Teacher with Children Reading the Bible in a Jungle Schoolby Joel
6:6Deuteronomy 6:6
And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:
These words are the commandments, statutes and judgments God gave to be done, the principles of His character revealed at Sinai and embodied in His law, including love to the one Lord with all heart and soul and might and keeping the seventh day as His Sabbath in remembrance of deliverance. To have them in the heart means they must dwell inwardly and become part of inner life and being, not merely known or observed outwardly, shaping principles, conduct and daily practice in every act. Held first in the parents' own hearts, they are to be taught diligently to children from infancy in the home as God's ordained school, by precept and example line upon line when sitting and walking and lying down and rising up, with morning and evening worship, song, memory and daily talk of God's acts. Assured obedience kept in this way brings continual good, life, prosperity and protection, building a wall around children and fitting them for heaven, while neglect leaves them without grounding to follow their own will unto destruction. This inward keeping and constant teaching is God's test of loyalty, centered in observing the Sabbath He sanctified, distinguishing true from false amid deception and safeguarding the faith until the final review when every character is decided for eternity.
Words and Historical Setting
These words were spoken by Christ before He assumed humanity, enshrouded in the pillar of cloud and fire, through Moses to more than a million people brought out of Egypt and led toward the promised land. The same voice that commanded from the cloud afterward spoke again when clothed in humanity on earth to teach men how to be saved.
These words are the commandments, statutes, and judgments God commanded to be taught and done, the principles of His character revealed at Sinai and embodied in His law. They continue the definite specification in Deuteronomy 5, including keeping the seventh day as the Sabbath of the Lord with rest for son and daughter and servants and cattle and stranger in remembrance of deliverance from Egypt by a mighty hand. They continue the charge in Deuteronomy 6:1-5 to fear the Lord and keep all His statutes and commandments through parents and children and grandchildren for prolonged days and well-being and increase, and to love the one Lord with all heart and soul and might, with love to neighbor as self as the second great principle on which hang all the law and the prophets.
Held in the heart, the words are to be taught diligently to children when sitting in the house and walking by the way and lying down and rising up. They are to be bound as a sign on the hand and as frontlets between the eyes, and written on the posts of the house and on the gates. Parents are to explain their meaning by recalling how God delivered Israel from Egypt and brought the people toward the promised land, so that the Word shapes the children's lives.
The verse belongs to Deuteronomy 4-8, showing what God required of ancient Israel that they might be a holy people unto Himself. With it stands the promise of well-being and increase and prolonged days and life in the land flowing with milk and honey for those who fear God and keep His statutes and commandments.
Inward Heart Keeping
To be in the heart means the commanded words are to dwell inwardly, to be hidden within and made part of inner life and being. They are not to be merely heard, merely known outwardly, or merely observed outwardly. Held in this inward way they shape life, govern the household, and become part of ordinary life at home and throughout the day. Remembered in this way they keep from forgetting God and turning to other gods, and following them brings promised blessing while disobedience brings its sure curse.
This inward keeping centers on supreme love to the one Lord God with all heart and soul and might and mind. Joined to it is love to neighbor as self, and together these are the two great principles of the law on which hang all the law and the prophets. Supreme love to God holds every other requirement, so that those who keep the first four commandments will not transgress the other six. This demand to love God wholly is part of God's enduring standard, unchanged from Sinai under the gospel and stated in the terms of eternal life, the same principles given through Moses and later required of Israel.
The words must be in the heart first as preparation for teaching, with parents keeping the precepts in their own hearts before imparting them. Truth is to be presented from the Word and lived by those who impart it, not taught as dry theory. Only lives reflecting God's character in uprightness, nobility, and unselfishness can impress others and give weight to instruction, so that children become interested in the Bible only as parents themselves are interested in it and learn to love its study only as parents love it. This inward commitment is shown in consecrated service, godly conduct, careful obedience to all directions, and instruction of the family, with parents first connected with God, reverencing Him and knowing His will and weaving its principles into daily life as the great rule of conduct.
Inward keeping means careful obedience that guides daily life, shapes principles and conduct, and is practiced in every act. The mind is to dwell continually on the words that reveal God's will, keeping them constantly before the people and speaking of them in ordinary moments at home and on the way, at bedtime and on rising. Profession of keeping the commandments is not enough, for they are to be made part of daily life for good and for preservation of life, guiding each generation to remember the Lord and remain faithful to Him. In this way the home is made a place of religious instruction, with parents giving themselves to teaching and training their children and preparing them for the kingdom of heaven.
The requirement is inward spiritual work upon mind and character, expressing supreme love to God and love to neighbor and woven into daily life. The Jews turned this spiritual requirement into literal outward exhibition, losing sight of genuine religion. Disregarding the principles of the law while transgressing it, they substituted pretentious piety, human tradition, and inventions for pure teaching. Treating inward truth as of small worth and failing to teach God's requirements diligently to children separated them from wisdom, left them unable to comprehend light, and ended in rejection as a nation and in rejecting and crucifying Jesus as the great Teacher.
Parental Teaching Commission
God ordained the family as the school and fathers and mothers as its teachers. Christ stands as the representative of the Father, the connecting link between God and man and the great teacher of mankind, and He ordained men and women to be His representatives in teaching their children. The direction was given through Moses to the children of Israel, and it makes the training of children a work of sacred importance to be done diligently in the house and in daily life. This work for children must take the place of nothing else, and neglect of it is sinful. The words commanded must first be in the heart, so that truth is presented from the Word and parents teach their children to obey the commandments.
