Deuteronomy 11 -- Why We Need To Tell It

“Remember today it was not your children who saw and felt the correction of the Lord your God.  They did not see His majesty, His power, His strength, or His signs and the things He did in Egypt … They did not see what He did to the Egyptian army … when He drowned them in the Red Sea … They did not see what He did for you in the desert … They did not see what He did … when the ground opened up and swallowed Dathan and Abiram and their families … It was you who saw all these great things the Lord has done …  Remember … Teach them well to your children …”

The people whom Moses was talking to had been under the age of accountability when they left Egypt, or else they were born during the 40-year trek through the desert.  Egypt was a distant memory, if that.  The generation of adults had all died off except for Moses, Joshua, and Caleb.  The children needed to hear, needed to understand, and needed to own the stories of what God had done for their parents and grandparents.  God didn’t want them to simply be “spiritual trust babies”, living off the spiritual heritage of their ancestors.  He wanted them to know and recite those events , making them come alive for their own children someday, saying “My dad told me …” or “My grandmother was there when …”  That close connection to history would serve them well.  They couldn’t let the stories go untold and thus lose an entire generation!

Father, even last night at youth You showed me the importance of passing on this heritage to the next generation, including not only stories of Your blessings, but our mistakes as well.  Keep me mindful of that as I raise my own sons, as well as when I teach.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford