Deuteronomy 6:7, commentary and pictures

The verse lays a sacred duty on fathers and mothers themselves to teach God's words and dealings diligently to their children and children's children so they learn to fear, love and obey Him. The teaching is to be continual and woven into ordinary life, when sitting in the house and walking by the way, when lying down and rising up, from morning worship to bedtime. The work must begin in earliest infancy and continue day by day without relaxing, with God's words first hidden in the parents' own hearts and shown by precept and example in upright lives. Instruction is to be given line upon line in the home school through Bible reading and prayer, sacred song, simple stories, nature and memorials of deliverance, with patience, kindness and loving correction. Faithful teaching forms God's image in the child and brings life, protection and fitness for heaven, while neglect lets sin and rebellion pass from generation to generation; and the charge given through Moses is just as binding on parents and teachers today in preparation for the final review.

Words and Historical Setting

The verse belongs to Deuteronomy 4-8, which sets out what God required of His ancient people that they might be a holy people unto Himself. That requirement is to be studied and read with profit now, because the world is nearing the day of God's great final review when all must stand before the Judge of all the earth to answer for deeds, and because the present is the time of investigation when every character will have been investigated and every case decided for eternity before that day. This instruction belongs to the commandments given to Israel through Moses after the people came out of Egypt, calling the whole person into covenant relation with God. It is a rehearsal of the law given from Sinai, and Christ gave the same instruction about eternal life to the lawyer that He had given through Moses to Israel. It makes parental teaching a life-or-death question where obedience means life and disobedience means death, forbidding closing the eyes to truth or teaching children on human authority that God's commandments are not obligatory, and requiring listening to the Word of the Lord rather than the word of men.

The instruction was directed by Christ before He took humanity, spoken through Moses to Israel. It was given by Christ enshrouded in the pillar of cloud, and by Jesus Himself speaking from the pillar of cloud and fire and afterward clothed in humanity, as the invisible Leader enshrouded in the pillowy cloud during the wilderness wandering. The command was given from the pillar of cloud by the Son of the living God, requiring truth to be presented from God's Word so children learn to love the Lord with all heart, soul, and might and obey Him. It commands that the love of God be transmitted from parents to children from one generation to another and not passed by indifferently.

Its immediate context is loving the one Lord God with all heart and soul and might and strength. The words God commands must first be kept in the heart as part of that love, and then taught diligently to children and spoken of continually in daily life at home and on the road and in the evening and in the morning. This means talking of them when sitting in the house, when walking by the way, when lying down, and when rising up, binding them for a sign upon the hand, keeping them as frontlets between the eyes, and writing them upon the posts of the house and on the gates. Joined to the command to keep the words in the heart, this calls for continual attention to God's Word as a guide in forming moral character. This unceasing instruction belongs to the two great principles of the law, supreme love to God and love to neighbor, on which hang all the law and the prophets, so that supreme love to God kept in this way fulfills the first four commandments and keeps the other six. Keeping His commandments and statutes in this way brings well-being and increase in the land He promised, and this instruction is for all to follow. The verse is to be read to believers so the message will be given in wisdom and in righteousness.

Its language about continual speaking is figurative, showing the need for the mind to dwell continually on the words that reveal God's will. It means inward spiritual work inwrought on mind and character, with the principles of God's law woven into life and character as genuine religion. The commandments were to be kept constantly before them as frontlets between the eyes to keep them from every false way. The verse's instruction belongs to the family's duty to know God's law, including its requirements and restrictions. The Jews kept the binding on hand and forehead and writing on house posts and gates literally as outward exhibition and pretentious piety, while losing sight of genuine religion, transgressing the law, and neglecting its principles.

