As Barbara Kay said this week: Happy are those for whom Father’s Day means a barbecue and a card poking fun at Dad’s foibles. Not so much for children whose "father" was an anonymous sperm sold to create a child he would never know or likely care to know. For them "Seed Provider’s Day" would be more accurate.
Like the U.K., Canada nominally bans the sale of sperm and eggs. But unlike the U. K, which regulates effectively, Canada’s Assisted Human Reproduction Act, passed six years ago, is extremely porous. Its oversight agency, Assisted Human Reproduction Canada is, according to one involved MP, "an agency set up to do nothing" (though it costs $10-million annually). It is merrily bypassed by fertility industry entrepreneurs. Eyes, kidneys, blood -- human parts with no mind or soul are not bought and sold. Why life itself? As one donor child put it: "If my life is for other people’s purposes, and not my own, then what is the purpose of my life?" (Barbara Kay, National Post • Wednesday, Jun. 16, 2010)
In Deuteronomy 6, Moses was explaining the purpose of life for the Israelites in General, and Fathers in particular. He exhorts Israel to obey the commandments of the Lord (4:1; 5:1; 6:1).
Obedience meant that Israel would live; it would protect the people from God’s displeasure; Israel would be respected as a wise people by other nations when they obeyed God’s laws; and the law of God was unique for its high spiritual quality. The result of obedience to God is that we will “fear the LORD,” which will help us keep His commandments. Fear must stem from respect and reverence for the Creator God.... It requires the knowledge that God first loved us and has our interests at heart. God has a right to command our love, and He does (Maxwell, J. C., & Ogilvie, L. J. (1987). Vol. 5: The Preacher’s Commentary Series, Volume 5 : Deuteronomy. The Preacher’s Commentary series (114–116). Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson Inc.)
In order to father God’s way, a father must engender obedience in a child through respect. As a child respects his father, this respect become a bridge to understand the fear of the LORD, which is the beginning of wisdom. Like our relationship with God, a child must know that he or she is loved by their father and he has our interests at heard. Fathers have a right from God to command obedience, for this is what God charged them to do that it may go well with him and his family.
In order to father God’s way, a Godly Father 1) Knows God (Deuteronomy 6:1-3), 2) Loves God (Deuteronomy 6:4-6) 3) Shows his love for God (Deuteronomy 6:7-9)
A Godly Father 1) Knows God (Deuteronomy 6:1-3)
Deuteronomy 6:1-3 [6:1]"Now this is the commandment, the statutes and the rules that the LORD your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over, to possess it, [2]that you may fear the LORD your God, you and your son and your son’s son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be long. [3]Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey. (ESV)
The formula as found in verse one of “commandment, statutes/decrees and rules/laws” is an expression of the covenant document as a whole which appears here as a response to the command already given by the Lord to Moses that he should teach it to the nation (Deut. 5:31). In line with such “command-response” formulae elsewhere, one can observe the similarity of language between 5:31 and 6:1, especially in the connection in both places between the technical terms of the covenant and the need to observe it in the land they were about to enter as an inheritance.
Please turn to Hebrews 12
To be a follower of God, or disciple means that we are disciplined, the root of which is "disciple". God teaches us through discipline so we may in turn teach the children that He has entrusted to our care:
Hebrews 12:9-11 [9]Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 10]For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. [11]For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. (ESV)
• Those who are disciplined are taught through righteousness in being disciples. This discipline yields respect, or fear of the Lord.
Thus the exhortation not to turn to the right or to the left (5:32) becomes an injunction to fear the Lord, in verse two. This is a fear that results in obedience to the statutes/decrees and commandments for generations to come (6:2).
Psalm 34:11 [11]Come, O children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD. (ESV)
• One of the basic reasons we are to teach respect for authority to our children is that they have a transferable concept about God. When the rebellious nature is not rooted out of the heart of a child, it becomes a stumbling block to respect for God.
The command to walk in the ways of the Lord (5:33) is also restated, this time in the appeal to hear and to do/obey (6:3). In both cases it is with the end in view that God’s people might live (5:33) and do so with success, prosperity (multiply greatly) , and for many years. This would be in a land flowing with milk and honey as God had promised the patriarchal ancestors (your fathers) (6:3b) and had reaffirmed to Moses on the occasion of his call to liberate his people (Exod 3:8, 17).
