Back-to-School!⤒🔗

As the month of September approaches, merchants everywhere display this phrase to remind us that necessary preparations must be made for our children who will once again return to the classroom, where educators, in cooperation with parents, will seek to adequately prepare our rising generation for adulthood.

How richly the Lord has blessed us in providing for our own Christian schools in which our children may be instructed in accordance with the demands of His covenant! Do we still value the existence of our own schools, or have we begun to accept the availability of our schools as a matter of fact? Also here we must guard against taking that which is most valuable to us, for granted. At the beginning of a new school year it is therefore most profitable for all of us to again examine the Biblical mandate to instruct our children in the fear of God's Name.

Our Children Must be Instructed with Future Generations in Mind←⤒🔗

In previous articles we have turned to Psalm 78 in which this mandate is very clearly defined for us. Here we find God's command to parents and educators, namely, to instruct our children concerning His praises, His strength and His wonderful works. Also the goals of such instruction are clearly defined. It must be our prayerful objective that our children may set their hope in God, forget not His works, and keep His commandments.

However, in order that we might be motivated to instruct our children with utmost devotion and diligence, the Psalmist not only places before us God's command and the goals we are to pursue, but also the far-reaching implications of such instruction. The passage quoted at the beginning of this article clearly indicates that the fathers in Israel were to instruct their children with their great-grandchildren in mind! If you read this passage carefully, you will note that it speaks of fathers, his children, his grandchildren ("the children which should be born"), and his great-grandchildren (the children of the children which should be born). In other words, it was and is God's revealed will that we instruct our children with future generations in mind. Considering this, it ought to be self-evident that painstaking diligence is required in making "them", i.e. the praises, strength, and wonderful works of Jehovah, known to our children.

During the last decade, the New Jersey legislature adopted a law which mandated that schools were required to provide New Jersey children with a "thorough and efficient education" better known as T&E. God places the same requirement before parents and educators. The instruction in the substance of verse four must be so thorough and efficient that our children will later be able to pass on this instruction to their children. Yes, even more. It must be so thorough and efficient that this instruction will ultimately reach our great-grandchildren in undiluted form!

Therefore, not only does Psalm 78 provide us with our lesson plan (v. 4), and our educational objectives (v. 7), but also with precise instructions how we must implement this lesson plan. This obviously means that merely having one Bible lesson a day, sending our children to Christian school, Sunday school, and catechism, without total parental involvement and support, will not suffice! What this verse clearly tells us is that God demands that instructing our children must be a 7-day-per-week, 24-hour-a-day occupation. That this is what God required from Israelite parents, is very evident from the well-known Scripture passage found in Deuteronomy 6, of which I will only quote verse 6. "And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up." This conveys to us that it was God's will that the children in Israel would be surrounded by His Word (which speaks of His praises, strength and wonderful works), as well as an environment consistent with His Word. The diligent compliance with this command was Jehovah's design whereby He wished to maintain the fear of His Name in Israel.

The Blessed Results of Faithful Instruction←⤒🔗

What such instruction was designed to accomplish must be very evident by now. Such instruction would produce generation after generation of Israelites who would walk in Jehovah's ways. By means of such instruction the confession and practice of true religion would be maintained in Israel. Most of all, however, such instruction would result in Jehovah's favor and blessing upon Israel. Countless Old Testament passages could be quoted to verify this. Within the scope of this article, I can only quote Psalm 103:17, 18 "But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him, and His righteousness unto children's children; to such as keep His covenant, and to those who remember His commandments to do them." Here Scripture specifically states that future generations will be richly blessed as a result of the parents (and educators) of this generation, remembering "His commandments to do them."