Because Israel was in a special sense the guardian and keeper of God's law, the significance of its precepts and the importance of obedience were to be impressed deeply upon each Israelite and through them upon children and children's children. God commanded all these statutes to be kept in fear of God for their good always and preservation of life, with righteousness in observing to do all the commandments before God as commanded. God's provision made in the days of the wilderness wandering for keeping the words of His law in remembrance required that after settlement in Canaan the divine precepts be repeated daily in every home, talked of when sitting in the house and when walking by the way and when lying down and when rising up. They were to be written plainly upon doorposts and gates and spread upon memorial tablets, set to music and chanted by young and old, taught by priests in public assemblies, and made the daily study of the rulers of the land, so that reverence for God's holy word cherished in the hearts of the people would give strength, prosperity, success, and fulfillment of the divine purpose. As part of Deuteronomy 6:4-9, the verse is to be read in examining God's Word to know whether a person bears the sign of God's government and is set apart to honor Him.

When children ask what the testimonies and statutes and judgments mean, teaching is to repeat the history of God's gracious dealings and deliverance wrought so they might obey His law. The home is a training school where children are taught God's works and commandments, with parents keeping the commandments before their children's minds by repeating them often. They are to tell them the history behind preserved memorials: Israel's deliverance from Egypt and freedom to serve God and keep His Sabbaths, the water from the rock, the bread from heaven, and Jericho's fall through God's power rather than human planning or force. The children of Israel repeated the commandments as they traveled, and the commandments were repeated at each stopping place so the people would remember them and the consequences of disobedience. Fathers and mothers were to teach the law of the Lord to their children and put it into song lest they forget the word of the Lord. The command was part of directions given through Moses to the vast multitude being led to the promised land, requiring obedience to the law of God, and if heeded God's design was to establish them in Canaan as a pure, happy and healthful people with not one feeble one in all their tribes, kept in the favor and love of God and built up in righteousness and truth so He could safely bless them, while departure from loyalty and transgression would bring back lawlessness, discord, hatred, strife and violence upon themselves. The same work requires keeping God's Word in mind and heart and presenting it to others so it shapes their minds, hearts, and character.

Command to Teach Diligently

The verse lays a sacred, positive duty with no ifs or ands upon fathers and mothers themselves, not upon strangers or delegated lips, to teach God's words, commandments, statutes, principles and dealings diligently to their children and children's children and to later generations. That teaching is to be careful, faithful and constant, with His words kept in daily conversation and life, so that children learn to fear, love and obey God and gain correct impressions of Him. Parents must first have those words in their own hearts through loving the Lord with all heart and soul and might, and only then impress them upon their children, since preparation of both parent and child is required for admission into the heavenly family. This home school is the foundation of the education plan given to ancient Israel.

The teaching is to be continual and woven into ordinary life and conversation, not only formal instruction, when sitting in the house and walking by the way, when lying down and when rising up. It belongs at home and abroad, at home and on the road, when going out and coming in, evening and morning, from waking until bedtime, with God's ways made part of daily life in speech and conduct. The law is thus to remain continually before children as the great moral standard and rule of life, with its principles woven into all their experience, including honesty, truthfulness, temperance, economy, industry and wholehearted love for God. It is to be kept in the heart and spoken of throughout the day, and displayed as a constant reminder in the home and on its gates, on the hand and between the eyes.

The work must begin in earliest years, even infancy and babyhood and lisping tongues, and continue steadily day by day without relaxing as children grow older. First lessons make lasting impressions that shape character, the entire religious experience, and eternal welfare, forming characters that will meet God's approval. That continual teaching begins in infancy with subduing the will and temper of the child into obedience, giving line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little, taking time to reason, correct errors and patiently teach the right way. Nothing else is of sufficient consequence to take its place, so neglect of it is sinful neglect and great error against the children and against God. Unless the root is holy there can be no acceptable fruit, for parents must first control themselves and be consecrated by entire surrender, cleansing the soul-temple and revealing piety, virtue and godliness in the home life.

What is taught is knowledge of God as one God beside whom there is none else, and of His character as merciful, gracious, patient and abundant in goodness and truth, as embodied in His law. It is His law as the great moral standard and rule of life, including honesty, truthfulness, temperance, economy, industry, reverence, and love and fear of God, together with His goodness and greatness in law and history. Parents are to explain faithfully the Lord's dealings with His people in preserving and delivering them, so their children gain correct impressions of Him, with obedience bringing life, health and happiness. These words embody God's principles, including those essential to physical and moral health, and are not to be taught as dry theory but by those who themselves practice the truth.

