The Instruction of Children

Good morning, welcome, please open your Bibles to Deuteronomy 6.

This morning, we turn our attention to parenting, this week and next.

Remember what we said- all of life falls under these categories of loving God, worshiping God, honoring God and glorifying God.

Both marriage and parenting fall under these categories.

A Theology of the Family- How we parent reveals what we think of God- how we love and worship God.

Begin this morning with one of the most important roles that we have in parenting- the instruction of children.

While all of instruction is important, our focus today is on spiritual instruction.

Deuteronomy is a sermon given to Israel before entering the promised land.

Read Deuteronomy 6:1-9- “Now this is the commandment—the statutes and the rules—that the LORD your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over, to possess it, that you may fear the LORD your God, you and your son and your son’s son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be long. Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey. “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.”

Pray.

1. The Content.

Deuteronomy 6:6- And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.

What are these words?

Some disagreement, but there are a few options.

First, the entire Mosaic Law- the law given by God to Moses.

These are the instructions that we find in the first five books of the Bible.

Often in the NT, reference to the Law is referring back to the entirety of the commands given in these books of the Bible.

Second, it could be referring to to the decalogue, the ten words, what we often call the ten commandments.

Chapter 5 is a retelling of the commands that were first given to Moses in Exodus 20.

Perhaps these commands are what ought to be always on the hearts of the Israelites.

Third possibility, referring to the Shema, what immediately precedes the command. Hear O Israel, the Lord is one. Love God with everything.

So which is it? Truly it doesn’t really matter. Likely all three. How can this be?

Deut. 6:4-5, along with the command to love other people, is the summation of the law.

In Matthew 22, Jesus gives Deut. 6:5 along with the command to love one’s neighbor as the complete summation of the law.

Deuteronomy 6:4-5 is fleshed out in the giving of the ten commandments.

What does it look like to understand God as one and separate, as v. 4 indicates, and to love God with everything as v. 5 indicates?

First four commands- No other gods, don’t make an image or representation of God, don’t misuse God’s name,

Asking my kids to clean the upstairs. General instruction. Made more specific in understanding the task.

Clean the upstairs means clean their rooms. Clean their rooms means a certain number of tasks involved in cleaning a room. Pick up, make the bed, put clothes away, etc.

If they perform the various tasks then they are cleaning the rooms, if they clean the rooms then they are cleaning the upstairs. One leads to the fulfillment of the other.

In the same way, knowing and loving God as Deut. 6 states fulfills the keeping of the commands, which in turn fulfills the keeping of the law.

If we know and love God, then our delight will be to follow God’s commands.

This is the content that is meant to be known and instructed.

God’s commands or instructions, for the betterment of His people.

And this is what we are still responsible for today.

For us, it’s the gospel, shown throughout the entirety of Scripture, the love of God shown toward us in the death and resurrection of Jesus. Faith in Jesus, shown through godly obedience and works, is meant to be constantly instructed in our families.

Consider the importance of such a task. We tend to focus much more on general education and instruction, and it is important to do so, but what instruction matters most in light of eternity?

Asked before- should we make children come to church if they don’t want to?

2. The Method.

How is the content to be taught?

The words shall be on your heart- they are to be known and known well.

Joseph Parker- “The heart has a memory of its own. Give into the custody of the heart some lesson, and it will be retained. Men remember what they want to remember, in all the highest relations of life.”

Teach them diligently- they are to be spoken and modeled.

Comes from a Hebrew word that usually refers to sharpening a blade. This is what the training of a child is.

The teacher models for the student.

Isaiah 30:20-21- And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left.

You can imagine here God as teacher. Clearing the path before you, showing you the way, and then guiding you through that path.

This is what our instruction is to look like.

God is the perfect, infallible example. Christ is the model to be held before the student.

Not what seems right to us, but what reflects Jesus.

Talk of them in many situations.

The teaching is meant to be constantly reviewed.

Exhaustive nature of situations in which people are to review the law of God.

Not limited to religious places or circumstances.

We tend to think there is an appropriate time to learn of and speak of God.

Joseph Parker- “The Words of God are to be so thoroughly in our hearts as to become part of our life, and to mingle with our very breathing; then we may talk about them with the ease of conscious mastery, with the familiarity of the hearts truest friendship.”

Put simply- we talk most about those things we most enjoy.

If we know and love the Word of God, it will be made evident in our lives, our speech, and the content of our instruction.

This was the method of instruction in Hebrew life, to know the Word of God, to teach the Word of God, and to review the Word of God.

It is to be the same for us today.

One extra note- In Hebrew culture, this was primarily the task of the father, and unfortunately many fathers in the church today have relinquished that role.

Encyclopedia of manners and customs in the Bible- “No exceptions were made for parents who felt they were too busy to teach.”

3. The Danger.

What happens when we do not take the time and effort necessary to instruct our children in God’s Word?

A couple of realities to consider.

Our children are not blank canvases that remain blank. Something will be painted, the question is what...

John Flavel- “If you neglect to instruct children in the way of holiness, will the devil neglect to instruct them in the way of wickedness? No; if you will not teach them to pray, he will to curse, swear, and lie. If ground be uncultivated, weeds will spring.”

Parents are meant to fill the hearts and minds and lives of our children with the things of God.

Remember the exponential growth of what is yielded in our children.

George Muller- “The power for good or evil that resides in a little child is beyond all human calculation. A child rightly trained may be a worldwide blessing, with an influence reaching onward to eternal years. But a neglected or misdirected child may live to blight and blast mankind, and leave influences of evil which shall roll on in increasing volume till they plunge into the gulf of eternal perdition.”

We are called to the great commission, and our desire is to see the world introduced to the Kingdom of God.

Our influence reaches far beyond our own circles. The Kingdom of God spreads through disciple-making.

4. The Reward.

What sort of a legacy do you hope to leave behind in this world?

Notice that the text addresses legacy: V. 2- You and your son and your son’s sons.

Moses turns the attention of the hearers beyond themselves. They are to consider the ramifications of their actions and see what could be as a result of proper faith and instruction.

The dangers have a flip side as well, for those who will take seriously the instruction of their children.

Had the privilege of knowing one great grandparent in my life.

But I have known the legacies of my great grandparents through their offspring, how they lived in raising and teaching my grandparents, and then ultimately my parents.

Conclusion:

John 6:66-69- After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”

We must take the task seriously. Jesus had the words of eternal life and told His disciples to take such words to go and make disciples.

Shouldn’t this task begin with the sharing and instruction of these words with those who are closest to us?

We now have these words of eternal life, and are expected to share them with those who need them, meaning all people, but specifically meaning our children.

Don’t know where to begin? Open your Bible, read it with your children, and discuss with them what it means.

All authority has been given to Jesus, therefore go and make disciples. Make disciples of your children. Teach them the Word of God. Live it for them, model it for them, instruct them in all circumstances. Turn them into disciple makers and set them loose in a world that desperately needs Jesus.