Exodus 3:7-8 [7]Then the LORD said, "I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, (ESV)[8]and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. (ESV)
Exodus 3:17 [17]and I promise that I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey."’ (ESV)
The phrase “milk and honey” is a hyperbolic way of describing the richness of the land of promise (S. D. Waterhouse, “A Land Flowing with Milk and Honey,” AUSS 1 (1963): 152–66.).These two commodities, the one the product of human labor, or agriculture, and the other the product of nature, represent the fullness of blessing associated with the fulfillment of God’s promises. Though obviously not to be taken literally, the description of Canaan’s bounty and fertility is much in line with the reality of the situation in that day and time, especially in comparison to the deprivations of the desert and even of Egypt, a land whose fields had to be irrigated by foot (Deut 11:10; cf. Num 13:23, 27; Deut 8:7–10; 11:9, 11–12, 14) (Merrill, E. H. (2001). Vol. 4: Deuteronomy (electronic ed.). Logos Library System; The New American Commentary (161–162). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.).
• A Godly father will reflect a confidence in God that He is one who keeps His promises and is the source of all blessing. Obedience is not to be promoted for obedience sake, but stemming from a source of confidence and joy in the person of God Himself.
• A Godly father will likewise keep His promises, else he in effect misrepresent God. When we fail to keep our promises we in essence blaspheme God and put doubt in our children’s minds whether God the Father will keep His promises.
Illustration: ("I Must Be Fit")
As a Godly father knows God, He sees God building his child. Edgar Guest once said:
I must be fit for a child to follow,
scorning the places where loose men wallow;
knowing how much he shall learn from me,
I must be fair as I’d have him be.
I must come home to him day by day,
clean as the morning I went away.
I must be fit for a child’s glad greeting;
his are eyes that there is no cheating.
He must behold me in every test,
not at my worst but my very best;
he must be proud when my life is done
to have men know that he is my son.
(Edgar Guest : Guard Your Heart, p. 84)
In order to father God’s way, a Godly Father 1) Knows God (Deuteronomy 6:1-3), and:
2) Loves God (Deuteronomy 6:4-6)
Deuteronomy 6:4-6 [4]"Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. [5]You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. [6]And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. (ESV)
The Decalogue (or Ten Commandments) of Deut 5:6–21 (Exod 20:2–17) embodies the great principles of covenant relationship that outline the nature and character of God and spell out Israel’s responsibilities to Him. It is thus an encapsulation or distillation of the entire corpus of covenant text. This section of Deuteronomy is a further refinement of that great relational truth. It is the expression of the essence of all of God’s person and purposes in sixteen words of Hebrew text.
Known to Jewish tradition as the Shema (after the first word of v. 4, the imperative of the verb šāmaʿ, “to hear”), this statement, like the Decalogue, is prefaced by its description as “commands, decrees, and laws” (or the like) and by injunctions to obey them (6:1–3; cf. 4:44–5:5).
The sentence itself commences with the imperative of šāmaʿ in the second person singular form. “To hear,” in Hebrew lexicography, is tantamount to “to obey,” especially in covenant contexts such as this. That is, to hear God without putting into effect the command is not to hear him at all. The singular form of the verb emphasizes the corporate or collective nature of the addressee, that is, Israel. The covenant was made with the nation as a whole and so the nation must as a unified community give heed to the command of the Lord.
The plurality of the people is also noted here, however, in that it is “Yahweh/LORD our God is one.” This conveys the idea of the uniqueness or exclusivity of Yahweh as Israel’s God. Likewise it stresses the unity or wholeness of the Lord. This is not in opposition to the later Christian doctrine of the Trinity but rather functions here as a witness to the self-consistency of the Lord, who is not ambivalent and who has a single purpose or objective for creation and history. The ideas clearly overlap to provide an unmistakable basis for monotheistic faith. The LORD is indeed a unity, but beyond that He is the only God (E. H. Merrill, “Is the Doctrine of the Trinity Implied in the Genesis Creation Account?” in The Genesis Debate, ed. R. Youngblood (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1986), 123–24, 127–28.).
“God” is the translation for Elohim. Elohim is a plural word. Since there is no number given with it, one can assume the number is three. In the Hebrew language a noun is singular, dual, or plural. When it is plural, but no number is given, one can assume it to be three. This is, therefore, a reference to the Trinity. It could be translated, “Hear, O Israel: Jehovah, our Trinity is one Jehovah.”(McGee, J. V. (1997). Thru the Bible commentary (electronic ed.) (Dt 6:4). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.)