Father and mother together must first hold the commanded words in their own hearts, be connected with God, reverence Him, know His will, and weave its principles into daily life as the great rule of conduct. Parents must control self for the sake of Creator and Redeemer, cleanse the soul-temple, trim the inner lamp, reveal piety, virtue and godliness in home life by entire surrender of the soul, and first give themselves to the Lord. Only when the root is holy can the fruit be acceptable, for even the most splendid service is not accepted from one not first consecrated, and only those thus prepared for the present and future life will be admitted into the city of God. Mothers especially bear this charge as first human teachers, placing the words in the child's heart from earliest childhood at her knee, from her lips and from the scrolls of the prophets, teaching heavenly things. The wife and mother does this by taking time to make the Saviour a daily companion and familiar friend and to study His Word, then by reading, keeping herself well informed to be a companion to her husband, keeping in touch with the developing minds of her children, wisely using opportunities to influence her dear ones for the higher life, going with the children into the fields to learn of God through the beauty of His works, and keeping cheerful and making the home a pleasant evening family reunion.
This duty to teach diligently must not be delegated to stranger lips, but given by the loving hearts of father and mother. It is not met by merely sending children to school and to the house of God, but requires continual home instruction in the statutes, talking of them when sitting in the house, walking by the way, lying down and rising up, by precept and example. Neglect of this duty for self, the world, vanity, fashion and minor matters leaves children uneducated and loses souls of both parents and children. Its requirements are of deep significance and are fulfilled in the strength of Christ by those who value the salvation of their children. Moses' teaching is to be taught by parents and voiced by ministers, teachers and instructors, with converted families and teachers who know Scripture helping children learn it. This parental work requires being with children and spending time in the family, and it is hindered when parents are hurried from one care to another and from one part of the work to another and must leave their children frequently to the care of others.
Training is to begin from very infancy, babyhood and the cradle, to form characters that will meet God's approval and to prevent objectionable traits of character. Children should begin early learning Bible principles, receiving instruction in truth and obedience to the commandments through repeated teaching, through song and prayer and lessons from the Scriptures adapted to the opening mind. Teaching children when young shapes their whole religious experience, by subduing them young and training them to submit to parental authority so they will more readily learn to yield obedience to the requirements of God. This requires training them in a truthful, honest disposition, with parental sincerity and exact truthfulness they never have reason to doubt, for without this early training and thorough conversion with the whole character changed, children have no hope whether they profess religion or not. Early lessons and impressions are rarely forgotten, and the command was fulfilled in Jesus as a human child, who was taught the very words He Himself had spoken to Moses for Israel, learning as other children learn and advancing from childhood to youth without instruction in the synagogue schools and without seeking the schools of the rabbis, with God as His instructor.
The home is to be made a place of religious instruction, a school for perfecting character and educating for heaven and the future immortal life. Parents are to give themselves to teaching and training their children in these words kept in the heart, preparing them for the kingdom of heaven and for admission into the heavenly family and the city of God. Children are younger members of the Lord's family committed to parents to educate for heaven, so the Christian home becomes a school where parents serve as under-teachers while Christ Himself is the chief instructor, giving those same lessons little by little as young minds can receive them and gradually opening to them the beauty of the principles of heaven. There parents teach their little ones the truth by precept and example, line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little, with all patience, long-suffering and forbearance, and lead children to present what they learn to others. This solemn duty of home religion has been long neglected while parents sleep and children go to destruction, and pressing it home upon conscience breaks up resistance to the truth and makes the prospect bright for the conversion of the whole family.
Ways of Daily Instruction
Teaching is to be by precept and example, line upon line and precept upon precept, here a little and there a little, little by little as young minds can receive. It is to be patient, careful, merciful, loving, simple, attractive and vigilant, associating thoughts of God with all events of daily life at home and abroad. The words must first be hidden in the parents' own hearts, and the parents' own interest in and love for the Bible, shown in example and spirit, gives weight to instruction and makes the guiding law of the household. Children are younger members of the Lord's family committed to parents to educate for heaven, so the Christian home becomes a school where parents serve as under-teachers while Christ Himself is the chief instructor.
Instruction is to be continual and woven into ordinary life, talking of the words when sitting in the house and walking by the way and lying down and rising up, keeping them constantly before the people. Parents are to keep the teaching before children through everyday instruction at home, reading the words with children and explaining their meaning. Its meaning is explained by recalling how God delivered Israel from Egypt and brought the people toward the promised land, keeping His mighty acts and deliverance in memory. These instructions, including principles for physical and moral health, are for good and to preserve life, to guide daily life and be the great rule of conduct, and work and household affairs must not crowd them out.
In Israel the commandments were put into verse and song to be sung during the march through the wilderness and on the wilderness journey, impressing the minds of parents and children. After settlement in Canaan they were to be repeated daily in every home, set to music and chanted by young and old, taught by priests in public assemblies, written plainly upon doorposts and gates and spread upon memorial tablets, read publicly, and made the daily study of rulers with meditation day and night so they would observe to do all written therein and make their way prosperous with good success. They were to be rehearsed publicly every seven years during the Feast of Tabernacles so men and women and children and strangers would hear and learn and fear the Lord and observe to do all the words of the law, and children who had not known would hear and learn to fear God. God repeated His instructions while leading Israel through the wilderness so truth would make an abiding impression, instituting ordinances to keep Him in remembrance as a special safeguard and blessing for the younger members, with obedience bringing life and disobedience bringing death, and with blessing on the obedient and curse on the disobedient.
