Teach them to your children, speaking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Teach them to your childrenThe Hebrew root for "teach" is "לָמַד" (lamad), which implies not only instruction but also learning through practice and repetition. This phrase underscores the importance of passing down God's commandments to the next generation. In the ancient Israelite context, education was primarily the responsibility of the family, and this directive emphasizes the role of parents as the primary educators in matters of faith. The phrase highlights the continuity of faith and the necessity of embedding God's laws into the daily lives of children, ensuring that the covenant relationship with God is preserved through generations. speaking about them
The act of "speaking" here is derived from the Hebrew "דָּבַר" (dabar), which means to declare or converse. This suggests an active, ongoing dialogue about God's laws. It is not a one-time event but a continuous conversation. This reflects the oral tradition of the Israelites, where accounts and laws were passed down verbally. The phrase encourages believers to make discussions about God's commandments a regular part of life, integrating them into everyday conversations and making them relevant to all aspects of life. when you sit at home
The home is depicted as the primary setting for teaching and learning. In ancient Israel, the home was the center of daily life and activity. This phrase implies that the teaching of God's laws should be a natural part of the domestic environment. It suggests that faith should be woven into the fabric of daily living, not confined to formal religious settings. The home is portrayed as a sanctuary where God's presence is acknowledged and His commandments are revered. when you walk along the road
This phrase expands the setting for teaching beyond the home to include the journey of life. Walking along the road symbolizes the various paths and experiences one encounters. In the historical context, travel was a common part of life, whether for trade, pilgrimage, or other purposes. This phrase implies that God's laws should guide believers in all their journeys and interactions. It encourages the integration of faith into every aspect of life, suggesting that God's presence and guidance are constant, regardless of location or circumstance. when you lie down
The act of lying down signifies the end of the day, a time for reflection and rest. In the Hebrew tradition, the day begins at sunset, so this phrase encompasses both the conclusion of one day and the preparation for the next. It suggests that God's commandments should be the last thoughts before sleep, providing peace and security. This practice instills a sense of continuity and reliance on God, reinforcing the idea that His laws are a source of comfort and guidance at all times. when you get up
Rising in the morning marks the beginning of a new day, filled with opportunities to live out God's commandments. This phrase emphasizes the importance of starting each day with a focus on God's laws, setting a spiritual tone for the day ahead. It reflects the discipline of beginning the day with prayer and meditation on God's word, ensuring that His presence and guidance are acknowledged from the very start. This practice fosters a mindset of devotion and readiness to follow God's will throughout the day. Persons / Places / Events 1. MosesThe author of Deuteronomy, delivering God's commandments to the Israelites. 2. IsraelitesThe chosen people of God, receiving instructions on how to live in the Promised Land. 3. Promised LandThe land of Canaan, which God promised to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 4. ChildrenThe next generation of Israelites, who are to be taught God's commandments. 5. Daily LifeThe context in which the commandments are to be taught, encompassing all aspects of daily living. Teaching Points The Importance of TeachingTeaching God's commandments is a continuous, daily responsibility. It is not limited to formal settings but integrated into everyday life. Holistic Approach to EducationEducation in God's ways should occur in various settings: at home, on the road, at bedtime, and upon waking. This approach ensures that God's word is a constant presence in life. Parental ResponsibilityParents are the primary educators of their children in spiritual matters. This responsibility is a command from God, not merely a suggestion. Generational FaithfulnessTeaching children ensures the continuation of faith and obedience to God across generations. It is a means of preserving the covenant relationship with God. Practical IntegrationFind ways to naturally incorporate discussions about God and His commandments into daily routines. Use everyday experiences as teaching moments to illustrate God's principles. Bible Study Questions 1. How can you incorporate the teaching of God's commandments into your daily routine with your family? 