Methods of Daily Instruction

Instruction is to be given by both precept and example, never as dry theory but by those who themselves practice the truth and reflect merciful, gracious, patient character in upright, noble, unselfish lives. Parents must first hide the words in their own hearts and themselves love the Bible in order to awaken love for its study in their children, for teaching carries weight only through the teacher's own example and spirit. They are to show continual seeking to know and do the divine will with eyes fixed on Jesus, giving consecrated example in speech and conduct that leads toward loving service. Day-school and Sabbath-school teachers may help, but they do not replace home responsibility, and sending children to school and to the house of God is not enough, for the statutes must be taught at home at all times. Satan works to draw mothers especially away from this duty to service of self and the world, letting vanity, fashion, business, company, household affairs and matters of minor importance absorb attention so that education is neglected, yet the requirement is positive with no ifs or ands and is to be fulfilled in the strength of Christ.

The home is made a school where home and school are one, with loving hearts of father and mother giving the instruction as the foundation of the ancient plan. Morning and evening worship are to be the sweetest and most helpful hours of the day, when parents and children meet together free from troubled, unkind thoughts, scolding, fretting, passion and every objectionable trait so that angels can enter and God can come in. There they gather to read and explain the Bible as textbook, have children learn to repeat the law and keep the commandments to the letter, question and be questioned with children sometimes choosing the reading and hearing its meaning illustrated, and join in prayer, singing praise, and confession of sins. The services are to be brief and full of life, adapted to the occasion and varied, wisely training children in fear and admonition.

The commandments were embodied in sacred song and put into verse to be sung verse by verse with instruments as Israel journeyed and at each stopping place, the older people playing while the younger children marched singing through the wilderness, so that words learned in childhood remained in mind in later years. The same work is necessary today, making music in the home and singing with babes and children in the house and on the way, setting the law to music and chanting it by young and old to keep a heavenly current in the dwelling. Divine precepts were also to be repeated daily in every home, written plainly upon doorposts and gates and spread upon memorial tablets, taught by priests in public assemblies and made the daily study of rulers, lest the word be forgotten. If heeded, the design was to establish a pure, happy and healthful people kept in favor and love and built up in righteousness and truth, while departure would bring lawlessness, discord, hatred, strife and violence.

Great principles are to be made plain to young minds through simple Bible stories, illustrations, figures, symbols and teaching aids suited to comprehension, since such stories grip the heart and stir the interest of little ones and fix lessons more firmly in memory. Thoughts of God are to be associated with all events of daily life, guiding beyond the seen and transitory to the unseen and eternal and making the child acquainted with the true, the good, and the beautiful. Nature is a textbook, with stars of heaven, buds, flowers, trees of the field, lofty mountains, hills, valleys, rippling brooks all speaking of the Creator, and home life and worship set amid constant contact with nature and the word provide settings for this teaching. The mighty works in delivering the people are to be recounted with eloquence and reverential awe, including water from the rock, bread from heaven and the fall of Jericho, together with the solemn service of sacrifice and worship and the utterances of the prophets revealing God and the promises of the Redeemer to come. This home training shaped Moses in the cabin home in Goshen, Samuel by Hannah, David in Bethlehem, Daniel before captivity separated him from his father's home, Christ at Nazareth, and Timothy learning Holy Writ from his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice.