Lessons are to be fixed firmly in memory by figures and symbols, with the great truths of God's providence and the future life impressed on the young mind. The mighty works of God in delivering His people and the promises of the Redeemer to come are to be often recounted in the home, with teaching of God's requirements and His dealings with the fathers, and with accounts of His mighty acts repeated so they remain fresh in memory. The child is to be trained to see God alike in nature, in the stars, trees, flowers, mountains and brooks that speak of the Creator, and in revelation, in the sanctuary service and the utterances of the prophets. This home training was lived out with Moses in Goshen, Samuel with Hannah, David at Bethlehem, Daniel before the captivity, Christ at Nazareth, and Timothy learning Holy Writ from his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice, and it was fulfilled in Jesus as a human child taught from earliest childhood at His mother's knee, from her lips and from the scrolls of the prophets, learning as other children learn without instruction in the synagogue schools and without seeking the schools of the rabbis, with God as His instructor. Mothers as first human teachers place the commanded words in the heart of the child, take time to make the Saviour a daily companion and familiar friend and to study His Word, keep in touch with developing minds, go with children into the fields to learn of God through the beauty of His works, and keep the home a pleasant evening reunion whose influence draws the husband home rather than to clubhouse or saloon, keeps the boy from the street, and saves the girl from frivolous misleading associations.
The verse calls for daily family worship morning and evening made the sweetest and most helpful hours of the day, with no troubled, unkind thoughts intruding, as parents and children assemble to meet with Jesus and invite holy angels into the home. Services are to be brief and full of life, adapted to the occasion and varied, with all joining in Bible reading and learning and often repeating God's law, with children sometimes selecting the reading, being questioned upon it and asking questions, with its meaning illustrated, and with little ones taking part in prayer and joining in song when the service is not too lengthy. Children when young are to be given the sweet privilege of reading the Word of life, and seed of patient, practical instruction in the love and fear of God making little children familiar with heavenly truth will be remembered wherever their lot is cast and bear a precious harvest. Worship is praise and thanksgiving, with children hearing at the altar that God is blessing them and listening to words spoken to the Creator in regard to them, and unruly children are to be taken aside privately and told with patience, kindness and goodness that they cannot dishonor God, so they learn family worship is not punishment for behavior. Scolding, fretting, passion, impatience and troubled unkind thoughts are to be put out of the house, wrong habits overcome, and modesty and humility taught against the pride, self-esteem and boldness marking the children of the day, with parents and teachers forbidden to display the ability and proficiency of children and scholars.
Home teaching includes educating children to work, teaching them trades and letting none be idle, besides manual labor instructing them to keep the statutes and commandments. Parents are to show by personal example how to keep eyes fixed on Jesus and instruct in obedience, teaching children from earliest years to love God, respect religious things, and know that Jesus gave His life so they may have eternal life. Instruction includes telling what God has done and how He has preserved from death while other children have fallen with disease, keeping God in memory, teaching thankfulness such as bringing a thank offering to God on the birthday for mercies through the year, practicing economy, frugality, self-denial and systematic giving, expending money carefully, ceasing to rob God, forsaking pride of dress and worldly styles and fashions, dressing economically, giving Jesus first and best and last, and humbling the heart before God. Every family professing truth is to train children in industrious habits and make manifest that principles of truth and righteousness do not make people coarse, rough, untidy and disorderly, for knowing Bible doctrines is not enough unless the words are in the heart with sanctifying influence upon character and home life.
Blessings and Consequences
Positive assured obedience to the words held in the heart brings the richest blessings, continual good, and preservation of life, with prosperity and good success in all that is undertaken. The blessing touches fields and flocks, gives sure bread and water, preserves from sickness and death, and keeps enemies from prevailing, for obedience works in harmony with God and carries out His mind and purposes. God's design in this was a pure, happy, and healthful people with not one feeble one among their tribes, kept in His favor and love and built up in righteousness and truth so He could safely bless them. Obedience brings life, while disobedience brings death and its sure curse.
Only as reverence for the holy word was cherished in the hearts of the people could Israel fulfill the divine purpose to extend to all nations a knowledge of saving truth through hearing the words of the covenant. Regard for the law gave Israel strength during the reign of David and the earlier years of Solomon, making the way prosperous with good success. Through faith in the living Word reformation was wrought in the days of Elijah and of Josiah.
Constant home instruction, with infant tongues taught the language of Jesus and heavenly songs sung to babes, builds a wall of protection around children and fills the dwelling with a heavenly current as in Abraham's tent. This constant instruction in the word of God is the most successful way to secure children's salvation and keep them from temptation, for children are the Lord's property bought with a price. It makes this life an education for the future immortal life, bringing peace and happiness and deciding eternal life as the will is surrendered entirely to the will of God and the soul is opened heavenward to see God. When parents learn together with their children, unbelief disappears, faith and activity increase, assurance and confidence deepen, prayers become more earnest and sincere, and needed grace for wisdom and instruction is given.
Neglect of this diligent teaching in the home leaves children without the grounding the commands require, to follow their own will, remain impenitent, and go to destruction while parents sleep. Israel did not diligently follow the charge, failed to teach God's requirements to children, treated inward truth as of small worth, and put human tradition and inventions in place of pure teaching. This separated them from God's wisdom, led to rejection as a nation, left them unable to comprehend light, and ended in rejecting and crucifying Jesus as the great Teacher. The solemn duty of home religion long neglected allows harmful traits to take root and pass from one generation to the next.
Disregard and neglect of this parental instruction produces sins and crimes by adults and by youth and children, with widespread lawlessness and iniquity that makes the days like the days of Noah and Lot. Carelessness and disobedience bring results of the same character as the transgression of Adam and Eve, with deteriorating character, departure from God, strengthening of evil, and loss of God's blessing and power. It educates children and children's children as confirmed transgressors until contempt for God's law becomes almost worldwide, while departure from loyalty and transgression brings back lawlessness, discord, hatred, strife, and violence upon the transgressors themselves. The household is to be governed by God's law, fostering obedience and respect for God, for following these directions brings the promised blessings, while disobedience brings its sure curse.