He was not merely first among the gods, as Baal in the Canaanite pantheon, Amon-Re in Egypt, or Marduk in Babylon; (Yahweh) was the one and only God and as such He was omnipotent. It was this all-powerful Unique God who imposed on Israel the charge to love him, thereby revealing another aspect of his character (Craigie, P. C. (1976). The Book of Deuteronomy. The New International Commentary on the Old Testament (169). Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.).
Only after the great confession is the great commandment given and it is in the imperative (6:5). From the great redemption from Egypt (indicative), we see the covenant with its stipulations (imperative) (Elwell, W. A. (1996). Vol. 3: Evangelical commentary on the Bible. Baker reference library (Dt 6:4–5). Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Book House.).
As Deuteronomy 6:5 indicates, the confession of the Lord’s unique oneness leads to the demand that Israel recognize him as such by obedience to all that that implies. In language appropriate to covenant, that obedience is construed as love; that is, to obey is to love God with every aspect and element of one’s being (W. L. Moran, “The Ancient Near Eastern Background of the Love of God in Deuteronomy,” 77–87.).
This equation has already been made clear in the Decalogue itself, where the Lord said, in reference to the second commandment, that He displays covenant faithfulness (ḥesed) to the thousands who love him and keep his commandments (Deut 5:10).
In covenant terms, then, love is not so much emotive or sensual in its connotation (though it is not excluded in those respects), but it is of the nature of obligation, of legal demand. Thus because of who and what He is in regard to His people whom He elected and redeemed, the Lord rightly demands of them unqualified obedience.
Quote: Saint Augustine gave interesting advice when he said, “Love God, then do as you please.” If we love God sufficiently to want to do what is pleasing in His sight, then we need never worry about our conduct, because things which will not please God will not please us. If we lack love for God, all the rules in the world will not keep us true to Him. The law tells us what to do; love gives the power to do it (Maxwell, J. C., & Ogilvie, L. J. (1987). Vol. 5: The Preacher’s Commentary Series, Volume 5 : Deuteronomy. The Preacher’s Commentary series (116). Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson Inc.).
The entire book of Deuteronomy is a commentary on the command which stands at its beginning: ‘You shall love the Lord your God …’ The command to love is central because the whole book is concerned with the renewing of the covenant with God, and although the renewal demanded obedience, that obedience would be possible only when it was a response of love to the God who had brought the people out of Egypt and was leading them into the promised land. The language of loving God, ...is one of the features of the Hebrew relationship to God which made possible the use of the treaty terminology in the first place, and also the use of the father/son analogy. The injunction to love was based on the precedent of God’s love, which had been shown to the Israelites principally in the Exodus, and, in a larger context, in their election and calling from the time of Abraham (Craigie, P. C. (1976). The Book of Deuteronomy. The New International Commentary on the Old Testament (169–170). Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
81 81 Ibid., 17, 21–22, 53.).
The depth and breadth of that expectation is elaborated upon by the fact that it encompasses the heart, soul, and might/strength of God’s people, here viewed collectively as a covenant partner. The heart (lēb) is, in Old Testament anthropology, the seat of the intellect, equivalent to the mind or rational part of humankind (H. W. Wolff, Anthropology of the Old Testament (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1974), 46–51.).
The “soul” (better, “being” or “essential person” in line with commonly accepted understanding of Heb. nepeš) refers to the invisible part of the individual, the person qua person including the will and sensibilities.81
The might/strength (mĕʾōd) is, of course, the physical side with all its functions and capacities. That is, Israel must love God with all its essence and expression.
Please turn to Matthew 22
Postbiblical rabbinic exegesis understood the role of the Shema to be the heart of all the law. When Jesus was asked about the greatest of the commandments, he cited this (and its companion in Lev 19:18) as the fundamental tenet of Jewish faith, an opinion with which his hearers obviously concurred (Matt 22:34–39; Mark 12:28–31; Luke 10:25–28). (M. Wyschogrod, “The ‘Shema Israel’ in Judaism and the New Testament,” in The Roots of Our Common Faith (Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1984), 23–32.)
Matthew 22:34-38 [34]But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. [35]And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. [36]"Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?" [37]And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. [38]This is the great and first commandment.
Jesus said that this was “the first and greatest commandment” (Matt 22:38), an observation that is profoundly correct in at least two respects. First it qualifies as such inasmuch as it constitutes the essence of the Deuteronomic covenant principle and requirement. As stated before, the Shema is to the Decalogue what the Decalogue is to the full corpus of covenant stipulations. But it also is first and greatest because it is a commentary on the very first of the Ten Commandments—“You shall have no other gods before me” (Deut 5:7).( Craigie, Deuteronomy, 169–70.)
