Grammar Lesson
You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. Deuteronomy 6:7
Teach – God commands parents to teach His instructions to their children. Let’s say that again. God commands parents to teach specific instructions to children. Those instructions are found in Torah. In fact, this verse comes immediately after the Shema, a call to remember who God is and why Israel is chosen. God does not say, “Send your children off to school to learn about life.” He doesn’t say, “Just live correctly and let them watch you.” He doesn’t say, “Give them a Bible, take them to church, send them to youth group.” He says, “You teach them.” Parents are responsible before God for what their children learn. Oh, and did you notice that the teaching happens all the time?
Actually, the word here is only metaphorically about teaching. In fact, in the Scripture, this is the only place that the word is translated “teach.” All the rest of the occurrences of this word are about something entirely different (but intimately related). The Hebrew verb shinan means “to sharpen.” God is literally telling parents to sharpen their children with the whetstone of His Word.
The pictograph makes it even clearer. Shin-nun-nun paints the picture of teeth (shin) and life (nun). But notice that nun is repeated. Teeth of life twice. It’s not just biting into life. It’s biting into life twice. And for that you need very sharp teeth. You need to “teach” your children how to consume life twice over. You need to polish them to a point so that they can penetrate truth and falsehood and live accordingly. How do you do that? By talking about God’s words when you sit, when you stand, when you walk, when you lie down and when you get up.
This is a terrifying commandment for most parents today. Why? Because most of us have not done what God told us to do. We did not make it a daily, hourly practice to speak of His words with our children. We opted for substitute education. We let the professionals handle the job. School, preachers, Sunday school teachers, television, cultural influences and the plethora of media manipulations presented a 24/7 deluge of misdirection and misinformation. Oh, I don’t mean that getting an education isn’t important. Of course it is. But God is not telling you how to teach mathematics or economics or psychology. He’s telling you how to teach His instructions for living. Today’s culture teaches children how to use the world for gain. God wants you to teach your children about Him, His character, His community and His perspective. Unless they learn this, their teeth will be dull indeed. They will not be able to bite through the false premises of the culture. They will be the ones eaten instead of being the ones who do the feasting.
Perhaps you need to repent because you have not fulfilled this commandment. Perhaps you recognize the impact your disobedience has had on your children (the third and fourth generations). Perhaps you haven’t been the sharpening stone you needed to be. It’s never too late. God honors confession, repentance and obedience. It’s just much harder to recover character than it is to keep it.
Topical Index: teach, sharpen, shinan, Deuteronomy 6:7, education
Thank you, Skip, for a delightful Word today. These passages in Deuteronomy have been some of my favorite life time verses for my children. Before I even knew anything about Hebrew word derivatives or the Hebrew way of thinking, or was even thinking about studying my connection to the Hebrew roots of my faith, these verses were paramount in my mind as to the way I was teaching my children about our Lord, “You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. Deuteronomy 6:7”. It was just my way of doing it and I remember talking about it at a woman’s conference when I was asked to speak about my children, and on another occasion a good friend asked me how I went about daily family devotions. I had to think for a minute and said “actually we don’t have daily family devotions, but we are talking about the Lord all day long, and I share scripture with them as we go, we pray as we go, and we sing as we go, when we are sitting in our house, when we are walking by the way,when we lie down at night, and when we rise up in the morning.” It wasn’t until July 7, 2007 at 7:00 AM (7/7/7/ at 7)in the morning a week after we returned from our first trip to Israel when we placed the Mezzuzah on the side of our front door, that I realized that this same instruction that is repeated in Deut 11:19, is part of the actual words that are placed inside of the Mezzuzah before attaching it to the “door post”. The entire script that is placed inside the Mezzuzah is Deut 11:13-21. It was an amazing revelation to learn that what I had been doing was pretty much the real thing! Praise be to God for His “LAW”…. His Living Amazing Word! In His Love, Linda K. Morales from Puerto Rico
Linda, what an awesome testimony in praise the G-d who now resides within us! He has placed (or incarnated) His torah within your heart and now it is “in your heart” to teach His ways to your children. I must pause and say.. this is a beautiful thing! If we could only multiply this behavior by a million it would change the course of any nation. How we need a return to the words of G-d! Yeshua said, the words I speak unto you they are spirit (breath) and they are life! I love His words and I am coming to see more every day the power in His written, spoken and Living word. There truly is a world within a word.
Today’s word is “shinan” or in English, “to sharpen.” I love the way the Holy Breath is constantly at work within us to conform us into the image of the Son. His “job” according to John 14.26 is “to teach you all things and remind you of everything I have said to you”. Our wonderful Bible says in Proverbs 27.17- “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another”. This of course, involves “pressure” and “friction.” If G-d is working in and on all of us to “conform” us to the image of the Son (and praise His name He is!), we can see where YWYH’s sharpening process causes us to “take shape.” The trials, tribulations and testings we each go through every day (I call it- the “crisis dujour”), are part of the toolset of the Master Carpenter. If we remain “teachable” in every situation and circumstance and learn to shut our mouths, and open our eyes and ears and listen intently to the instruction of our Master/Teacher we ultimately find, “He doeth all things well.” Now, what will be the lessons I learn today? “School” is now in session. -“When the student is ready, the Teacher will show up.”
Very nicely stated Carl.
Over the last year, I have become much more comfortable about telling my kids what I believe, theologically speaking.
Thanks to this community.
Thank you so much, Carl. Our children are now adults, both given to us by God when they were very young through the precious gift of adoption. We are now reaping the benefits of seeing them in adult life as they now teach their young children, a grandson who is 17 months old and a baby granddaughter who is just 7 weeks this coming week. We are now in South Carolina with them but will return to PR this Saturday after a two months stay with them. May His word live on in this next generation!
Our Bible once again states, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22.6). I can’t exactly say when it “hit me” (it was in the “latter days” of my life), -the best thing I could do for my children (and we all want this, right?), was to obey G-d. Just do what He says. I sometimes see my son, (ahem..) in (ahem..) disagreement with my wife, and I’ll pull him aside and say.. son, things will flow so much nicer if you will just do what your mother (who loves you more than anyone in this world) wants you to do. And G-d loves us more than our own mother does! (I wonder how many really “know” this?) My allergist told me about three years ago, these very words.. “If you listen to me and do as I ask you to do, I can help you”. I told him then.. I had another “Physician” tell me the same thing! When will we learn to listen? How many “knots on the head” will it take? If, we are the King’s kids.. He has a way of (ahem..) getting our “focused attention.” And what can be done with “focused attention?” All you teachers, instructors, trainers.. you tell me.. “Teachability”. I’ll gladly pray now, LORD Jesus, I come to you as a small child. May I be teachable today. Thank you for children you have given unto me to teach me and to train me in your perfect Ways. You are holy and you are good. Thank you for the witness of those who walk in your ways. Lead us, dear Shepherd/King to green pastures. This prayer I offer in the strong name of Jesus who is the Christ. Amen. By the way.. by “hearkening” unto the voice of my allergist, today I can breathe in and out in a very large way. It is absolutely wonderful to take a breath.