Teach Them Diligently

David Potter

Someone has said, “Christianity is always one generation from extinction.” Israel faced the same problem in Old Testament times. At the end of his life, Moses reached out to pass the baton of faith to coming generations (Deut. 6:1–2). The earlier generation of Israelites, having suffered a failure of faith at Kadesh- Barnea, perished in the wilderness under God’s judgment.

Moses wrote Deuteronomy to guard the coming generations from making the same mistake. In Deuteronomy 6, Moses instructed Israel what, where, when, and how to teach their children. We can learn much about childrearing from this chapter.

WHAT TO TEACH

Chapter 5 of Deuteronomy reviews and expands on the Ten Commandments. Chapter 6 focuses on the first commandment. Verse 5 states the Great Commandment, “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.”

In the Jewish list of the Commandments, the first is “I am the Lord thy God.” The challenge to ancient Israel was polytheism. Verse 4 is the Shema, which is at the core of Judaism: “the Lord . . . is one.” This statement is not just a statement of fact, but a slogan, asserted with great emotion.