"And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up."
Deuteronomy 6:6-7
Part 2
Yesterday:
“And these words, which I command thee this day,”
“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might” (Deuteronomy 6:4-5).
“Shall be in thine heart:”
In your heart, “inner man, mind, will, heart, soul, understanding”1 (BDB)
“These words” are to set the course of our lives.
Today:
“And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children,”
I must teach my child “diligently” “these words,” that this God is One, and we must love Him with all our hearts, souls, and might. To teach them “diligently” caries the idea of a formality to our teaching. It is when we say to Junior, “sit down here and let me tell you something important.” The Hebrew word translated as “diligently” means “to sharpen,” “to whet.”
To “teach them diligently” is,
“…to repeat, iterate, or do a thing again and again; hence to whet or sharpen any instrument, which is done by reiterated friction or grinding”2 (Clarke).
We are to take “these words” and “rub them in by repetition.”3 As we sharpen a knife by using the whetstone, we repeatedly rub the blade back and forth to hone it to an exceptional edge. So, we repeat this truth to our children to sharpen them, truth spoken time and again.
Moms, do you ever get tired of saying the same thing to your child over and over? Do not despair, this is how they learn.
“Whom shall he teach knowledge? And whom shall he make to understand doctrine? Them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts. For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little” (Isaiah 28:9-10).
Since we humans learn by repetition, let’s use this idea to help our children learn who God is and their responsibility to Him. Keep “rubbing in” these thoughts about our God.
“We see here the spirit of this Divine injunction. God’s testimonies must be taught to our children, and the utmost diligence must be used to make them understand them. This is a most difficult task; and it requires much patience, much prudence, much judgment, and much piety in the parents, to enable them to do this good, this most important work, in the best and most effectual manner”4 (Clarke).
The truth about our God we are to share often with our children. Come back tomorrow when we discuss when and where we should talk about God to our children.
1. Brown, Driver, Briggs. Brown-Driver-Briggs’ Hebrew Definitions, the electronic version in eSword.
2. Adam Clarke, Adam Clarke’s Commentary on the Bible, the electronic version in eSword.
3. E.W. Bullinger, The Companion Bible, the electronic version in eSword.
4. Clarke, Ibid.