Loyalty Test and Final Call
The keeping of the commanded words inwardly in the heart with continual teaching of them is God's great test and the sign of loyalty to Him, meaning either observing the Sabbath of the fourth commandment or repudiating the Word and accepting a day He has not sanctified. Obedience to the law includes refraining from unnecessary labor on His holy day, and every member of the family is to know its requirements and restrictions. Parents who send children to school on the Sabbath act contrary to this duty and fail to teach God's law faithfully, for the commands are to shape family life continually, including on the Sabbath. The commandments, including the Sabbath commandment, are to be held inwardly, shape life and be taught diligently, spoken of throughout the day and kept as a continual reminder, with obedience connected to doing what is right and good before God and receiving His promised good. They are to shape principles and conduct, including loyalty to God's law and Sabbath as the sign of His government.
All will be judged by God's commands, and these charges of the Word will be brought forth when every case is decided. Those who did not search the Scriptures to know what God commanded and observed a day He did not bless will not be excused for ignorance. The commandments express the complete standard of Christ's character and are to be received as God's words, obeyed, and taught diligently to children through the ordinary moments of daily life. The demand to love God with the whole heart, soul, strength, and mind is part of God's enduring standard, unchanged from Sinai under the gospel and stated in the terms of eternal life. The law can be understood by all who are willing to see it, and ignorance is no excuse when the light of the law is available, for its words are to be kept in the heart, not forgotten, taught through the generations, made plain to children, retained through practices such as singing them, with parents explaining the law, modeling obedience, and urging children to obey throughout life. Obedience to it is connected with God's promises and belonging to His royal family.
Held by diligent study, practice, and complete obedience to the law of God, the words keep faith from making the working of miracles the test, and they distinguish the true from the false when Satan by deception performs wonders that appear to be genuine miracles. This instruction given through Moses to Israel at the time of deliverance from Egypt is timely instruction for today, requiring the words to be kept in the heart, taught diligently to children, talked of continually in the house and by the way and at lying down and at rising up, bound as a sign upon the hand and as frontlets between the eyes and written upon the posts of the house and on the gates. Studying and practicing God's commandments helps distinguish truth from deception and opens communication with heaven, while the words are to be made the guide for life and kept continually in mind and in the home. They are to be kept constantly before the people as frontlets between the eyes to keep them from every false way, by teaching them diligently and talking of them when sitting in the house and walking by the way and lying down and rising up, and by binding them for a sign upon the hand, thus opening communication with heaven and working out the divine will in righteousness in the life.
The instruction in Deuteronomy 4-8 shows what God required of ancient Israel that they might be a holy people unto Himself, and having His words in the heart as part of that required holiness is to be read with profit now. The reason is that the day of God's great final review is near, when the people of this world must stand before the Judge of all the earth to answer for their deeds, and the present is the time of investigation when every character will have been investigated and every case decided for eternity. The chapter is included among the Scriptures whose special lesson is to do what they teach, and it is to be studied and obeyed. Scripture here requires careful study, not merely reading, as the safe guide for forming moral character and gaining intellectual culture. The commandments and words are of highest importance, and their requirements should be taught to the people and displayed prominently so they can speak to them.
Obedience to God's word is the only safeguard against the evils sweeping the world to destruction, and inward possession of the commandments, beginning with love for God with all heart and soul and might, is the foundation for making truth known to all in spite of opposition. By that inward keeping leading to diligent teaching of children and constant speaking when sitting in the house and walking by the way and lying down and rising up, with outward observance as a sign upon the hand and as frontlets between the eyes, the faith once delivered to the saints and the message of the third angel is preserved and voiced against Satan's devices to make truth of none effect. Those who carry God's last message of mercy must present the claims of the law until men and women are convicted of the duty to obey, and must show them that their decision carries responsibility not only for themselves but for their children. Each person is to begin the work of reformation at home by teaching the truth there, for having God's truth held in the heart and taught diligently within the household calls for it. Every person has a missionary work at home to do, among neighbors and especially in training children, and the very best work that can be done is to present to the world a well-ordered and well-educated family, with families responsible for carrying out the Lord's directions and speaking Bible truth clearly to their children. Parents are always giving their children an example either of obedience or of transgression, and by example and teaching the eternal destiny of the household is in most cases decided, so that in the future life children will be what their parents have made them, through home religion centered on the principles of the law of God taught to fathers and mothers and children.
Having the law in the heart as the means of family education means walking in all God's commandments with strictest integrity, setting example before children, guarding the ways by those in responsible positions, ruling children firmly and kindly without harshness, teaching older children to help younger ones, and refusing to leave children except with one thoroughly trusted. This instruction for parents to teach God's word and commandments to their children from their earliest years, patiently teaching the Scriptures and the fear of the Lord, applies to Christian parents as fully as it did to the Jews and includes diligently guiding their households in obedience and reverence. All of God's commandments must live inside the parents and be worked into the hearts of their children, with parents bearing the heavy responsibility to educate and train them to walk in obedience, to help them know what they must be and do in order to be saved, and to bring light into the family. This happens by surrendering the will entirely to the will of God, turning away from serving earthly things, shutting out earthly poison, and opening the soul heavenward to see God, which brings peace and happiness and decides eternal life. Family religion requires parents first to hold God's words in their own hearts and then to nourish everyone in the household with the lessons of Christ, by diligent, vigilant instruction that strictly guards the interest of each soul so Satan does not deceive and allure away from Christ, restrains children from bad tendencies and bad tempers, and kindly, patiently leads them step by step to love and fear and honor Jesus Christ. When parents train their children with an eye single to the glory of God they work together with God and God works with them in saving the souls for whom Christ died, while homes that neglect this discipline and training dishonor the Lord. Parents are to teach children to revere and love God, pray to Him, and keep His commandments holy, with family worship morning and evening and preparation through the week for the Sabbath supporting that instruction, keeping the Lord before them and faithfully teaching them to love God and do His will.
