See, I have taught you statutes and rules, as the LORD my God commanded me, that you should do them in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. Keep them and do them, for that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ | Deuteronomy 4:5–6
This week, we looked at God’s answer to Habakkuk’s lament over the sin and injustice in the world. In it, God answers his prophet by showing how the universe was constructed to punish evil. There is an order to the universe that will provide health and stability, but will also rebuke you, if you choose to live against it. In the same way that there are laws of the universe around issues like gravity, mass, and acceleration, there are moral laws written into the fabric of creation. The scientific laws can be isolated and studied in a way that morality can’t, since moral law is tied to a greater number of variables. How can we find this natural order, to both live in sync with creation and protect ourselves from destruction? Good news for us is: God gives it to us.
In our Reading of the Law from Sunday (at the top), we see that one of the benefits of God’s law is that it gives creation direction from the Creator. It saves God’s people from having to go through the pain of figuring it all out through failure, providing for us a structure to live by. This is the greatest cheat sheet ever. This allows God’s people to be declared: a wise and understanding people, not because they have developed this wisdom, but because God chose to give it to them. God’s people can simply obey Him and they are protected from a great deal of sinful destruction and given an immense step forward toward flourishing.
The sad thing is: many Christians do not take advantage of this gift. One of the reasons for this is because we have bought into a lie about the idea of indoctrination. Simply put, many Christian parents are afraid of telling their kids what to believe because they think that their kids need to come to this truth ‘on their own.’ The world around us tells us that brainwashing our children with faith is wrong, and some in the church have adopted this. For fear of being the parent who forces their kids to act or believe a certain thing, Christian parents fail to pass this law to their children as God commanded them (Deuteronomy 6:6–7).
Interestingly, this same approach has not bled over into the other facts of the universe. Parents do not expect their children to naturally discover scientific classifications. We do not tell them to come to their own understanding of how math works. We teach them. When they are wrong, we correct them. This is because we believe that there is a truth that they must conform to. We send them to school and instruct them in what they need to know. The same should be true of how we teach God and His law. This is not something that is secondary or optional. This is at the core of what it means to live in the world. A person who does not understand this will suffer due to their ignorance.
I think the bigger issue is one of trust. While we may think that God offers a good option, we still hold back, unsure that He is truly for us; we believe that His way is an option, but it is only one way to live. If He is A way, rather than THE way, then it is right not to ‘force’ Him on anyone. This is not how He presents Himself. He is a good and loving Father who cares greatly for His children. He wants what is best for us and is willing to give of Himself greatly to secure this. When we come to God’s law, we should not approach it primarily as a means to condemn or test us, but as the way that our holy God is protecting and encouraging His children.
When you come to it this way, His law becomes grace; it is unmerited favor being given to us. God is sharing His divine perspective with us. In it, we are given a robust view of how the world works that we would not be able to develop on our own. To follow Him is to connect ourselves, and our children, to a wisdom that is beyond this world.
Your children will be indoctrinated; someone will teach them. If it isn’t God’s law, then it will be a disordered and destructive morality. Passing along the wisdom of God is one of the best things that we can possibly do to prepare our children to engage this complex world with confidence.