2. In what ways does the command to teach children in Deuteronomy 11:19 relate to the New Testament instructions for parents? 3. What are some practical challenges you face in teaching your children about God, and how can you overcome them? 4. How does the concept of teaching children in Deuteronomy 11:19 connect with the idea of generational faithfulness found in Psalm 78:4-6? 5. Reflect on a time when you learned about God through an everyday experience. How can you create similar learning opportunities for your children? Connections to Other Scriptures Deuteronomy 6:7This verse similarly emphasizes the importance of teaching God's commandments to children throughout daily life. Proverbs 22:6Highlights the importance of training a child in the way they should go, ensuring they will not depart from it when they are older. Ephesians 6:4Instructs fathers to bring up their children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord, echoing the teaching responsibility. Psalm 78:4-6Speaks of the importance of passing down the accounts and laws of God to the next generation. 2 Timothy 3:15Paul reminds Timothy of the sacred writings he learned from childhood, which are able to make one wise for salvation. People Abiram, Canaanites, Dathan, Eliab, Moses, Pharaoh, ReubenPlaces Arabah, Beth-baal-peor, Egypt, Euphrates River, Gilgal, Jordan River, Lebanon, Moreh, Mount Ebal, Mount Gerizim, Red SeaTopics Along, Goest, Home, Lie, Liest, Lying, Rest, Rise, Risest, Rising, Road, Sit, Sittest, Sitting, Sleep, Sons, Speaking, Talking, Taught, Teach, Teaching, Walk, Walkest, WalkingDictionary of Bible Themes Deuteronomy 11:19 5588 traditions
5666 children, needs
5777 admonition
8232 discipline, family Deuteronomy 11:13-21 7410 phylactery Deuteronomy 11:18-19 7793 teachers Deuteronomy 11:18-20 8764 forgetting God Deuteronomy 11:18-21 5302 education
5685 fathers, responsibilities
8313 nurture Library Canaan on Earth
Many of you, my dear hearers, are really come out of Egypt; but you are still wandering about in the wilderness. "We that have believed do enter into rest;" but you, though you have eaten of Jesus, have not so believed on him as to have entered into the Canaan of rest. You are the Lord's people, but you have not come into the Canaan of assured faith, confidence, and hope, where we wrestle no longer with flesh and blood, but with principalities and powers in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus--when …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 2: 1856The God of the Rain
(Fifth Sunday after Easter.) DEUT. xi. 11, 12. The land, whither ye go to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven. A land which the Lord thy God careth for: the eyes of the Lord thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year, even unto the end of the year. I told you, when I spoke of the earthquakes of the Holy Land, that it seems as if God had meant specially to train that strange people the Jews, by putting them into a country where they …
Charles Kingsley—The Gospel of the Pentateuch Gilgal, in Deuteronomy 11:30 what the Place Was.
That which is said by Moses, that "Gerizim and Ebal were over-against Gilgal," Deuteronomy 11:30, is so obscure, that it is rendered into contrary significations by interpreters. Some take it in that sense, as if it were near to Gilgal: some far off from Gilgal: the Targumists read, "before Gilgal": while, as I think, they do not touch the difficulty; which lies not so much in the signification of the word Mul, as in the ambiguity of the word Gilgal. These do all seem to understand that Gilgal which …
John Lightfoot—From the Talmud and Hebraica Josiah, a Pattern for the Ignorant.
"Because thine heart was tender, and thou hast humbled thyself before the Lord, when thou heardest what I spake against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and hast rent thy clothes, and wept before Me; I also have heard thee, saith the Lord. Behold therefore, I will gather thee unto thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered into thy grave in peace; and thine eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place."--2 Kings …
John Henry Newman—Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VIII The Blessings of Noah Upon Shem and Japheth. (Gen. Ix. 18-27. )
Ver. 20. "And Noah began and became an husbandman, and planted vineyards."--This does not imply that Noah was the first who began to till the ground, and, more especially, to cultivate the vine; for Cain, too, was a tiller of the ground, Gen. iv. 2. The sense rather is, that Noah, after the flood, again took up this calling. Moreover, the remark has not an independent import; it serves only to prepare the way for the communication of the subsequent account of Noah's drunkenness. By this remark, …
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament Subjects of Study. Home Education in Israel; Female Education. Elementary Schools, Schoolmasters, and School Arrangements.