These words are the commandments, statutes and judgments God gave to be done, the principles of His character revealed at Sinai and embodied in His law, including love to the one Lord with all heart and soul and might and keeping the seventh day as His Sabbath in remembrance of deliverance. To have them in the heart means they must dwell inwardly and become part of inner life and being, not merely known or observed outwardly, shaping principles, conduct and daily practice in every act. Held first in the parents' own hearts, they are to be taught diligently to children from infancy in the home as God's ordained school, by precept and example line upon line when sitting and walking and lying down and rising up, with morning and evening worship, song, memory and daily talk of God's acts. Assured obedience kept in this way brings continual good, life, prosperity and protection, building a wall around children and fitting them for heaven, while neglect leaves them without grounding to follow their own will unto destruction. This inward keeping and constant teaching is God's test of loyalty, centered in observing the Sabbath He sanctified, distinguishing true from false amid deception and safeguarding the faith until the final review when every character is decided for eternity.
Words and Historical Setting
These words were spoken by Christ before He assumed humanity, enshrouded in the pillar of cloud and fire, through Moses to more than a million people brought out of Egypt and led toward the promised land. The same voice that commanded from the cloud afterward spoke again when clothed in humanity on earth to teach men how to be saved.
These words are the commandments, statutes, and judgments God commanded to be taught and done, the principles of His character revealed at Sinai and embodied in His law. They continue the definite specification in Deuteronomy 5, including keeping the seventh day as the Sabbath of the Lord with rest for son and daughter and servants and cattle and stranger in remembrance of deliverance from Egypt by a mighty hand. They continue the charge in Deuteronomy 6:1-5 to fear the Lord and keep all His statutes and commandments through parents and children and grandchildren for prolonged days and well-being and increase, and to love the one Lord with all heart and soul and might, with love to neighbor as self as the second great principle on which hang all the law and the prophets.
Held in the heart, the words are to be taught diligently to children when sitting in the house and walking by the way and lying down and rising up. They are to be bound as a sign on the hand and as frontlets between the eyes, and written on the posts of the house and on the gates. Parents are to explain their meaning by recalling how God delivered Israel from Egypt and brought the people toward the promised land, so that the Word shapes the children's lives.
The verse belongs to Deuteronomy 4-8, showing what God required of ancient Israel that they might be a holy people unto Himself. With it stands the promise of well-being and increase and prolonged days and life in the land flowing with milk and honey for those who fear God and keep His statutes and commandments.
Inward Heart Keeping
To be in the heart means the commanded words are to dwell inwardly, to be hidden within and made part of inner life and being. They are not to be merely heard, merely known outwardly, or merely observed outwardly. Held in this inward way they shape life, govern the household, and become part of ordinary life at home and throughout the day. Remembered in this way they keep from forgetting God and turning to other gods, and following them brings promised blessing while disobedience brings its sure curse.
This inward keeping centers on supreme love to the one Lord God with all heart and soul and might and mind. Joined to it is love to neighbor as self, and together these are the two great principles of the law on which hang all the law and the prophets. Supreme love to God holds every other requirement, so that those who keep the first four commandments will not transgress the other six. This demand to love God wholly is part of God's enduring standard, unchanged from Sinai under the gospel and stated in the terms of eternal life, the same principles given through Moses and later required of Israel.
The words must be in the heart first as preparation for teaching, with parents keeping the precepts in their own hearts before imparting them. Truth is to be presented from the Word and lived by those who impart it, not taught as dry theory. Only lives reflecting God's character in uprightness, nobility, and unselfishness can impress others and give weight to instruction, so that children become interested in the Bible only as parents themselves are interested in it and learn to love its study only as parents love it. This inward commitment is shown in consecrated service, godly conduct, careful obedience to all directions, and instruction of the family, with parents first connected with God, reverencing Him and knowing His will and weaving its principles into daily life as the great rule of conduct.
Inward keeping means careful obedience that guides daily life, shapes principles and conduct, and is practiced in every act. The mind is to dwell continually on the words that reveal God's will, keeping them constantly before the people and speaking of them in ordinary moments at home and on the way, at bedtime and on rising. Profession of keeping the commandments is not enough, for they are to be made part of daily life for good and for preservation of life, guiding each generation to remember the Lord and remain faithful to Him. In this way the home is made a place of religious instruction, with parents giving themselves to teaching and training their children and preparing them for the kingdom of heaven.
The requirement is inward spiritual work upon mind and character, expressing supreme love to God and love to neighbor and woven into daily life. The Jews turned this spiritual requirement into literal outward exhibition, losing sight of genuine religion. Disregarding the principles of the law while transgressing it, they substituted pretentious piety, human tradition, and inventions for pure teaching. Treating inward truth as of small worth and failing to teach God's requirements diligently to children separated them from wisdom, left them unable to comprehend light, and ended in rejection as a nation and in rejecting and crucifying Jesus as the great Teacher.
Parental Teaching Commission
God ordained the family as the school and fathers and mothers as its teachers. Christ stands as the representative of the Father, the connecting link between God and man and the great teacher of mankind, and He ordained men and women to be His representatives in teaching their children. The direction was given through Moses to the children of Israel, and it makes the training of children a work of sacred importance to be done diligently in the house and in daily life. This work for children must take the place of nothing else, and neglect of it is sinful. The words commanded must first be in the heart, so that truth is presented from the Word and parents teach their children to obey the commandments.
Father and mother together must first hold the commanded words in their own hearts, be connected with God, reverence Him, know His will, and weave its principles into daily life as the great rule of conduct. Parents must control self for the sake of Creator and Redeemer, cleanse the soul-temple, trim the inner lamp, reveal piety, virtue and godliness in home life by entire surrender of the soul, and first give themselves to the Lord. Only when the root is holy can the fruit be acceptable, for even the most splendid service is not accepted from one not first consecrated, and only those thus prepared for the present and future life will be admitted into the city of God. Mothers especially bear this charge as first human teachers, placing the words in the child's heart from earliest childhood at her knee, from her lips and from the scrolls of the prophets, teaching heavenly things. The wife and mother does this by taking time to make the Saviour a daily companion and familiar friend and to study His Word, then by reading, keeping herself well informed to be a companion to her husband, keeping in touch with the developing minds of her children, wisely using opportunities to influence her dear ones for the higher life, going with the children into the fields to learn of God through the beauty of His works, and keeping cheerful and making the home a pleasant evening family reunion.
This duty to teach diligently must not be delegated to stranger lips, but given by the loving hearts of father and mother. It is not met by merely sending children to school and to the house of God, but requires continual home instruction in the statutes, talking of them when sitting in the house, walking by the way, lying down and rising up, by precept and example. Neglect of this duty for self, the world, vanity, fashion and minor matters leaves children uneducated and loses souls of both parents and children. Its requirements are of deep significance and are fulfilled in the strength of Christ by those who value the salvation of their children. Moses' teaching is to be taught by parents and voiced by ministers, teachers and instructors, with converted families and teachers who know Scripture helping children learn it. This parental work requires being with children and spending time in the family, and it is hindered when parents are hurried from one care to another and from one part of the work to another and must leave their children frequently to the care of others.
Training is to begin from very infancy, babyhood and the cradle, to form characters that will meet God's approval and to prevent objectionable traits of character. Children should begin early learning Bible principles, receiving instruction in truth and obedience to the commandments through repeated teaching, through song and prayer and lessons from the Scriptures adapted to the opening mind. Teaching children when young shapes their whole religious experience, by subduing them young and training them to submit to parental authority so they will more readily learn to yield obedience to the requirements of God. This requires training them in a truthful, honest disposition, with parental sincerity and exact truthfulness they never have reason to doubt, for without this early training and thorough conversion with the whole character changed, children have no hope whether they profess religion or not. Early lessons and impressions are rarely forgotten, and the command was fulfilled in Jesus as a human child, who was taught the very words He Himself had spoken to Moses for Israel, learning as other children learn and advancing from childhood to youth without instruction in the synagogue schools and without seeking the schools of the rabbis, with God as His instructor.
The home is to be made a place of religious instruction, a school for perfecting character and educating for heaven and the future immortal life. Parents are to give themselves to teaching and training their children in these words kept in the heart, preparing them for the kingdom of heaven and for admission into the heavenly family and the city of God. Children are younger members of the Lord's family committed to parents to educate for heaven, so the Christian home becomes a school where parents serve as under-teachers while Christ Himself is the chief instructor, giving those same lessons little by little as young minds can receive them and gradually opening to them the beauty of the principles of heaven. There parents teach their little ones the truth by precept and example, line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little, with all patience, long-suffering and forbearance, and lead children to present what they learn to others. This solemn duty of home religion has been long neglected while parents sleep and children go to destruction, and pressing it home upon conscience breaks up resistance to the truth and makes the prospect bright for the conversion of the whole family.
Ways of Daily Instruction
Teaching is to be by precept and example, line upon line and precept upon precept, here a little and there a little, little by little as young minds can receive. It is to be patient, careful, merciful, loving, simple, attractive and vigilant, associating thoughts of God with all events of daily life at home and abroad. The words must first be hidden in the parents' own hearts, and the parents' own interest in and love for the Bible, shown in example and spirit, gives weight to instruction and makes the guiding law of the household. Children are younger members of the Lord's family committed to parents to educate for heaven, so the Christian home becomes a school where parents serve as under-teachers while Christ Himself is the chief instructor.
Instruction is to be continual and woven into ordinary life, talking of the words when sitting in the house and walking by the way and lying down and rising up, keeping them constantly before the people. Parents are to keep the teaching before children through everyday instruction at home, reading the words with children and explaining their meaning. Its meaning is explained by recalling how God delivered Israel from Egypt and brought the people toward the promised land, keeping His mighty acts and deliverance in memory. These instructions, including principles for physical and moral health, are for good and to preserve life, to guide daily life and be the great rule of conduct, and work and household affairs must not crowd them out.
In Israel the commandments were put into verse and song to be sung during the march through the wilderness and on the wilderness journey, impressing the minds of parents and children. After settlement in Canaan they were to be repeated daily in every home, set to music and chanted by young and old, taught by priests in public assemblies, written plainly upon doorposts and gates and spread upon memorial tablets, read publicly, and made the daily study of rulers with meditation day and night so they would observe to do all written therein and make their way prosperous with good success. They were to be rehearsed publicly every seven years during the Feast of Tabernacles so men and women and children and strangers would hear and learn and fear the Lord and observe to do all the words of the law, and children who had not known would hear and learn to fear God. God repeated His instructions while leading Israel through the wilderness so truth would make an abiding impression, instituting ordinances to keep Him in remembrance as a special safeguard and blessing for the younger members, with obedience bringing life and disobedience bringing death, and with blessing on the obedient and curse on the disobedient.
