What do children need to know about God? In today’s passage, we learn they need to progress beyond “Jesus Loves Me,” as marvelous as that truth may be. For here we see there are some other lessons that children need to know – lessons that are especially urgent in today’s culture.

In verse 9, God says the Israelites should tell their children about the things they had seen – the miracles God had done in the process of bringing them out of Egypt. God wanted His mighty acts to become part of the permanent historical record: the plagues on the Egyptians, the parting of the Red Sea, the provision of manna from Heaven, bringing water out of rocks for the people to drink.

And it is still critical for all of us to understand that the Christian faith is primarily historical – it’s not a matter of opinion or a question of our feelings. God has done mighty deeds throughout history, most significantly the raising of Jesus from the dead. It is on these historical facts that our faith rests, so it is critical that we pass along the truth of these great events from generation to generation.

But we also need to know how to interpret these events, and that is why God said in verse 10 that the people needed to let their children hear His words. For it is only through the lens of the Holy Scriptures that all the things God has done can be understood as part of His plan of redemption. Without the prophets’ explanation of the crucifixion, Jesus was just a man who died on a cross. Without the apostles’ explanation of the resurrection, Jesus’ empty tomb would be just a marvelous oddity. No, it is only the Word of God that can teach us how these events can bring salvation to all those who trust in Christ. And so we must teach our children what the Bible says about the Person and Work of Christ.

And why do we all need to know what God has done and what those things mean? So that we may fear God, as verse 10 says. Unless our knowledge of God’s justice and holiness moves us to confession and repentance, unless our knowledge of God’s mercy and grace moves us to trust Him, unless our knowledge of God’s power and majesty moves us to obey Him and submit to His authority, none of our knowledge will do us any good.

And so, if we really love our children, we’ll help them put the pieces together. We’ll tell them what God has done. We’ll tell them what these things mean. And we’ll show them how to respond to God’s mighty acts with faith and love and praise and service.

Deuteronomy 4:9-11 (ESV)

9 “Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children’s children–
10 how on the day that you stood before the LORD your God at Horeb, the LORD said to me, ‘Gather the people to me, that I may let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children so.’
11 And you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, while the mountain burned with fire to the heart of heaven, wrapped in darkness, cloud, and gloom.