A common saying among the ancient Jews was, "He who teaches without having the lesson repeated back to him aloud, is like one who sows without reaping."¹ Our covenant Jehovah laid down the teaching principles of repetition and review in the Psalms, and especially in Proverbs and Ecclesiastes which are clearly books of instruction. Let's look at some of the teaching devices God incorporated into these (and other books as well) to aid His children in learning them. Technically we call these writing devices mnemonic (neh - MON ic) and didactic, meaning for memorizing and for teaching. These writ­ing techniques are: poetry, acrostics, and parallelism.

Mind Glue⤒🔗

Poetry is a wonderful aid to memory. All the features of poetry, such as rhythm, meter, diction, rhyme, and paral­lelism (especially in Hebrew), are used to make the truth get a grip on your mind and stay there. Poetry also expresses the truth so that it unfolds to the mind in a way that prose never can. Consider these words in poetry:

He shall cover you with His feathers,
And under His wings you shall take refuge;
His truth shall be your shield and buckler. Psalm 91:4

And now in prose: "God will protect you." True, but lame compared to the poetry of Psalm 91.

Acrostics. An acrostic begins every word or line with a par­ticular letter, perhaps from the alphabet or from a chosen word. The early Christian use of the Greek word for fish was an acrostic. The first letter stood for Jesus, the second for Christ, and so on.

Although we cannot see it in the English translation, David wrote Psalm 119 as an acros­tic. Each section of eight vers­es begins each verse with a word beginning with the same successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Jeremiah wrote the book of Lamentations on an interest­ing variation of the alphabetic acrostic scheme. The whole point is not just a poetic exer­cise, but is to aid memoriza­tion. (If you've ever read Hendriksen's survey of the Bible,²  you will notice that he is always thinking of mnemonic devices, for with a true teacher's heart he wants his reader to remember.)

Parallelism. This is the prin­ciple feature of Hebrew poet­ry, consisting of two or more lines, with the thought shown in parallel relationship to one another. The thought is repeated in another way.

Synonymous parallelism occurs when the two lines mean more or less the same. It is repetition with expanded variation. Here is an example from Psalm 119:105:

Your word is a lamp to my feet
And a light to my path.

Antithetical parallelism is when the thought is expressed by means of contrast with its opposite. Here is an example from Psalm 1:6:

For the Lord knows the way of the righteous
But the way of the ungodly shall perish.

We repeat, the use of paral­lelism serves to impress upon the mind the divine content of the poetry. Parallelism is a means to bolt in the truth by repetition and review. Parallelism then, which is the major feature of divinely inspired poetry, is the hammer of repetition to clinch the rivet of truth in the reader's mind.

With the divine method of repetition in mind we turn again to the challenge of teaching catechism in this modern information age. It's a pretty bleak scene. This information age has cursed us with mountains of detail and oceans of irrelevancies. The idea in school curricula and colleges seems to be, fill the sink to the brim, then give an exam and pull the plug.

Construct a Temple←⤒🔗

But you are building a temple of truth in a child's mind. You want to set up certain truths and facts as structural mem­bers, bearing walls, floor joists. To fix them strongly and securely in place you must review and review again. Pull them out of your stu­dent's memory again and again; handle them, turn them over, examine them from every angle.

How? If you are teaching Old Testament history, begin every week at the beginning again, and bring it up to the current lesson. Vary the review each time. Ask about the same facts or truths in dif­ferent ways.

One of my younger classes favorite methods of review is by a time frame for Old Testament history. Drawing a line across the whiteboard, we mark 4000 BC, 2500, 2000, 1500, 1000, 500 and 0. For each of those dates we place a name and an event showing what God did.

• 4000 BC: God created the heavens and the earth and Adam.
• 2500 BC: God sent the flood and saved Noah.
• 2000 BC: God called Abraham our father.
• 1500 BC: God delivered Israel from Egypt through Moses.
• 1000 BC: God gave victory to Israel through David.
• 500 BC: God brought Israel back from captivity through Ezra.
• 0: God so loved the world that He gave His only begot­ten Son.

The objective of review is the objective of your catechising: that your students will finish the year retaining with ready access, the essential truths of the course.

Review! I am telling you some of my practices by way of illustration, not prescription. The principle is: review for retention. The practice each teacher must design. For my Heidelberg classes I state at the outset and periodically review what I tell them should forever be in the foreground of their mind.

• What is a confession?
• How does it differ from the Bible?
• What are the doctrinal heads of the Belgic Confession? What are the five Canons of Dort?
• What does each one mean?

And from the Heidelberg, know forever:

• What is your only comfort in life and death?
• How many things are neces­sary for you to know, that you, enjoying this comfort may live and die happily?
• What is true faith?
• How are you righteous before God?

Pack it Tight←⤒🔗

These questions during these later three years of catechising I want to ask again and again. I want them to know the answer to question one of the Heidelberg Catechism so well that in the ter­ror and turmoil of Satan's fiercest attacks, in tragedy and in calm, that lovely answer may be there, cradled forever in their hearts.

A little catechism story here, not about the Heidelberg, but about the Westminster Shorter Catechism, so beloved by all true Presbyterians.

In the filth and pain of the trench warfare of World War I, an English soldier stood at his post. In the mud and sweat, the thunder of artillery, the whistling of shells and the scream of the wounded, his face reflected a calm so at odds with the chaos around. An officer noticed him, and then walked past him a couple of times. Finally he stopped in front of that soldier, pushed a finger into his chest and demanded: "What is the chief end of man?"

The reply was instant, "To glorify God and enjoy Him forever."

"Ah," said the officer, "I knew you were a Catechism man."

We still need to talk about singing as a catechetical tool, and we will do that in the next chapter.