Lessons are to be fixed firmly in memory by figures and symbols, with the great truths of God's providence and the future life impressed on the young mind. The mighty works of God in delivering His people and the promises of the Redeemer to come are to be often recounted in the home, with teaching of God's requirements and His dealings with the fathers, and with accounts of His mighty acts repeated so they remain fresh in memory. The child is to be trained to see God alike in nature, in the stars, trees, flowers, mountains and brooks that speak of the Creator, and in revelation, in the sanctuary service and the utterances of the prophets. This home training was lived out with Moses in Goshen, Samuel with Hannah, David at Bethlehem, Daniel before the captivity, Christ at Nazareth, and Timothy learning Holy Writ from his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice, and it was fulfilled in Jesus as a human child taught from earliest childhood at His mother's knee, from her lips and from the scrolls of the prophets, learning as other children learn without instruction in the synagogue schools and without seeking the schools of the rabbis, with God as His instructor. Mothers as first human teachers place the commanded words in the heart of the child, take time to make the Saviour a daily companion and familiar friend and to study His Word, keep in touch with developing minds, go with children into the fields to learn of God through the beauty of His works, and keep the home a pleasant evening reunion whose influence draws the husband home rather than to clubhouse or saloon, keeps the boy from the street, and saves the girl from frivolous misleading associations.
The verse calls for daily family worship morning and evening made the sweetest and most helpful hours of the day, with no troubled, unkind thoughts intruding, as parents and children assemble to meet with Jesus and invite holy angels into the home. Services are to be brief and full of life, adapted to the occasion and varied, with all joining in Bible reading and learning and often repeating God's law, with children sometimes selecting the reading, being questioned upon it and asking questions, with its meaning illustrated, and with little ones taking part in prayer and joining in song when the service is not too lengthy. Children when young are to be given the sweet privilege of reading the Word of life, and seed of patient, practical instruction in the love and fear of God making little children familiar with heavenly truth will be remembered wherever their lot is cast and bear a precious harvest. Worship is praise and thanksgiving, with children hearing at the altar that God is blessing them and listening to words spoken to the Creator in regard to them, and unruly children are to be taken aside privately and told with patience, kindness and goodness that they cannot dishonor God, so they learn family worship is not punishment for behavior. Scolding, fretting, passion, impatience and troubled unkind thoughts are to be put out of the house, wrong habits overcome, and modesty and humility taught against the pride, self-esteem and boldness marking the children of the day, with parents and teachers forbidden to display the ability and proficiency of children and scholars.
Home teaching includes educating children to work, teaching them trades and letting none be idle, besides manual labor instructing them to keep the statutes and commandments. Parents are to show by personal example how to keep eyes fixed on Jesus and instruct in obedience, teaching children from earliest years to love God, respect religious things, and know that Jesus gave His life so they may have eternal life. Instruction includes telling what God has done and how He has preserved from death while other children have fallen with disease, keeping God in memory, teaching thankfulness such as bringing a thank offering to God on the birthday for mercies through the year, practicing economy, frugality, self-denial and systematic giving, expending money carefully, ceasing to rob God, forsaking pride of dress and worldly styles and fashions, dressing economically, giving Jesus first and best and last, and humbling the heart before God. Every family professing truth is to train children in industrious habits and make manifest that principles of truth and righteousness do not make people coarse, rough, untidy and disorderly, for knowing Bible doctrines is not enough unless the words are in the heart with sanctifying influence upon character and home life.
Blessings and Consequences
Positive assured obedience to the words held in the heart brings the richest blessings, continual good, and preservation of life, with prosperity and good success in all that is undertaken. The blessing touches fields and flocks, gives sure bread and water, preserves from sickness and death, and keeps enemies from prevailing, for obedience works in harmony with God and carries out His mind and purposes. God's design in this was a pure, happy, and healthful people with not one feeble one among their tribes, kept in His favor and love and built up in righteousness and truth so He could safely bless them. Obedience brings life, while disobedience brings death and its sure curse.
Only as reverence for the holy word was cherished in the hearts of the people could Israel fulfill the divine purpose to extend to all nations a knowledge of saving truth through hearing the words of the covenant. Regard for the law gave Israel strength during the reign of David and the earlier years of Solomon, making the way prosperous with good success. Through faith in the living Word reformation was wrought in the days of Elijah and of Josiah.
Constant home instruction, with infant tongues taught the language of Jesus and heavenly songs sung to babes, builds a wall of protection around children and fills the dwelling with a heavenly current as in Abraham's tent. This constant instruction in the word of God is the most successful way to secure children's salvation and keep them from temptation, for children are the Lord's property bought with a price. It makes this life an education for the future immortal life, bringing peace and happiness and deciding eternal life as the will is surrendered entirely to the will of God and the soul is opened heavenward to see God. When parents learn together with their children, unbelief disappears, faith and activity increase, assurance and confidence deepen, prayers become more earnest and sincere, and needed grace for wisdom and instruction is given.
Neglect of this diligent teaching in the home leaves children without the grounding the commands require, to follow their own will, remain impenitent, and go to destruction while parents sleep. Israel did not diligently follow the charge, failed to teach God's requirements to children, treated inward truth as of small worth, and put human tradition and inventions in place of pure teaching. This separated them from God's wisdom, led to rejection as a nation, left them unable to comprehend light, and ended in rejecting and crucifying Jesus as the great Teacher. The solemn duty of home religion long neglected allows harmful traits to take root and pass from one generation to the next.
Disregard and neglect of this parental instruction produces sins and crimes by adults and by youth and children, with widespread lawlessness and iniquity that makes the days like the days of Noah and Lot. Carelessness and disobedience bring results of the same character as the transgression of Adam and Eve, with deteriorating character, departure from God, strengthening of evil, and loss of God's blessing and power. It educates children and children's children as confirmed transgressors until contempt for God's law becomes almost worldwide, while departure from loyalty and transgression brings back lawlessness, discord, hatred, strife, and violence upon the transgressors themselves. The household is to be governed by God's law, fostering obedience and respect for God, for following these directions brings the promised blessings, while disobedience brings its sure curse.
