(v. 20) When your son asks you in times to come, “What is the meaning of the testimonies and the statutes and the rules that the LORD our God has commanded you?”
There will come a time when your children will ask you the meaning of your life? Why do you live the way you live? What is the purpose of all this? They may only ask the question with their eyes, but they will ask it. They will look for the answer daily. If there is no real meaning to why you do the things you do, they will not look to you in their search for meaning.
All of us must ask ourselves this question: what is the meaning of what God has commanded? Meaning is more than understanding the words, it is understanding the reason for the words. Why do I pray, read the word, go to church, live a “moral” life? What am I trying to accomplish by such actions?
We must fight against ritualizing our faith. There is no life in ritual for ritual’s sake. Our parenting, our disciple making must be based on more than, “do it because God said so!” There is reason and purpose behind this way He has chosen for us to follow. If we don’t keep the reason and meaning in front of us, in front of our children, we will forget our purpose for living.
(v. 21) Then you shall say to your son, “We were Pharaoh’s slave in Egypt. And the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand.
It’s important for each of us to remember where we came from. We are called to tell our children the same story that was told to us by our spiritual parents. “We were Pharaoh’s slave.” This is not just the plight of one generation. This is the plight of every one of us. We were slaves until Christ came and set us free. We were bound in our sin, producing death and destruction, unable to change our perpetual state of bondage. I am a slave to sin outside of Christ. So are my children, so are my children’s children. As God freed the Israelites, He freed me and my children. There is but one path to freedom. It is God who saves!
(v. 22) And the LORD showed signs and wonders great and grievous, against Egypt and against Pharaoh and all his household, before our eyes.
It is God who saved us. I am not a self-made man. We are not a self-made people. My children must understand this important fact. I must remember this important truth. It was God who did the miraculous work of transformation. When He set me free, I understood clearly that this was a grace gift from God. I did not earn this standing. There is no room for pride, boasting, arrogance, or judgement. I can only receive and live in obedience as a response to the gift of salvation.
My prosperity is rooted in God’s deliverance, not in my obedience. I strive towards obedience because it is the only proper response to such a tremendous grace gift. It is sin to teach my children to be anything but completely dependent upon God’s sovereign love and grace.
(v.23) And he brought us out from there, that he might bring us in and give us the land that he swore to give to our fathers.
God led us out of captivity to bring us into abundant life. Christianity is not just a stay out of hell card. God doesn’t just rescue us, he transforms our very being. He turns our mourning into laughing. He takes our heart of stone and makes it burn with his passion, love, grace, and mercy.
We must tell our children and anyone else who will listen that God brought us out of bondage, to bring us into life. Christianity isn’t a list of rules to make life less fun. Rather, Christianity is the way in which we live in God’s abundant prosperity. As God’s dearly loved children, we must remind our children to never live for less than the abundant life God provides.
Our testimony is more than God saved a wretch. It is also that God took this wretch and placed him in green pastures, where he grew in the grace, knowledge, and wisdom of the Lord. That is our inheritance!
(v24) And the LORD commanded us to do all these statutes to fear the LORD our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as we are this day.
These commands we have been given, this way of living, is for our benefit, for our good. What is pleasing to God, is good for us. God desires to preserve the life he has freely given us. When we walk in God’s ways, we allow his Holy Spirit to fan the flame of our faith into a mighty, raging fire. God doesn’t want us to just get by, he wants us to be and remain strong in him until the day of his returning.
(v. 25) And it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to do all this commandment before the LORD our God as he has commanded us.”
Righteousness has always been a gift from God. The Israelites where rescued, redeemed and restored by and through God’s miraculous provision. This was not as a result of their moral integrity or obedience. However, God promised Israel that they would enjoy the full fruit of God’s given righteousness if they responded with full obedience. How much more should we respond in obedience! God has given us such a tremendous grace gift through the cross of Christ.
The promises and benefits of God will come to pass for those who are willing to yield completely to his ways. We must live as children in love with his living word. God cannot be mocked, he sees the integrity of our faith. He is well aware of the sincerity of our faith. A life that values God’s word will produce good fruit in keeping with the promises of God.
Our children must see the reason for God’s commandments in the fruit of our lives!
Live the Word
1. Father, I will remind myself and my children that you are the one who saved me. Whatever is good in me is completely the result of your rescue mission.
2. Father, I will continue to pursue the full benefits of your promised land by fully yielding to your ways.
3. Father, I will remember the meaning behind every religious habit and ritual. I do these things in response to your grace, with an obedient heart. You led me out of bondage into everlasting life. I will not fail to enter into your abundance.
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