Teaching is to be line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little, using ordinary moments by the way or sitting to speak gently and plant truth. Lessons are to be made simple and attractive and given kindly, patiently, carefully, mercifully, intelligently and lovingly, with time taken to reason, correct errors, exhort, reprove and counsel, keeping the claims of God ever before children in physical, mental and moral instruction with religious training never neglected. It includes training in order, cleanliness, thoroughness, work, trades and economy, and the way children are taught to honor father and mother in obedience. Continual teaching begins in infancy with subduing the will and temper into obedience and continues without relaxing as the child grows older, for the entire religious experience and character formed in childhood depends on it and a will not subdued will face severe struggle to yield in later years. In perilous times when Satan is controlling the minds of youth and leading their inexperienced feet astray while they are ignorant of his devices, parents must be awake and work with perseverance and industry to shut out the first approach of the foe, taking a firm and decided stand that does not suffer love of dress, worldly likeness, or poisonous association with those that hate the truth. Neglect can affect later generations, as children of impenitent parents may remain impenitent, while faithful obedience joined with careful and thorough instruction leads children to become loyal subjects of the kingdom.

Parents Heart Preparation

The command to teach rests first on having the commanded words kept in the parents' own hearts as part of loving the Lord with all heart and soul and might and strength. Fathers and mothers are to hold those words inwardly and then speak of them continually in daily life at home and on the way, evening and morning, so that children learn to love the Lord wholly and obey Him. Such diligent, continual speaking trains children to love and obey God, yields them to the molding power of the Word, brings Christ's saving grace to youth, and makes them objects of God's special care and blessing. Parents must themselves be interested in the Bible and love it in order to interest their children in it and awaken love for its study, for instruction carries weight only through the teacher's own example and spirit. The teaching is not to be dry theory but the reflection of God's character — merciful, gracious, patient, abundant in goodness and truth — in upright, noble, unselfish lives that practice the truth.

The father is to be circumspect in conversation, dwelling on truth in the family and teaching the principles of truth and the commandments diligently when rising and sitting, when going out and coming in, at home and abroad. The true meaning of husband is houseband, with every member centering in the father as law-maker, showing energy, integrity, honesty, patience, courage, diligence and practical usefulness, and in one sense the priest of the household laying the morning and evening sacrifice on God's altar. As priest he leads in family worship morning and evening, encourages wife and children to unite in offering and songs of praise, confesses morning and evening the sins of himself and his children through the day both known and secret, requires the attendance of the children, and forbids indulgence of passion and unpunished disobedience by constant effort, watchfulness, self-control and earnest prayer without relaxing. The mother is the child's first human teacher, teaching heavenly things at her knee from earliest childhood onward toward youth, both from her lips and from the prophetic writings, with God Himself as instructor where home teaching takes the place of other schools. Fathers and mothers share the responsibility and are to be united in faith, the mother teaching the children while the father serves as priest, and when the father is absent the mother carries out the worship and rule that bring blessing.

Day-school and Sabbath-school teachers may help, but they do not replace home responsibility, for parents are to teach by both precept and example throughout ordinary life at home, on the way, at bedtime and in the morning. Sending children to school and to the house of God is not enough; the statutes must be taught at home at all times, with steady instruction in the law from morning until night and not merely occasional lessons or teaching in school. The duty is laid on every father and mother and is not to be delegated to stranger lips, but given by loving hearts of father and mother with the home and school made one. Parents must teach the Scriptures themselves, talk with their children and guide their thoughts toward what is right, and not rely only on a church school. Nothing else is of sufficient consequence to take its place, yet Satan works to draw mothers especially away to service of self and the world, letting vanity, fashion and matters of minor importance absorb attention so education is neglected, while business, property, company, household affairs, cooking, sewing and driving household work must not occupy the whole attention to the neglect of beautifying the children's hearts and character.

This work requires parents first to control themselves and prepare themselves for the present and future life, bringing their own hearts under discipline before educating, training and guiding their children with love and without letting passion rule. Unless the root is holy there can be no acceptable fruit, and unless the one who serves is first consecrated to God by entire surrender of the soul, cleansing the soul-temple, trimming the inner lamp and revealing piety, virtue and godliness in home life, God will not accept the service, and failure bars readiness for admission to the city of God. Knowing doctrines is not enough; truth must be brought into home life to sanctify character by putting away selfish conversation, practicing as well as preaching self-denial, spending carefully, supporting the family by honest work, and letting daily life teach frugality, economy and obedience. Every impatient word is to be kept out, hasty speech removed so that a heavenly influence may dwell and angels can enter, with God brought into the house, children taught from babyhood morning by morning to make God their trust and to live for the future immortal life, and humble confession set above riches and outward looks. Parents are to take time to keep in touch with developing minds, study the Word, make the Saviour a daily companion, go with children into the fields to learn of God through His works, keep cheerful and buoyant, and make evening a pleasant reunion, receiving help for their feebleness as they humbly give Jesus the first, best and last of everything.