To love God as it commands is to place oneself within the orbit of his saving grace because the Shema, the heart and core of the Old Testament law, was designed, as Paul said:
Galatians 3:24 [24]So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. (ESV)
This confession is so footed in the Jewish consciousness that to this very day the observant Jew will recite the Shema at least twice daily (I. Epstein, Judaism (Baltimore: Penguin, 1959), 162–63.).
• As fathers, our lifestyle will show what we most value. If our kids see a focused devotion in wholehearted love of God and others, then such an example promotes a genuineness of faith.
• If our lifestyle is marked by sporadic religiosity, then we train our kids to be hypocrites: show one thing in public and obey your base instincts in private. We in essence, train a new generation of Pharisees.
An important demand of the covenant relationship was that it be perpetuated beyond the immediate generation of those with whom the Lord made it, for its promises and provisions were for generations yet unborn (4:25, 40; 5:9–10, 29). In practical terms this necessitated a regular routine of instruction. Father must educate son and son the grandson so that the fact and features of the covenant might never be forgotten.
The whole is here described as “these words/commandments” a term that encompasses the full corpus of the covenant text as communicated by Moses but which is encapsulated especially in the Shema of vv. 4–5. In the larger sense they are to be committed to memory as the idiom “on your heart” (v. 6) makes clear. As mentioned in verse 5, in the psychology of the Old Testament the heart is not the center of emotional life and response but the seat of the intellect or rational side of humankind. To “be on the heart” is to be in one’s constant, conscious reflection. (Wolff: Anthropology of the Old Testament, 48; cf. Prov 7:3; Jer 17:1; Dan 7:28).)
The people were to think about these commandments and meditate on them so that obedience would not be a matter of formal legalism, but a response based upon understanding. The law written on your heart would be an essential characteristic of the later New Covenant, as the Holy Spirit enabled understanding ( Jer 31:33) (MacArthur, J. (2006). The MacArthur study Bible : New American Standard Bible. (Dt 6:6). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.).
• One thing we want to encourage in our children is a healthy curiosity. To say that they should just think or believe a certain way "just because" puts an fatal wedge between faith and reason. We should never fear questions about God and His plan. In one sense or another, we can look to His word and the plethora of external evidence to show that Biblical Christianity is the most rational and evidential historical event that has ever occurred.
Illustration: ("Just Like Daddy)
A Godly Father will love God for he knows that love will impact his child. An anonymous author wrote:
A teardrop crept into my eye as I knelt on bended knee;
Next to a gold haired tiny lad whose age was just past three.
He prayed with such simplicity “Please make me big and strong,
Just like Daddy, don’t you see? Watch o’er me all night long.”
“Jesus, make me tall and brave, like my Daddy next to me.”
This simple prayer he prayed tonight filled my heart with humility.
As I heard his voice so wee and small offer his prayer to God,
I thought these little footsteps someday my path may trod!
Oh, Lord, as I turn my eyes above and guidance ask from Thee;
Keep my walk ever so straight for the little feet that follow me.
Buoy me when I stumble, and lift me when I fail,
Guard this tiny bit of boy as he travels down life’s trail.
Make me what he thinks I am is my humble gracious plea
Help me ever be the man this small lad sees in me!
(Galaxie Software. (2002; 2002). 10,000 Sermon Illustrations. Biblical Studies Press.)
In order to father God’s way, a Godly Father 1) Knows God (Deuteronomy 6:1-3), 2) Loves God (Deuteronomy 6:4-6) and finally:
3) Shows his love for God (Deuteronomy 6:7-9)
Deuteronomy 6:7-9 [7]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. [8]You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. [9]You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. (ESV)
The covenant recipient must impress the words of covenant faith into the thinking of his children by inscribing them there with indelible sharpness and precision (thus the piel of šānan) (J. W. McKay, “Man’s Love for God in Deuteronomy and the Father/ Teacher-Son/Pupil Relationship,” VT 22 (1972): 426–35; cf. J. L. Crenshaw, “Education in Ancient Israel,” JBL 104 (1985): 602–3.) The image is that of the engraver of a monument who takes hammer and chisel in hand and with painstaking care etches a text into the face of a solid slab of granite. The sheer labor of such a task is daunting indeed, but once done the message is there to stay. Thus it is that the generations of Israelites to come must receive and transmit the words of the Lord’s everlasting covenant revelation. Moses said that the way this message is made indelible is by constant repetition, to teach them diligently to your children.
