Teach Your Children Well
For He established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers that they were to teach them to their children, so that the generation to come would know, the children yet to be born, that they would arise and tell them to their children, Psalm 78:5-6 NASB
Testimony/ law – Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young. Remember?
Teach your children well
Their father’s hell did slowly go by
And feed them on your dreams
The one they pick’s the one you’ll know by
Maybe they got the words from Psalm 78. Asaph would concur. God established a testimony in Jacob. Of course, Jacob is a metonym for all the tribes that came from him, namely, Israel. But what was the testimony (ʿēdût)? The word is derived from the verb עוּד (ʿûd), “to return, repeat.”[1] We might think that this is the equivalent of “witness,” but there’s something else that’s important here. “ . . . the meaning of this word is not simply a corroborative testimony but also a warning testimony.”[2] If Asaph simply wanted to say that God did miraculous things that Israel witnessed, then he would use ʿēdâ. But Asaph’s purpose is not historical recollection. It’s exhortation. What God did in the past serves as a warning. Why? Because you don’t ignore the power that brought about your freedom.
That’s why Asaph connects testimony with law, and, as we would expect, the word is tôrâ. “Law” isn’t quite correct, is it? As you recall from the opening sentence of this song, torah comes from the verb yārâ which means (in the normal tense) “to throw, to cast, to shoot” and only in the Hiphil tense (causative) “to teach.” It’s instruction “thrown” toward you, which you must catch and do something with it. Torah puts the ball in your court.
Asaph reminds us that torah has a transitive expectation, that is, you are expected (no, really, commanded) to pass it on to your children and your children’s children. Commanded! Yes, once God throws torah to you, you have to do more than simply catch it. You have to “throw” it on to the next person in the chain. Just like a team throws the ball from first base, to second, to third, to home plate. And since this is in essence the operation of ḥesed, your obligation to torah is not complete until you have passed it on. If you thought being saved was the goal, you’re wrong. The goal is generational obedience.
Asaph’s song is a witness and a warning. It’s a witness to the fact that Israel failed to fulfill the transitive obligation of ḥesed, and it’s a warning that we are subject to the same serious mistake.
Topical Index: testimony, witness, ʿēdût, law, tôrâ, torah, Psalm 78:5-6
[1] Schultz, C. (1999). 1576 עוּד. R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 648). Chicago: Moody Press.
[2] Ibid.