Blessings and Consequences

Faithful keeping of this charge trains children to love and obey God, yielding them to the molding power of the Word so that God's image is formed in mind and soul. It brings Christ's saving grace to children and youth, making them objects of God's special care and blessing and raising a wall of protection around them. Keeping His commandments and statutes in this way brings well-being and increase in the land promised, with life, health and happiness, rest in His love, blessing on fields and flocks, bread and water made sure, preservation from sickness and from enemies, and preparation for admission to the heavenly family and training for the kingdom of heaven and the future immortal life.

Departing from the law brings destruction not only to the transgressor but to others led into transgression by influence. Neglect of this parental duty allows false teaching, lax morals, sin and rebellion to pass from generation to generation, until contempt for the law becomes almost worldwide and children and children's children grow up confirmed in transgression. Had fathers and mothers followed this direction, sins and crimes by adults and even by youth and children would not exist, but disregard has filled society with widespread iniquity, insubordination in family and state threatening the foundations of government, self-indulgence, dissipation, profanity and even greater crimes and jail-filling crime among youth, making the days like the days of Noah and Lot.

Israel itself did not diligently teach its children God's requirements but treated what was to become part of their being as of small consequence and little worth. It put tradition of men, false practices and human inventions in place of pure teaching, which separated the people so far from God's wisdom that the history of a nation highly favored became the record of a nation rejected. When Jesus came as the great Teacher and Redeemer to exemplify true religion and exalt the principles governing heart and action, falsehood had so deep a hold that they no longer comprehended the light, and they rejected the heavenly Teacher to retain their own customs and crucified the Lord of glory.

Continual teaching beginning in infancy subdues the will and temper of the child into obedience and continues without relaxing as the child grows older, shaping the entire religious experience and character and fitting children to become children of God. Those subdued and taught to submit at home learn more readily to yield obedience to the requirements of God, while a will not subdued in childhood will face severe struggle and conflict to yield in later years without thorough conversion changing the whole character. Neglect violates a responsibility others cannot take away, leaving youth ignorant of Satan's devices while he controls the minds of the young and leads inexperienced feet astray, exposed to poisonous influence, love of dress, worldliness and association with those who hate truth and with corrupting and worldly companions.

Present Duty and Final Test

The charge given through Moses remains just as binding now as then, and is to be heeded as diligently by parents and teachers today, by Christian parents as well as Jews, in every age. It belongs to the work appointed to parents of educating and training children for the kingdom of heaven and of bringing them with them to the promised land. The commanded words are first to be kept in the heart as part of loving God with all heart and soul and strength and mind, and then to be taught diligently to children and spoken of continually in ordinary life at home and on the road, in the evening and in the morning, when going out and coming in, from waking until bedtime. Keeping His commandments and statutes in this way brings well-being and increase in the land He promised, and the instruction is for all to follow. Knowledge of God and His law is to be given from earliest years, because God is particular about knowledge of His law since departing from it brings destruction not only to the transgressor but also to others led into transgression by influence. Children are to be taught religious duties kindly, patiently, intelligently and lovingly, with lessons made simple and attractive, for neglect can affect later generations so that children of impenitent parents may remain impenitent. Keeping God's words continually before the family guards against deception and false tests of faith, and His commandments are to be studied and practiced diligently now so His people distinguish truth from error.

