👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Deuteronomy 6:7 | "You shall teach..."

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Happy Monday, {{first_name | everyone}}!

Whether you’re a parent, grandparent, or a spiritual elder to someone younger in their faith, this verse is relevant for you.

This week, we’re memorizing Deuteronomy 6:7 and digging into a passage containing one of the most prayed verses in all of Scripture.

In today’s email…

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You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.

Deuteronomy 6:7

Deuteronomy is the last book of the Torah (the first 5 books of the Bible), and it reads like a farewell. Moses is an old man now. He has led this people for forty years, and he will not be crossing into the Promised Land with them.

So he gathers Israel on the plains of Moab, just across the river from Canaan, and he preaches. In one sense, Deuteronomy contains Moses’ final sermons.

The audience? A new generation if Israelites.

Their parents were the ones God rescued from slavery in Egypt, but that generation refused to trust him and died in the wilderness, all except Joshua and Caleb.

These are the children, standing on the edge of what God promised, but that their parents forfeited.

Moses knows the real danger ahead, and it isn’t mainly the armies of Canaan. It’s comfort.

Soon they will settle into cities they did not build and eat from vineyards they did not plant (Deuteronomy 6:10-11), and the God who carried them will start to feel like an old family story.

So he warns them: when you get there, take care that you do not forget the LORD (Deuteronomy 6:12).

That is the setting for our verse.

“You shall teach them diligently to your children” is not a tip for religious parenting.

It is how a rescued people keeps from forgetting God, one generation at a time.

Faith either gets carried forward on purpose, or it fades. Moses is fighting for the grandchildren of people who are still standing in front of him.

📖 Read all of Deuteronomy 6.

Notice how high the stakes are for Moses, and how ordinary his instructions are. Underline every place he names where and when to talk about God.

🙏 Pray

Father, thank you for everyone who helped your Word reach me. As I memorize this verse, put it deep in my own heart first, so I have something real to pass on. Prepare me this week to be changed by your Spirit. Amen.

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This week’s free song sets our memory verse straight to music: “Deuteronomy 6:6-7” by Verses. It’s an easy way to get the words in your head as you drive, walk, and go about your week.

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You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.

Deuteronomy 6:7