Scripture Daily

Context No. 1416 of 4322 · Deuteronomy

Context · Reflection

Deuteronomy 6:20-25: in context

20When your son asks you in time to come, saying, “What do the testimonies, the statutes, and the ordinances, which the LORD our God has commanded you mean?” 21then you shall tell your son, “We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt. The LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand; 22and the LORD showed great and awesome signs and wonders on Egypt, on Pharaoh, and on all his house, before our eyes; 23and he brought us out from there, that he might bring us in, to give us the land which he swore to our fathers. 24The 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 today. 25It shall be righteousness to us, if we observe to do all these commandments before the LORD our God, as he has commanded us.”

Moses tells Israel what to say when, in time to come, a child asks the meaning of all the commandments and statutes God has given. You shall not answer with a list of rules, but with a story: we were Pharaoh's slaves in Egypt, and the LORD brought us out with a strong hand, doing great signs and wonders, and he brought us out from there to bring us into the land he promised our fathers. And the LORD commanded us to keep all these statutes, to fear him, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive. The commands are grounded in the rescue.

Notice how Moses answers the child's question, why do we keep these commandments? He does not begin with the rules themselves, or with duty, or with fear of punishment; he begins with a story of rescue: we were slaves, and God set us free. The commandments make sense only in the light of that deliverance. Israel keeps them not to earn God's favor but in grateful response to a God who has already saved them; obedience is the answer to rescue, not the price of it. This is the right order, and it is easy to lose. When the commandments are severed from the story of God's saving love and presented as bare rules, obedience becomes a joyless burden, a set of demands with no heart. But when they are rooted where Moses roots them, in the memory of being slaves whom God freed, obedience becomes what it was meant to be, the grateful response of the rescued to their rescuer. And this is how it is meant to be handed to children: not first as a list of what they must and must not do, but as the story of what God has done, so that they grow up keeping the commands out of gratitude and trust rather than mere compulsion. When the child asks why, the answer is the gospel in miniature: we were slaves, and God brought us out; therefore we love and obey him. The rescue comes first, and obedience flows from it.

Do I keep God's commands as bare rules, severed from the story of his rescue, or as the grateful response of one who was a slave and has been set free, and is that the way I hand the faith to those who ask me why?

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