The significance of this can best be illustrated by means of a simple, mathematical example. Suppose a father has five children, whom he diligently instructs according to the guidelines given in Psalm 78. His children in turn each have five children, whom they instruct in identical fashion. His grand­children each have five children, whom they also raise in this manner. This means that in the fourth generation 125 individuals will benefit from the faithful and diligent instruction of one father! I concede that this example presents an ideal situation, and is therefore not entirely realistic, but I hope that you will understand the thrust of my argument, as well as of Psalm 78:6. The thrust of this passage is that the diligent instruction of our children is by far the best investment we can make – better than any financial investments you may have. So important is this investment that it is worth using your C.D. in the bank to pay your tuition bill, for this investment will bear interest long after you have passed away. By faithfully instructing our children we are actually promoting the spiritual welfare of our grand- and great-grandchildren already. I am well aware that God must bless such instruction, but the blessed truth of Scripture is that God will bless such instruction, as it is according to His express command. "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old he will not depart from it" (Prov. 22:6).

The Tragic Consequences of Failure to Provide our Children with a God-centered Education←⤒🔗

Every positive truth of Scripture always implies a negative truth. Such is also the case here. This means, that if we do not instruct our children according to the guidelines of Psalm 78, the consequences will be equally far-reaching! If parents do not take God's Word seriously, generally speaking, their children will have even less respect for it, their grandchildren will have no respect for it, and their great-grandchildren will be completely estranged from it. So serious is the iniquity of parents who, in raising their children, ignore God's revealed will, that God in judgment will withhold His saving grace from their posterity! Are there not many examples even within the realm of our own denomination which bear out this solemn truth, even though God occasionally makes an exception for His covenant's sake?

Parents, this is the price we must and will pay, if we consciously deprive our children of a God-centered education as defined in Psalm 78. Not only will you be responsible for injuring your own child, but also for your grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Too strongly stated you say? Please, consider the history of Israel, especially the history of the ten tribes. There you have solid, indisputable evidence to support this premise. How tragic therefore, that there are still parents in our denomination who do not send their child(ren) to our schools, the faulty rationale being, the absence of athletic programs, sophisticated industrial arts programs, and/or exotic educational programs, etc. Do you dare to sacrifice the souls of your children (including your posterity) for such insignificant reasons? If God does not graciously intervene, the fruits you and your children will reap, will be bitter indeed! Martin Luther understood this well, and in language far stronger than mine, issued this serious warning:

He has not given you your children and the means to support them simply so that you may do with them as you please, or train them just to get ahead in the world. You have been earnestly commanded to raise them for God's service, or be completely rooted out, you, your children, and everything else, in which case everything you have done for them is condemned, as the commandment says, "I will visit the iniquities of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation." Suppose God were to address you on your deathbed, or at the last judgment, and say, "I gave you children and material means for this purpose, but you want only allowed me and My kingdom and the souls of men to suffer want and pine away; and you thereby served the devil and his king­dom instead of Me and My kingdom. You have not helped to build but to weaken and destroy My kingdom in heaven and on earth; you have helped the devil to build and increase his hell. Live therefore in the house which you have built!" How do you think you will stand then? You will not be tainted with little drops of sin, but inundated by whole cloudbursts of it, you who now give no heed but just go nonchalantly along as if you were doing well in keeping your child from a Christian education. A Sermon on Keeping Children in School

Keep Therefore the Words of this Covenant! (Deut. 29:9)←⤒🔗

Little needs to be added. God's Word speaks for itself! Psalm 78 has an inescapable message for every parent and educator. Instead of condoning our sinful inability as parents, it confronts us (as Scripture does everywhere!) with our responsibility, and exhorts us to utmost diligence in our discharge of this responsibility. If we then examine ourselves in the light of God's uncompromisable, revealed will, must we then not cry out, "If Thou Lord shouldst mark iniquities, O LORD, who shall stand" (Psalm 130:3)? None of us will be able to. Then Jehovah would righteously have to pass judgment also upon us and our children.

However, for parents and educators, greatly burdened by the awesome responsibility resting upon them, who mourn before God over their failures and shortcomings, the Psalmist has an answer, "But there is forgiveness with Thee!" Our only hope in raising our children lies in the Christ of Christian education. Therefore in the great task entrusted to us there is no better advice to be found than in Psalter 425:3, "Seek ye Jehovah and His power; seek ye His presence every hour," knowing that "Jehovah's truth will stand forever; His covenant bonds He will not sever; the word of grace which He commands, to thousand generations stands!"