Impress them on your children

Deut 6:4-9, 11:13-21, Numbers 15:37-41

Deut. 6:4-9; Deut. 11:13-21; Numbers 15:37-41 (all known as the Shema), and the Decalogue, served as the hub of Jewish worship starting in pre-Christian times. Even to this day, it stands as the Jewish confession of faith against such things as polytheism and Parsi dulalism. The Shema is recited three times daily by observant Jews and is one of the first things a Jewish boy is taught. Despite that the Shema is first introduced to us in the Old Testament the value of its principles can be seen throughout the scriptures.

I believe the core of the Shema is seen in the words "Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home an when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up (Deut. 6:7)." The Lord God has instituted for man many memorials throughout the years, for the purpose of keeping their paths straight. In Exodus 12 we see the institution of the Passover celebration. This was to remind the Israelite that God delivered them from the land of bondage. In Exodus 16 we see the storing of the manna in the Ark of the Covenant, which was a reminder of how the Lord provided for them during their time of wandering. In Luke 22:19 we see Christ instituting a memorial when He said "This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me." These are only a few of the many memorials instituted in the Scriptures.

I believe that we can see an example of this in the genealogy from Genesis chapter 6. It is safe to assume that Adam was passing on an oral tradition to all his descendants of how to walk with the creator and of what had happened in the Garden. Adam being one who had walked with God was "impressing" on his children the Lord's decrees and commandments. It was an untainted and undiluted testimony of what the Lord required. This could explain why Enoch was so righteous in the Lord's eyes; the whole truth came straight from the source. Adam died about 126 years before the birth of Noah, and 826 years before the flood. We can see in the account described in Genesis 6 that the hearts of man had become evil; evil to the point that God regretted ever creating them. What caused man to become so evil. What happened over those 800+ years that was different from what had happened over the previous 1700 years? I believe that when the Son's of God (the righteous line of Seth) took the daughters of men (the unrighteous line of Cain) as wives for themselves they began to distort, and taint the oral tradition to such an extent that the hearts of men eventually had thoughts of evil always. The truth that was given from Adam had been passed on to people who had no truth, and thus began to dilute the truth (or oral tradition) that existed. Finally the only truth left was what man saw to be right in their own eyes. I believe that this is why God has instituted so many memorials throughout the scriptures, and this is why it is so important to pass on our love and understanding of God's word to our children, our family and our friends. So through our oral tradition and our daily testimony, all might come to know the gospel of Christ and Salvation.  [mp]

Copyright © 2004
Michael D'Urbano
All rights reserved
www.modernpapyrus.org