Loyalty Test and Final Call
The keeping of the commanded words inwardly in the heart with continual teaching of them is God's great test and the sign of loyalty to Him, meaning either observing the Sabbath of the fourth commandment or repudiating the Word and accepting a day He has not sanctified. Obedience to the law includes refraining from unnecessary labor on His holy day, and every member of the family is to know its requirements and restrictions. Parents who send children to school on the Sabbath act contrary to this duty and fail to teach God's law faithfully, for the commands are to shape family life continually, including on the Sabbath. The commandments, including the Sabbath commandment, are to be held inwardly, shape life and be taught diligently, spoken of throughout the day and kept as a continual reminder, with obedience connected to doing what is right and good before God and receiving His promised good. They are to shape principles and conduct, including loyalty to God's law and Sabbath as the sign of His government.
All will be judged by God's commands, and these charges of the Word will be brought forth when every case is decided. Those who did not search the Scriptures to know what God commanded and observed a day He did not bless will not be excused for ignorance. The commandments express the complete standard of Christ's character and are to be received as God's words, obeyed, and taught diligently to children through the ordinary moments of daily life. The demand to love God with the whole heart, soul, strength, and mind is part of God's enduring standard, unchanged from Sinai under the gospel and stated in the terms of eternal life. The law can be understood by all who are willing to see it, and ignorance is no excuse when the light of the law is available, for its words are to be kept in the heart, not forgotten, taught through the generations, made plain to children, retained through practices such as singing them, with parents explaining the law, modeling obedience, and urging children to obey throughout life. Obedience to it is connected with God's promises and belonging to His royal family.
Held by diligent study, practice, and complete obedience to the law of God, the words keep faith from making the working of miracles the test, and they distinguish the true from the false when Satan by deception performs wonders that appear to be genuine miracles. This instruction given through Moses to Israel at the time of deliverance from Egypt is timely instruction for today, requiring the words to be kept in the heart, taught diligently to children, talked of continually in the house and by the way and at lying down and at rising up, bound as a sign upon the hand and as frontlets between the eyes and written upon the posts of the house and on the gates. Studying and practicing God's commandments helps distinguish truth from deception and opens communication with heaven, while the words are to be made the guide for life and kept continually in mind and in the home. They are to be kept constantly before the people as frontlets between the eyes to keep them from every false way, by teaching them diligently and talking of them when sitting in the house and walking by the way and lying down and rising up, and by binding them for a sign upon the hand, thus opening communication with heaven and working out the divine will in righteousness in the life.
The instruction in Deuteronomy 4-8 shows what God required of ancient Israel that they might be a holy people unto Himself, and having His words in the heart as part of that required holiness is to be read with profit now. The reason is that the day of God's great final review is near, when the people of this world must stand before the Judge of all the earth to answer for their deeds, and the present is the time of investigation when every character will have been investigated and every case decided for eternity. The chapter is included among the Scriptures whose special lesson is to do what they teach, and it is to be studied and obeyed. Scripture here requires careful study, not merely reading, as the safe guide for forming moral character and gaining intellectual culture. The commandments and words are of highest importance, and their requirements should be taught to the people and displayed prominently so they can speak to them.
Obedience to God's word is the only safeguard against the evils sweeping the world to destruction, and inward possession of the commandments, beginning with love for God with all heart and soul and might, is the foundation for making truth known to all in spite of opposition. By that inward keeping leading to diligent teaching of children and constant speaking when sitting in the house and walking by the way and lying down and rising up, with outward observance as a sign upon the hand and as frontlets between the eyes, the faith once delivered to the saints and the message of the third angel is preserved and voiced against Satan's devices to make truth of none effect. Those who carry God's last message of mercy must present the claims of the law until men and women are convicted of the duty to obey, and must show them that their decision carries responsibility not only for themselves but for their children. Each person is to begin the work of reformation at home by teaching the truth there, for having God's truth held in the heart and taught diligently within the household calls for it. Every person has a missionary work at home to do, among neighbors and especially in training children, and the very best work that can be done is to present to the world a well-ordered and well-educated family, with families responsible for carrying out the Lord's directions and speaking Bible truth clearly to their children. Parents are always giving their children an example either of obedience or of transgression, and by example and teaching the eternal destiny of the household is in most cases decided, so that in the future life children will be what their parents have made them, through home religion centered on the principles of the law of God taught to fathers and mothers and children.
Having the law in the heart as the means of family education means walking in all God's commandments with strictest integrity, setting example before children, guarding the ways by those in responsible positions, ruling children firmly and kindly without harshness, teaching older children to help younger ones, and refusing to leave children except with one thoroughly trusted. This instruction for parents to teach God's word and commandments to their children from their earliest years, patiently teaching the Scriptures and the fear of the Lord, applies to Christian parents as fully as it did to the Jews and includes diligently guiding their households in obedience and reverence. All of God's commandments must live inside the parents and be worked into the hearts of their children, with parents bearing the heavy responsibility to educate and train them to walk in obedience, to help them know what they must be and do in order to be saved, and to bring light into the family. This happens by surrendering the will entirely to the will of God, turning away from serving earthly things, shutting out earthly poison, and opening the soul heavenward to see God, which brings peace and happiness and decides eternal life. Family religion requires parents first to hold God's words in their own hearts and then to nourish everyone in the household with the lessons of Christ, by diligent, vigilant instruction that strictly guards the interest of each soul so Satan does not deceive and allure away from Christ, restrains children from bad tendencies and bad tempers, and kindly, patiently leads them step by step to love and fear and honor Jesus Christ. When parents train their children with an eye single to the glory of God they work together with God and God works with them in saving the souls for whom Christ died, while homes that neglect this discipline and training dishonor the Lord. Parents are to teach children to revere and love God, pray to Him, and keep His commandments holy, with family worship morning and evening and preparation through the week for the Sabbath supporting that instruction, keeping the Lord before them and faithfully teaching them to love God and do His will.