Wednesday
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your
heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments
that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit
at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get
up. Tie them as symbols on your
hands and bind them on your foreheads.
Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. –
Deuteronomy 6:4-9
The ancient Israelites were constantly surrounded by
hostile pagan nations, they knew instinctively that if they did not teach their
children about God then nobody would?
I think we have lost this sense of urgency about teaching our children
in many Christian families today.
We live in a culture where parent’s pay for someone else to teach,
train, and even raise their own children.
We send our kids to school to learn reading and writing. We send them to coaches and instructors
to learn to play sports or musical instruments, etc. It is only natural to assume that we can send them off to
church and/or youth group to learn about God.
The imperative to the parents to teach their children in
this passage is clear. Notice that
the passage doesn’t say be sure to get them to Sunday School or be sure that
they go to confirmation class, so that the pastor or priest can teach them
about God. The Bible is quite
clear that the parents are the primary teachers and the home is the primary
place of spiritual instruction.
I think many parents don’t step up to this challenge to
teach their children about God because they feel inadequate and they are really
not sure how to go about it. There
are several very important principles in this passage for every parent. First of all, we are told that the
commands of God must be upon our hearts. This means that we cannot give to our
children what we do not possess ourselves. The very best gift you can give your kids is your own love
for God! You don’t have to be a
Bible scholar or a gifted teacher to show your kids that you genuinely love
God. Secondly, we are not told
that we must sit our children down and have forced time of Bible instruction. In fact, the passage simply tells us to
be sure talk about the Word of God.
When? All of the time! When you lie down (before bedtime),
when you get up in the morning (at breakfast), when you walk, when you sit, on
the way to school, on the way home from practice, at the dinner table, on the
couch, anytime! Some of the best
spiritual conversations with kids take place in the unplanned times, the
in-between moments of life.
The whole point is that His words are to be on our hearts
(“heart,” was not automatically associated with feelings or emotions in OT
understanding. It was more the seat of the will and convictions).
The people of God were to make the word of God their absolute central
preoccupation. They were to talk
about them sitting at home, walking along the road … it was the last thing they
were to think about at night, and the first thing they thought about when they
got up. They were to tie them on their hands and bind them on their
foreheads. They were to write them on the doorframes of their homes and
on their gates.
The Jews took these instructions very seriously and quite
literally. In order to be sure
they obeyed God’s commands, they developed the practice of wearing something
called phylacteries. These were small leather pouches or
boxes bound with leather straps on the forehead and on the hand or arm. Each phylactery had tiny bits of rolled up paper inside, on which
was written a portion of the OT law of God. These phylacteries might look odd to other people, but they
were intended to serve as a constant reminder that everything you say, think
and do is to be guided by the Word of God.
What does this mean for us today? It means that, just like the
Israelites, we are forgetful people and we need regular reminders of who God is
and what God says. It means that
we must find tangible ways to remind ourselves. My wife has a little plaque above the mirror in our kids’
bathroom with this verse printed on it, Finally, brothers, whatever is true,
whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely,
whatever is admirable — if anything is excellent or praiseworthy — think about
such things (Phil. 4:8).
This might mean we place portions of God’s Word on our
desks at work, or in our cubicles, in our lockers, on the bathroom mirror, or
on the dashboards of our cars. I know one family that posts a scripture of the
day on each of their kids’ facebook page.
Simply put, you must do whatever is required, arrange your life such
that, create habits and rituals so that … you can get the word in your head and
in your heart!
Jeff Frazier
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