Hi everyone. Picking up where we left off last time: last time we talked about how the book of Deuteronomy was the holiest book in the Torah, and the Torah is the holiest book in the Tanakh, or the Hebrew Scriptures. And in the Hebrew mind, Deuteronomy was where they highlighted and valued learning about the ways and the word of God most. That was kind of their go-to book in discipleship, in spiritual life.
The "Go-To" Place for Spiritual Life
So the Torah, the Pentateuch, was their go-to place, and within that, Deuteronomy was their most special place. And one thing about the book of Deuteronomy is, like I said, it highlights that we need to remember and not forget what God has said, what God has done, the word and the works of God.
Deuteronomy 6 and Deuteronomy 11 command the Israelites to remind and teach the younger generations who had not witnessed what God had done for Israel. And as we saw in the last video, it was the generation that saw all that God had done and saw the victories through Joshua—it was that generation that failed to disciple, to train up, to teach, and pass on what God had said and what God had done. And they explicitly failed to keep what God had told them to do in Deuteronomy 6 and 11, specifically 6:20 and 11:2.
God’s ways were to be wholly embraced and diligently passed on to the rising generations. And you see this in Deuteronomy 6:6–7 and 11:18–19. It’s not just a passive outsourcing to the priests or the religious leaders of Israel, or the Hebrews at the time. There is an expectation that the parents, particularly the dads, the fathers, were to disciple, to diligently pass on the word and the works of God to the next generation.
To Teach Diligently: Whet and Sharpen
The Hebrew word for “teach diligently” means to whet or sharpen, as though to sharpen a sword. It suggests a deep impression upon the learner. There are three different applications of that Hebrew word, “teach diligently.”
1. It is Intentional
And one application, or one implication, is that it’s intentional. It’s not, like I said, passive. It’s not just something you once in a while do when the questions arise. It’s not just, “If they have a religious question, or they’re confused about something, I’ll do my best to answer it,” or, “Maybe I’ll tell them to talk to the priest.” No, it’s planning ahead. It’s intentional.
And this is one key thing about discipleship—not just discipleship of children, but discipleship of anybody. It’s not just doing life together. It’s not just having Christian-centered gatherings. It’s actually an intentional plan to go through content, to talk about, to teach, to instruct, to even proclaim the indicatives and then imperatives that God has given us in Scripture. And it’s content-oriented. It’s not just an accountability group. It’s something where you have a plan to go through a text together or to go through a doctrine together.
So a failure to plan in discipleship is a plan to fail. You have to have some sort of intentionality in meeting with people. And it doesn’t have to be cold and rigid and policy-driven. You don’t have to get through a certain outline every time, but have a goal in mind of where you’re going to go or what you’re going to get through.
2. It is Multi-Sensory
So it’s not just intentional, but it’s also what J.I. Packer calls multi-sensory. And where he gets this is this idea of when you rise, or when you go on the way, or when you are walking, or sitting down to eat—teach these things, or talk about these things. It’s just this idea that, as you go through your day, look for opportunities to impress upon your disciples, or your children in this context, the truths of God.
You know, like Psalm 121, one of my favorite psalms, says:
“I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be moved. He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord will not let the sun strike you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all evil.”
And so it’s just this idea that, as you’re walking down the road, or out in the field, or whatever, and you just glance at the mountains, think about the righteousness and the stability and the enduring grace of God from generation to generation, the immovable love of God, the steadfast love of God for his people, and how the mountains of God remind us that he is our maker, the maker of those mountains, and that God will help us, that God will watch over us, and that he will not be moved.
As in Malachi, it says, “The Lord God does not change; therefore we are not consumed,” because God is immutable, because God is unchangeable, because God does not move. There is no shifting shadow in God. He doesn’t turn his back on his people. God will never, never, never abandon those who are his. He will never lose any of his children, his chosen, because he is immovable, like a mountain. We can sleep in peace. We can go about our days with a peacefulness, knowing that God is for us—not just with us, but for us. What can man do to us? Who can be against us? Because God is for us.
