When the Children Ask Why

Learning the meaning of the covenant life we inherit

Begin by reading Deuteronomy 6:1–12,20–25.

Why does our family live this way?

A child may learn a practice before understanding its meaning. The household keeps a day, follows an instruction, or refuses a certain course of action. Eventually the question comes: why?

Deuteronomy makes room for that question. Moses addresses Israel as the people prepare to enter the land promised to their ancestors. He speaks of teaching the children, then gives an answer for the time when they ask about God’s commands.

The answer brings the family’s way of life into its relationship with the LORD who delivered them.

The generations are already in view

The chapter opens with instruction to be taught and practised in the land. Moses names the hearer, the hearer’s son, and the son’s son.

The people’s future includes generations who will need to learn what faithfulness means. The way of life entrusted to Israel cannot be preserved merely through the memory of those who first heard it.

Instruction must reach people who were not present at the earlier events. They need to understand both what God asks and the history within which He asks it.

This continues what we encountered in Abraham’s household: children are to learn the LORD’s way. Here, that responsibility reaches a whole people preparing to settle in a shared place.

Their life in the land is to carry forward their belonging to God.

Love and the word within the heart

Moses calls Israel to hear and to love the LORD with all the heart, soul, and strength. He then says that the words he commands are to be in their hearts.

Read that order before the instruction about teaching children. The adults are called to receive the word within their own lives as they teach it to others.

A child can learn an explanation from someone whose conduct contradicts it. The passage calls for a deeper continuity: love for the LORD, His words held in the heart, and teaching that reaches the household.

This is covenant formation. The people are learning to live faithfully with the God they belong to, and to help the next generation understand that life.

The question for an adult is therefore personal as well as educational. What am I allowing God’s instruction to shape in me while I ask a child to receive it?

Conversation within ordinary life

The words are to be taught diligently. Moses names times of sitting at home, walking along the way, lying down, and rising.

These are ordinary settings in which people share their lives. God’s instruction is to be spoken about within them.

The chapter also describes visible reminders on the hand, between the eyes, and on the house’s doorposts and gates. The instruction is given a place in the household’s surroundings as well as its conversation.

Notice how these practices support remembering. The people will need to remain attentive after the great gathering has ended and life in the land has begun.

For our reflection, we can consider how everyday events become occasions for understanding. A dispute may open a conversation about fairness. A promise may offer a place to explain truthfulness. Shared provision may help a child recognise gratitude and responsibility toward another person.

The meaning of the instruction can be made visible in the life that surrounds the conversation.

A settled home can forget its Giver

Moses describes cities, houses, wells, vineyards, and olive trees the people have not produced for themselves. When they are satisfied, they must beware of forgetting the LORD who brought them out of bondage.

The warning belongs directly beside the household instruction. A good place to live does not remove the need for memory and faithfulness.

People may enjoy the gifts while losing their attentiveness to the Giver. Children may grow up knowing the comfort of the house without understanding the deliverance through which the family came there.

This helps us see why teaching matters to the peace of a shared home. The place alone cannot carry the family’s allegiance. Its members must learn whose gifts they receive and whose way is to govern their life.

The instruction helps preserve that recognition across generations.

The child’s question receives a history

Later in the chapter, a son asks about the meaning of the testimonies, statutes, and judgments commanded by the LORD. These terms refer to His covenant instruction.

The parent’s answer begins with slavery in Egypt and the LORD’s mighty deliverance. It recalls what God did before explaining the commands the family now keeps.

The child is given a story of belonging. The practices arise within the life of a people rescued by their God.

The answer also explains that the LORD brought them out in order to bring them into the land He promised. Deliverance has direction: a people are to live before Him in the place He gives.

The child is invited to understand the household’s instruction within that purpose. The family’s way is connected to the God who has cared for it and remains its LORD.

Instruction for their good

The explanation continues by naming the purpose of the statutes:

“For our good always, that he might preserve us alive.” — Deuteronomy 6:24

The commands are presented as serving the people’s good and life before God. The next verse describes their faithful observance as righteousness before Him.

Read this beside the instructions we have encountered at Sinai and in Leviticus. Honouring life, speaking truth, dealing fairly, refusing vengeance, and caring for the vulnerable give practical substance to that good.

God’s direction addresses the conduct through which a community can harm itself and its members. The child needs to understand why faithfulness matters for the life everyone shares.

This does not mean the passage promises that every obedient person will avoid every sorrow. Its setting concerns Israel’s covenant life and preservation as a people. Within that setting, God’s instruction is given for their good.

A family that understands its way

The chapter joins love, inward attentiveness, daily teaching, memory, and an answer to the child’s question. These belong within one continuing life before the LORD.

A family’s practices can become familiar while their meaning grows faint. Moses provides a way to carry the meaning forward: remember the deliverance, speak of the Giver, and explain how His instruction serves the life of His people.

We can now recognise why covenant belonging requires more than inherited customs. Each generation needs to learn to love the LORD and understand the life He calls His people to share.

The household is a place where that understanding can grow through honest questions and faithful example. Adults are learners too. When our conduct has contradicted what we teach, acknowledging it can become part of showing what responsibility before God means.

The question is worth welcoming: why do we live this way? A patient answer can help another person recognise the Father’s care within the instruction.

Search the passage yourself

• Which generations are named in verses 1–2?
• What is to be in the heart before the instruction is taught to children?
• What ordinary settings does Moses name for speaking about the word?
• What danger accompanies satisfaction in the land?
• How does the answer to the child connect deliverance, the land, and the commands?
• What purpose is given for the statutes in verse 24?

Continue reading: Jeremiah 31:27–34 and Ezekiel 36:16–28. Notice how the prophets address a people whose covenant life has been broken, and what God promises to do within them as He restores them.

Read the passage: Deuteronomy 6