If a faithful picture of society in ancient Greece or Rome were to be presented to view, it is not easy to believe that even they who now most oppose the Bible could wish their aims success. For this, at any rate, may be asserted, without fear of gainsaying, that no other religion than that of the Bible has proved competent to control an advanced, or even an advancing, state of civilisation. Every other bound has been successively passed and submerged by the rising tide; how deep only the student …
Alfred Edersheim—Sketches of Jewish Social Life In the Fifteenth Year of Tiberius Cæsar and under the Pontificate of Annas and Caiaphas - a Voice in the Wilderness
THERE is something grand, even awful, in the almost absolute silence which lies upon the thirty years between the Birth and the first Messianic Manifestation of Jesus. In a narrative like that of the Gospels, this must have been designed; and, if so, affords presumptive evidence of the authenticity of what follows, and is intended to teach, that what had preceded concerned only the inner History of Jesus, and the preparation of the Christ. At last that solemn silence was broken by an appearance, …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah The Worship of the Synagogue
One of the most difficult questions in Jewish history is that connected with the existence of a synagogue within the Temple. That such a "synagogue" existed, and that its meeting-place was in "the hall of hewn stones," at the south-eastern angle of the court of the priest, cannot be called in question, in face of the clear testimony of contemporary witnesses. Considering that "the hall of hew stones" was also the meeting-place for the great Sanhedrim, and that not only legal decisions, but lectures …
Alfred Edersheim—Sketches of Jewish Social Life Among the People, and with the Pharisees
It would have been difficult to proceed far either in Galilee or in Judaea without coming into contact with an altogether peculiar and striking individuality, differing from all around, and which would at once arrest attention. This was the Pharisee. Courted or feared, shunned or flattered, reverently looked up to or laughed at, he was equally a power everywhere, both ecclesiastically and politically, as belonging to the most influential, the most zealous, and the most closely-connected religions …
Alfred Edersheim—Sketches of Jewish Social Life Covenanting Confers Obligation.
As it has been shown that all duty, and that alone, ought to be vowed to God in covenant, it is manifest that what is lawfully engaged to in swearing by the name of God is enjoined in the moral law, and, because of the authority of that law, ought to be performed as a duty. But it is now to be proved that what is promised to God by vow or oath, ought to be performed also because of the act of Covenanting. The performance of that exercise is commanded, and the same law which enjoins that the duties …
John Cunningham—The Ordinance of Covenanting The Old Testament Canon from Its Beginning to Its Close.
The first important part of the Old Testament put together as a whole was the Pentateuch, or rather, the five books of Moses and Joshua. This was preceded by smaller documents, which one or more redactors embodied in it. The earliest things committed to writing were probably the ten words proceeding from Moses himself, afterwards enlarged into the ten commandments which exist at present in two recensions (Exod. xx., Deut. v.) It is true that we have the oldest form of the decalogue from the Jehovist …
Samuel Davidson—The Canon of the Bible Deuteronomy
Owing to the comparatively loose nature of the connection between consecutive passages in the legislative section, it is difficult to present an adequate summary of the book of Deuteronomy. In the first section, i.-iv. 40, Moses, after reviewing the recent history of the people, and showing how it reveals Jehovah's love for Israel, earnestly urges upon them the duty of keeping His laws, reminding them of His spirituality and absoluteness. Then follows the appointment, iv. 41-43--here irrelevant (cf. …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament Links Deuteronomy 11:19 NIVDeuteronomy 11:19 NLTDeuteronomy 11:19 ESVDeuteronomy 11:19 NASBDeuteronomy 11:19 KJV
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