these words in the long speech he gave to Israel, just before he went to receive his rest and reward, and they crossed the Jordan into the land God had promised to their fathers. These verses are iconic, not only because Jesus affirmed that the first section is the most important commandment in the whole Law of Moses, but also because of the beautifully articulated commendation of God’s instructions in general. The details were sometimes taken to amusing extremes by the Pharisees, but the point—that God’s commandments should be in your heart and on your tongue at all times, throughout the day, every day—is crucial.
The first two instructions, to love God and to lay his words to heart, are inward. The rest of the list is outward and visible. At the top of the list of outward expressions of love and reverence for God and his commandments, sits one that was, and is, often neglected: “You shall teach them diligently to your children” (v6).
We live in a highly specialized society. From an early age we were taught—if we payed attention—that economic specialization is one of the hallmarks of civilization, along with things like writing, government, and social hierarchies. Specialization means people feel comfortable doing the thing they were trained to do, and paying others to do the rest. It’s certainly good to be able to have a professional wire your house, defend you in court, or remove your appendix; but it has also become the norm to outsource raising your children, and that poses a problem!
If your kids are just an accessory, like a stylish purse or a macho car, then it makes sense to keep them at arm’s length and entrust their care to someone else, assuming you have the money for it. It’s evil, but it does make sense. Of course, we all know that “children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward” (Ps 127.3). Even people who on a good day spend mere minutes with their kids, know they should agree with this, and would never willingly admit that they value other things more highly than their children. Yet their actions tell the truth, even if their mouths do not.
Later in the same chapter of Deuteronomy, Moses adds to his instructions about teaching God’s commandments to children.
“When your son asks you in time to come, ‘What is the meaning of the testimonies and the statutes and the rules that the Lord our God has commanded you?’ then you shall say to your son, ‘We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt. And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. And the Lord showed signs and wonders, great and grievous, against Egypt and against Pharaoh and all his household, before our eyes. And he brought us out from there, that he might bring us in and give us the land that he swore to give to our fathers. And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as we are this day.’”
(Deuteronomy 6.20-24)
Sometimes parents practice a faith, but deliberately avoid passing it on to their children, saying that they don’t want to force it on them, and will instead let them make up their own minds, so they can have a genuine faith of their own. This is, of course, just about the dumbest load of nonsense anyone’s ever heard, and either reflects the parents’ immense stupidity—which would be forgivable—or else it shows that they don’t actually believe what they profess. Yes, children need to develop their own faith as they mature, and no parent can force his child to believe anything. But what kind of parents would refuse to potty train their child, or to teach their child how to speak, saying they’d rather wait and let the child decide which language he prefers, and whether or not he wants to sit in his own excrement his whole life? As it turns out, children need and deserve guidance, and it’s shameful, wrong—even evil—to deny them that right.
Moses had no expectation that every Israelite household would include at least one parent with a four-year degree in education. God didn’t—and doesn’t—expect parents to be perceptive theologians with ironclad answers to every convoluted hypothetical or seed of doubt. Rather, parents simply need to trust that God’s ways are best, to explain how this has been confirmed throughout history and in their own lives of obedience, and to assure their children that God’s commandments are “for our good always” (De 6.24).
Moses repeats the refrain again, later in the speech. Maybe—just maybe—it was important!
“You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, as long as the heavens are above the earth.”
(Deuteronomy 11.18-21)
Jeremy Nettles