And so, to use this intentionality, to look intentionally for ways to point people’s eyes to Christ, to point them to the word and the work of God, and to use multi-sensory opportunities—mountains. Jesus even commends it: “Consider the lilies of the field. Consider the birds of the air.” The lilies of the field are dressed in more splendor than Solomon ever was. Consider the birds of the air. They don’t worry about where their food is coming from. How much more does your heavenly Father love you? You will be fed, and you will be cared for.
And so, using multi-sensory opportunities, the little reminders through the day—what I call sticky concepts—those little analogies or metaphors in creation that can stick to the mind, that remind us of something God has said in Scripture. Not new revelation, just general revelation serving special revelation. It’s the revelation of creation, the book of creation, serving the book of revelation, God’s word—highlighting, illuminating, coloring, depicting truths from God’s word.
3. It is Constant
And then J.I. Packer also talks about the discipleship commands of Deuteronomy. So they’re intentional, they’re multi-sensory, and then the third thing is that they’re constant. It’s not occasional. It’s a constant job. Now, not in the dreary, bland, tedious, dutiful sense, but it’s a privilege. It’s a constant privilege to be pointing our children, or the spiritual children under our care—maybe we don’t have children in our house anymore, maybe we don’t have children in general, but God has entrusted to us a few younger Christians, Christians who are young in the faith—it’s our privilege to constantly be pointing them to the goodness of God and to the word of God and the imperatives of Scripture as they fall on the heels of the indicatives of redemption.
So this intentionality—you have to plan. You have to think ahead. And this opportunity to look at the book of creation and how it serves and highlights and demonstrates the book of revelation. And then it’s constant. It’s something that you’re frequently doing. Maybe not every time, but certainly you’re looking for opportunities every day. Maybe not every hour—it’s just too hard sometimes, depending on your life context—but it’s something that is a frequent, regular rhythm of your life in pouring into the people entrusted to your care.
Torah: The Fatherly Duty of Instruction
So this is why the most often given command in Deuteronomy is don’t forget, or remember. They’re synonymous commands. They’re not the exact same commands, but they’re synonymous, implying that you need to endure and have recollection of those things that God has passed on.
The Hebrew word Torah means instruction, teaching, direction, guidance for knowing the way. And from the same Hebrew root word that gives us the word Torah, you also get words from the same root for teacher, parent, and teaching. Teacher, parent, and teaching. So you get kind of the flavor of how that root word influenced these other words connected to Torah, to the teaching of God. It’s a fatherly duty to pass on the instruction.
And we know from Ephesians that it says, “Fathers, stop provoking your children.” In a lot of English translations, it says, “Don’t provoke your children to frustration.” But actually the verb tense is in the negative, so “stop” or “don’t,” and it’s a participle, or ongoing tense: be provoking. So the implication is, dads, you are provoking your children. Just by your authority, or by your lack of sanctification in some way, you’re overdoing it. You’re overstating the case. You are provoking your children somewhere to frustration. Stop doing it.
It’s just to be assumed that the father-child relationship is one in which dads are going to sin repeatedly, normally, in provoking their children. So stop doing it. And then it gives the burden of instruction to the fathers: raise your children up in the instruction of the Lord. It doesn’t say mothers, and it doesn’t say parents. It says fathers. It doesn’t mean the fathers don’t work with the mothers. It doesn’t mean the fathers don’t partner with the mothers. It’s just that they don’t outsource to the mothers. It is the father’s job, as the head of the household, to raise up and disciple children in the instruction of the Lord.
And this is why discipleship in the church is a manly responsibility. It is primarily entrusted to the elders to train others underneath them who can train others. Second Timothy 2 talks about how it is a job to pass on the instruction to competent teachers. And it is the father’s job in the home, and the father’s job in the church, to ensure that the rising generation of young believers are well discipled, are taught to keep all that Christ has commanded.
Now, of course, they work with all people in the church. We should all be making disciples at some point, in some way. But the responsibility of oversight falls on the shoulders of the fathers—the spiritual fathers and the family fathers.