Deuteronomy 6:7

TEACHING THE CHILDREN

‘Thou shalt teach … thy children.’

Deuteronomy 6:7

I. See what grows out of loving God, as the flower and fruit grow out of the root.—‘ Thou shall teach these words diligently unto thy children.’ Because the spirit of religion is love, it is to be imparted to others. The service of God was not to shut any in such contemplation and heavenly-mindedness that there was to be no room for neighbour or family. There is a religious life in which a great flame and heat is kindled, but it all goes up the chimney, and never comes out to warm the house or to cook the dinner. The blessed man is not he who goes soaring up into the third heavens lost in the light, but he who is as a tree planted, whose roots are wrapped about the rocks, whose head stretches into the heavens, and whose branches spread over the earth, generously yielding its fruit in its season, whilst the birds come and sing in the branches thereof. This is ever the order. ‘These words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart; and thou shalt teach them to thy children.’

II. Then there is the method by which the children are to be taught. ‘Thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shall talk of them.’ The word rendered teach is given in the margin as whet or sharpen. It is as if by talking of the truth we ourselves get it clearly and sharply set before us. And by talking of it to the children it is kept bright and clean. Talking means something simple, graciously familiar and kindly. We are apt to make all that has to do with the service of God so stiff and stately and preaching is apt to grow wearisome and dull. It is a mercy to have our words broken up by the prattling questions of the little ones. Talking means something at once more human and more humane than either sermon or catechism. He who is love must be talked of lovingly. Beware, above all, of words about God that do make Him a terror to the little ones. The gracious Saviour who said, ‘Suffer the little ones to come unto Me,’ is much displeased if we try either to drag or drive the little ones to Him. Love alone can lead them. Threats can only terrify or harden. And He who bids us ‘Feed My lambs’ will have us deal very tenderly with them. God makes our food not only sustaining, but with a relish and deliciousness that makes eating a pleasure. So are we to feed His lambs. Make it tempting, delicious, and above all, see that is within their reach. A great preacher once said that some people seem to read the command as if it were ‘ Feed my giraffes.’

III. Nor was it only in the home that this topic was to be kept ever to the front. Always and everywhere, by the way, lying down and rising up, they were to meditate in the law of the Lord and to talk of His precepts. The words of the seventieth Psalm, from the first to the eighth verse, set forth the purpose to which they are here exhorted. And the example of the Lord Jesus as He walked and talked with His disciples, and found in all the fair things of nature and in all the callings of men the parables that illustrated the truth, beautifully show us how it is to be done.

IV. Nor was it by talking only that the Word of God was to be kept ever before them. ‘ Thou shall bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house and on thy gates.’ There were but few copies of the law, and they were thus to have before them the most impressive and comprehensive portions at hand. It was from this custom of having passages written on parchment and worn that the custom of the Phylacteries arose. ‘But when the Bibles came to be common among them there was less occasion for this expedient. It was prudently and piously provided by the first reformers of the English Church that then, when Bibles were scarce, some select portions of Scripture should be written on the pillars and walls of the churches, which the people might make familiar to them.… It is also thus intimated that we are never to be ashamed of our religion, nor to own ourselves under the check and government of it. Let it be written on our gates, and let every one see that we believe Jehovah to be God alone, and believe ourselves bound to love Him with all our hearts.’