Word of Salvation – Vol. 26 No. 41 – August 1981

 

Covenant Education

 

Sermon by Rev. John W. Westendorp on Deut. 6:7 (4-9)

Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 6

Psalter Hymnal: 299: 1,2,3,4,8; 427; 419; 37; 307

 

This morning/evening I want to deal with the subject of Education….. CHRISTIAN education. Or better still…. COVENANT education. The instruction of covenant children.

Now you may ask: Why bother dealing with that subject here in our church?

We have our Christian School… and support it at great expense. We have our children there… or perhaps our grandchildren. And others of us hope to have them there some day. And others still have no connections with the school at all…. but are still members of the Shool Association…. because they understand they too have an obligation to help…. by their support to make it easier for Christian parents.

(Note to readers: – If the above paragraph is not relevant for your situation please ignore it and use the following instead:

(Now you may be thinking to yourself: Well, here we go again!

(Another hard-sell to get us to think of a Christian School..!

(And what hope do we have really for a school like that here?

(I’m afraid we’ll just have to make the best of State School education.

However this morning/evening it’s good to be reminded that God’s Word has something to say about the subject too…! There are Biblical principles that we ought to be reminded of again, and who of us can avoid that reminder as an unnecessary luxury? Those of us who have stood at the front of the church with a baby to present for baptism once made a solemn promise: “To bring up our child in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and also to cause that child to be instructed therein to the utmost of our ability.”

Let’s then look at our text and at our subject and ask three questions:
The question: Who is responsible for covenant education?
               then: What is it that makes education “covenant” education?
     and finally: What is the scope of covenant education?

A) WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR EDUCATION IN THE COVENANT?

Firstly then: Who is it who is responsible for the education of our children? There have been many different answers to that. The most common answer today is: Education of children is the responsibility of the STATE. The argument is that since children must grow up as citizens of the State, and since they must become fit members of the State, therefore the State or society can best educate them to that end.

Other people would answer that the CHURCH must educate our children. Here the argument is that by baptism the child is first of all a member of the Church, and since this is the most important relationship in life, therefore the Church ought also to educate children.

And so we have STATE schools because man is a social creature, and as such ought to be educated by society… by the State. And we have CHURCH schools because man is a religious being, and as such ought to educated by a religious institution… the Church.

Our text in verse 7 however address itself to the individual Israelite: You teach your children. It is addressed to Covenant Parents. It’s a pity our New International version doesn’t bring this out so well. It is an exhortation address to Dads and Mums. The New American Standard Bible has: And YOU shall teach them diligently to YOUR sons…!

We do well to remember that this is entirely consistent with the teaching of the New Testament when in Ephesians 6:4 Paul says: “Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.”

We also do well to remember that in the covenant God promises to be the God of PARENTS AND THEIR CHILDREN. God works through the line of the generations. And to do that…. God as it were…. depends on parents to instruct their children… to educate them… so that the covenant continues.

What a solemn responsibility God here gives to believing parents. What a solemn promise Christian parents make at the baptism of their child. To instruct them and to have them instructed…! Because in this way God continues to work thru the generations.

There are however a few important points we must remember: God is speaking here to His Old Testament covenant people Israel, and at an important point in their history: It was when they were about to enter the Promised Land. They were about to begin a settled existence in their own land. But you see it was to be a society where there were vast differences to our situation today: Then they had Father and son working together on the land, and Mother and daughter working together in the home. There were no schools, and parents had much more time with the children. In that situation the Lord says: You instruct your children…! Education is YOUR task.

Our situation is a far cry from that of the people of Israel. We live in a highly industrialized and technological society. We are not usually working with our children right through childhood. And wouldn’t it be totally unrealistic for parents to teach their children in our specialized society..? Our own knowledge is often limited. We have enough trouble helping them with homework in first year high school.

Does this then mean that these words apply only to Israel at that time? No! After all the New Testament also lays the responsibility on parents, and at that time city life was much more developed than in Deuteronomy. There were already organized forms of schooling. I think we ought to distinguish carefully between two things: The WORK of teaching….. and the RESPONSIBILITY for teaching. On the one hand the actual DOING of the educating…. and on the other hand SEEING TO IT that it gets done.

Today the task may have changed…. we have schools…. primary, secondary. But the responsibility has not changed… it is still the parent’s. Educational institutions of any kind are there only to help parents carry out their responsibility of educating their children.

When we are confronted with the Bible’s teaching at this point…. then we realise that we cannot just send children to school, and then leave it at that… contented that we have done our duty. We cannot send them to a secular state school and say: “Well, at least we gave our children a good education”. In fact we cannot even send them along to a Christian school, and then rest contented that we have done our duty.

God demands the responsible involvement of His covenant people. And while we may well have many others helping us carrying out our duty… the Lord will hold us… parents, responsible. In other words: Even though our children go to a Christian Parent Controlled School that only really means something if we as parents are involved all the way. We are responsible…. we are to take an interest…. that is our duty. But then of course that responsibility is even more urgent when our children must go to secular primary or secondary schools…. and when parents for one reason or another are not able to have their children at a Christian school.

I’m afraid that again and again we as parents become complacent…! We have so many different avenues open to us for instruction. We send our children faithfully to catechism classes or Sunday School. We send them to Cadets and Calvinettes where they also receive instruction in things pertaining to the Christian faith. And where possible we send them to our own Christian schools. And then we feel that we have honoured our obligation. We have fulfilled the vows we made at their baptism.

