In Deuteronomy chapter 5, the elderly Moses calls all of Israel together for an assembly and recites again to them The Ten Commandments that God had given them many years earlier at Mount Sinai (5:1-22). Not only did those Commandments serve as the beginning of that entire body of law God gave to Israel, they also served as that law’s moral heart and center. This explains why Moses, after publicly restating The Ten Commandments, went on to say as part of that same speech:
Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 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. (Deuteronomy 6:4-9, N.K.J.V., emphasis mine)
In Sunday School one morning, little Joey raised his hand to ask a question that had been on his mind for some time. His conversation with the teacher went like this:
Joey: “Sir, there’s something I just can’t figure out.”
Teacher: “Alright, Joey, what is it?”
Joey: “The children of Israel crossed the Red Sea, right?”
Teacher: “That’s right.”
Joey: “And the children of Israel beat up the Philistines, right?”
Teacher: “Yes, they won many battles against the Philistines.”
Joey: “And the children of Israel built the Temple, didn’t they?”
Teacher: “That’s correct.”
Joey: “And the children of Israel did a lot of other important things too, right?”
Teacher: “Yes, they did.”
Joey: “Okay, what I want to know is, what were all the grown-ups doing?”
I guess little Joey didn’t understand that the Jewish parents had the responsibility of teaching God’s commandments to their kids. That teaching was to be done creatively in all kinds of ways and in all kinds of settings. It was to be done while the family was sitting in the house and walking along the road. It was to be the last thing the children heard when they went to bed at night and the first thing they heard when they got up in the morning. It was to be bound as a sign on the hands of the children, which could symbolically have meant that everything a child’s hands did was to be controlled by God’s commandments. Likewise, it was to be bound on the children’s foreheads, which could symbolically have meant that everything a child’s mind thought was to be controlled by God’s commandments.
You see, God wanted Jewish families to be absolutely saturated with His commandments. That was the meaning behind Moses’ words, “You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” Regardless of how hyper literally God intended for Jewish parents to take that writing assignment, there was no denying that He wanted all of Jewish life to be filtered through His commandments. Not only were Jewish parents themselves expected to live the commandments, those parents were also expected to teach their children how to live those commandments.
While it’s true that Gentiles today are not required to keep the Old Testament’s Jewish law, the fact is that various New Testament passages make nine of The Ten Commandments commandments for Christians as well. The one Commandment that isn’t carried over into Christianity is the fourth one, the one about keeping the Sabbath day. The New Testament teaches that a Christian should not be judged in regards to keeping a Sabbath day because the keeping of Sabbath days was merely a shadow of the eternal rest for the soul Jesus would provide through His life, death, and resurrection (Matthew 11:28-30; Colossians 2:16-17; Hebrews 4:9-11). With that one exception, though, we Christians are like the Old Testament’s Jewish parents in that we are to ourselves live out God’s prescribed commandments and teach our children to do the same.
So, Christian parent, how are you doing on that? Do your kids see you living God’s commandments for you? And are you consistently and creatively teaching those kids to live those same commandments? Once you have held your child in your arms for the first time, your job as a role model/teacher begins, and death is the only thing than can ever end it. You are supposed to be on this job as you are sitting in your house, traveling down the road, going to bed at night, and getting out of bed in the morning. Summing up the situation, you are supposed to make your entire home, and by extension your whole life, a display for the keeping and teaching of God’s commandments. That really is what us “grown-ups” are supposed to be doing, and the better job we do of it, the better off our kids will be.