Ephesians 6:4 [4]Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. (ESV)
Thus when you sit in your house or walk by the way/pathway, whether lie down to sleep or when you rise for the tasks of a new day, teacher and pupil must be preoccupied with covenant concerns and their faithful transmission (v. 7). The pairing of these sets of contrasting places and postures forms a double merism (using opposing terms to express an all-encompassing concept). To sit suggests inactivity; and walk, of course, activity. Together they encompass all of human effort. Likewise, to lie down at night and rise up in the morning speaks of the totality of time. So important is covenant truth that it must be at the very center of all one’s labor and life.
• In the instruction of our children, although formal instruction is helpful, there should not be a distinction of instruction and non-instruction time. Everything we do should be in godly instruction.
• Likewise, there should not be a distinction between so called "Biblical" instruction and everyday activity. All activity, all instruction should come and communicate a Biblical worldview.
In what was apparently intended to be another figurative way of expressing the centrality of the covenant to everyday life, Moses instructed the people in verse eight to tie the words of covenant to their hands and foreheads (v. 8). To bind them as a sign on your hand (or forearms, as יָד (yad ), “wrist” or “arm” P. R. Ackroyd, “יָד yād,” etc., TDOT 5:400.)—the purpose is that the words might be “for a sign” (lĕʾôt). That is, they would identify their bearer as a member of the covenant community. That they shall be as frontlets between your eyes/ forehead, the words function as bands wrapped around the head at the level of the forehead, the purpose of which, as the Hebrew parallelism makes clear, was also to serve as symbols of covenant affiliation.( J. Gamberoni, טוֹטָפֹת ṭôṭāpōt, TDOT 5:319–21; E. A. Speiser, “Ṭ(W)ṬPT,” JQR 48 (1957): 208–17; J. E. Tigay, “On the Meaning of Ṭ(W)ṬPT,” JBL 101 (1982): 321–31.)
In postbiblical Judaism and to the present day a miniature box containing verses of the Torah (Exod 13:1–10; 13:11–16; Deut 6:4–9; and Deut 11:13–21) were placed inside the four chambers of the box, the whole being known as the tĕpillîn (“prayers”) or phylactery (cf. Matt 23:5). A similar box with only one chamber but containing the same texts was worn on the forearm as a “hand phylactery.”( L. H. Schiffman, From Text to Tradition: A History of Second Temple and Rabbinic Judaism (Hoboken: KTAV, 1991), 244–45; Driver, Deuteronomy, 93; Encyclopedia Judaica (Jerusalem: Keter, 1971), 15:898–903, s.v. “Tefillin.”)
That this binding on hand and between your eyes was originally intended to be figurative (more precisely, metaphorical) is quite clear from the context of the instruction, where there can be no doubt about the nonliteral meaning (“upon the heart,” v. 6; “at home,” “along the road,” v. 7). Moreover, the practical impossibility of wearing such objects in everyday life suggests the figurative nature of the injunction as, indeed, does the fact that they are worn only on special worship occasions in modern Judaism. Such restriction to special times is not to be found in any of the four passages where the tĕpillîn are discussed.
• The parallel to our present day is remarkable. Although Father’s day is a special once a year celebration, our covenantal responsibilities to our families must not be relegated to special occasions.
• Just as the phylactery reference has been relegated to an occasional duty, if our parenting and household responsibilities are merely formal, or occasional, they do not reflect the heart intention that God has for us.
Finally, as verse nine concludes, the covenant words also were to be written on the doorposts/doorframes of Israelite houses and on your gates/gateposts of their villages. Once more this should be understood metaphorically, but in postbiblical practice observant Jews placed a mĕzûzāh (the same word as that for “doorpost”), a small metal receptacle containing Deut 6:4–9 and Deut 11:13–21 in twenty-two lines, at the right of the doorway in obedience to Moses’ instructions here (Ibid., 11:1474–77, s.v. “Mezuzah.”).
The form of the commandment is in any case most significant. After ordering that the covenant commandments be worn on the person of the faithful Israelite, Moses expanded the sphere of covenant claim to the house and then to the village. In this manner the person and his entire family and community become identified as the people of the Lord.
• Father’s Day is not just a time for personal reflection, or family discussion. It is a time where we consider as a covenant community, the tremendous privilege, honor and responsibility as father’s.
(Format Note: Some base commentary from Merrill, E. H. (2001). Vol. 4: Deuteronomy (electronic ed.). Logos Library System; The New American Commentary (167–168). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.)