This unceasing instruction belongs to the two great principles of supreme love to God and love to neighbor on which hang all the law and the prophets, the same enduring standard of character required under both the gospel and the law given at Sinai. Supreme love to God kept in the heart in this way fulfills the first four commandments and keeps the other six, and observing to do all the commandments is righteousness and life and brings the richest blessings and preservation of life for good. The same instruction about eternal life afterward given to the lawyer was rooted in the commandments from Sinai rehearsed by Moses, making parental teaching a life-or-death question where obedience means life and disobedience means death. It forbids closing the eyes to truth and teaching children that God's commandments are not obligatory because ministers say so, requiring listening to the Word of the Lord rather than the word of men. The requirement for inheriting eternal life is to keep the commandments, meaning the ten holy precepts which include loving God supremely and neighbor as self, even to duties such as selling possessions to give to the poor and following Christ rather than making riches an idol above God and fellow men. Those ten are the royal holy law revealing His character, immutable and eternal with none done away, the perfect standard every soul must meet in the judgment, to be taught continually at home when sitting down and rising up and going out and coming in instead of driving children away to learn in the street. Neglect of this home teaching makes drunkards and fills jails and prisons with theft, robbery, murder and wickedness, while faithful teaching with love for God and keeping of His commandments, which is the whole duty of man, would prevent such crime.

Having God's words in the heart and teaching them diligently to children when sitting in the house, walking by the way, lying down and rising up is God's great test and the sign of loyalty to Him. It means observing the Sabbath of the fourth commandment instead of repudiating God's word by accepting a day He has not sanctified and set apart and blessed for observance. It is to be studied with the seventh-day Sabbath and covenant and with Israel's deliverance from Egypt and God's commands for their good, explaining their meaning to children by recalling what He did for them. Parents cannot consistently teach obedience to God while taking their children to school on the Sabbath as on an ordinary workday. Keeping God's words continually before the family in this way guards against deception and false tests of faith and enables distinguishing truth from error.

These charges of God's word will be brought forth in the day when every case is decided and men will be judged by them. They belong to what God required of His ancient people in Deuteronomy 4-8 that they might be a holy people unto Himself, and that requirement still applies and is to be read and studied now with profit. The world is nearing the day of God's great final review, when all must stand before the Judge of all the earth to answer for deeds. The present is the time of investigation, when before that review every character will have been investigated and every case decided for eternity. Those who have not searched the Scriptures to know what God commanded but have observed a day He has not blessed will not be excused for ignorance. The commandments and the testimony of Jesus are to occupy the mind continually and be remembered and meditated on when lying down and rising up, crowding out worldly thoughts and cares and shaping life in preparation for the coming of the Son of Man.

The instruction gives God's plan for the home school as the foundation of the education of ancient Israel. It requires a school for children different from the public schools and the schools of the day, a practical sample school where the Bible, the commandments, the law and its importance are taught continually when rising up and sitting down and going out and coming in, with lessons put into practice and not merely recited as theory, having special advantages for little ones because the commandments and the law cannot be taught in a public school. Ministers and instructors are to voice this instruction throughout the land as well as parents teaching it, and ministers must by precept and example teach parents this long-neglected duty and press home religion upon conscience. By example and teaching parents perpetuate and increase either the power of sin or the power of righteousness, and seeing these results would lead many to break the spell of tradition and custom. Home religion is the great hope for breaking up the spirit of Pharisaism and resistance to the truth and for making bright the prospect of the conversion of the whole family to the truth of God, and the teaching is to be done line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little, with all patience, long-suffering and forbearance, with the home made a school for perfecting character, for parents are asleep while children go to destruction before their eyes. Fathers and mothers are to be educators in their home churches and spiritual missionary agencies and home missionaries, keeping the home atmosphere free from unkind and hasty speech so angels can come in and bless and give success, uniting to provide a place for daily instruction, choosing as teacher one apt to teach and a consecrated servant of Christ who increases in knowledge while imparting instruction and does definite missionary service, and co-operating with the teacher and laboring earnestly for the salvation of the children, so that when these small educating centers are realized the plans of the enemy for the children will be frustrated. The same pattern of rising, sitting, going out and coming in applies to seeking the Lord in earnest prayer throughout the day because danger lies ahead.