THESE WORDS … THOU SHALT TEACH THEM DILIGENTLY UNTO THY CHILDREN

The writer to the Hebrews describes Moses as one who ‘was faithful in all his house, as a servant’, Heb. 3. 5, and in the verses before us today we have an illustration of that. In the opening verse of the chapter, Moses recalls how God had commissioned him to teach Israel His commandments, statutes and judge­ments, the very words that he was now passing on to the people, v. 2. These commandments were not only for the people of Moses generation but also for succeeding generations; ‘for thy son, and thy son’s son’, v. 2, three generations and pointing to the way in which the testimony was to be maintained by the transmission of God’s word to each new generation.

In that connection, the Scriptures emphasise the importance of parental instruction: by way of exhortation, ‘fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord’, Eph. 6. 4; by example, ‘from a child’ Timothy knew ‘the holy scriptures’, 2 Tim. 3. 15; and by way of encouragement, ‘Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it’, Prov. 22. 6.

In order to effectively fulfil that responsibility, God’s word must first be cherished by us, v. 6, dwelling in our heart. This is something beyond filling our mind with the word of God. This embraces love for His word and allowing it to pervade and direct our whole being, Col. 3. 16; Ps. 119. 11. Only then will we be com­petent for His word to be proclaimed through us, vv. 7-9. Note the several exhortations, ‘Thou shalt teach them’, v. 7, diligently expounding the precepts and principles of the Scriptures; ‘talk of them’, v. 7, instruction is imparted not only through direct exhortation but also by example, the place God’s word has in our daily conversation; ‘bind them’, v. 8, in principle carrying them with us in what we do and in the way that we think; and, finally, ‘write them’, v. 9, in practice manifesting and displaying them in our home life as well as in all our secular activities. Whether par­ent, grandparent or great grandparent, be diligent in teaching God’s word to your offspring and let’s all take an interest in the imparting of God’s truth to the young.