Our text speaks of diligent instruction… of having certain things impressed upon them. In fact the whole context is one of being surrounded by instruction. You shall talk of these things all the time… not just in classes, when you walk along… when you sit down… when you rise up and lie down. And the trouble is we are such busy people… with so much to do, so that far too often it happens that our children receive more instruction from the one- eyed-electronic-baby-sitter in the living room than from mum and dad… and please don’t ask what is taught then. Yes, they see beautiful nature films but full of evolutionistic presuppositions, and funny cartoons.. but which teach violence as the accepted way of settling arguments.

Your responsibility for covenant education does not end with the catechism classes.. it does not even end with a Christian day school; there is much… much more to do. You are to read the Bible together…! You are to talk together about the Christian life again and again. You shall impress these things on your children.

B) WHAT MAKES EDUCATION COVENANT EDUCATION?

The second question we want to ask is: What is it that makes education Covenant education?

What kind of teaching are we really talking about this morning/evening? To answer that question we need to go back to verses 4 and 5. There we read: Hear O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. In other words that puts the whole matter of education in the covenant against a background of two basic principles.

It means first of all that any education that claims to be Covenant education is motivated by faith in one sovereign Lord. It emphasises that there is only ONE GOD in the universe.. Yahweh. Israel’s God… the saving God… the redeeming God. And that God is our God. Any education that fails to emphasise that is NOT Covenant education.

It must have been important for the Lord to remind Israel of this. They were about to go into Canaan where many gods were being worshipped. But Israel was to remember that only Israel’s God was the true God. Our God is God alone and no one else.

Is that not also the truth that our children must hear today? Our children grow up in a world that has many gods… and many idols. They find themselves in schools that claim to be neutral in regard to religion… but that in practice deny the existence of our God in many ways and on many occasions. How important then for us to teach our children of the ONE God. The God who loved us so much that He sent Jesus Christ to be our Saviour. What a blessing that this one God can be proclaimed in the churches’ teaching programs.. in Catechism classes and Sunday Schools.

And what a blessing that we have day schools where that God is honoured. That is what Covenant education is all about… to teach our children from the very earliest years that our God is God alone.

The second basic principle in verse 5 that makes for truly covenant education is that it calls for a response from those instructed. To put it another way: Covenant education not only has that one great statement of faith… it also makes demands. The kind of education we are speaking about does not just face us with great facts that we can then take or leave. It does not just provide our children with a series of options… so that they can go away and make up their own minds… and decide for themselves.

No…. it makes a demand: THIS God is to be loved…. totally…. perfectly. There is a key fact at the centre of covenant education… the fact that there is only one true saving God. But there is also a key command at the centre of covenant education… the call to do something… to respond: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart , soul and strength. And any education that ignores that command is not covenant education.

Notice how radical this desired response is: It doesn’t allow for any half-heartedness or for any compromise. That was important for Israel, about to enter a land full of idolatry. If their devotion to the Lord who had saved them from Egypt was anything less than total – then it would soon lead to their sharing their affections with other gods…. to idolatry.

Surely that is what makes covenant education – in what ever way it might be – also so vital for us today. Jesus too quoted these words. Our children too must learn to serve God totally – with all their being….! – or before too long they may not be serving Him at all. Covenant education calls for a response.

What then is education that is truly covenant education? It is instruction that has a central item of faith; and that is that there is only one true saving God…. our God. But it is also the kind of instruction that calls for a response: Love that God with all your heart, soul and strength.

C) WHAT IS THE SCOPE OF COVENANT EDUCATION?

The third question we want to ask is: What is the scope of Covenant education? What is that kind of education to include to be truly covenantal? It is possible, you see, for someone to say: We agree with all this. Religious truth needs to be taught. Whether that be in Sunday Schools or Catechism classes; whether that be in Scripture classes at State schools; or in Bible lessons at a Christian day school. We need to be taught about God and about the response God demands of us. Our children need to be taught that in every way possible.

But then there may come the question: Why, though, do we need a Christian day school for that….? After all we have the home…. and the church. And most schools are still reasonably open for a half hour a week of Scripture lessons. You may even have the sneaky suspicion that I am confusing two things: Are we not confusing covenant teaching…. or Christian teaching…. with the teaching of maths or science? Why not let the home and the church teach religion and Scripture….? And then the State can teach biology and sociology.

Let me again ask that third question: What is the scope of covenant education? What does it include? Isn’t it as simple as teaching the Ten Commandments and the Gospel, and then leaving the State schools to teach Arithmetic and English? Well…. in many places Christian people have to go along with that. They do not have or cannot have Christian day schools. And perhaps there are no Christian teachers at their schools. But if we accept that this is quite okay as a permanent arrangement, we are making a big mistake.

You see, brothers and sisters, if we think that way… then we are going along with much of our modern thinking. Thinking that puts religion in a nice little pigeon hole all by itself. And science and maths are put in another separate little compartment. This is religion, and that is education. And please don’t try to mix the two… keep them separate. But you can’t do that with the religion of the Bible. It is more than religion. It is a philosophy that has a bearing on every other subject. It is a way of life… a way of life that affects every part of education.

Modern man doesn’t mind so much a belief in God – as long as He is a God who is kept out of daily life and as long as He is reserved just for Church and Bible reading. He mustn’t interfere in the realm of science or sociology. But you see, that is not the God of the covenant. He can’t be put in a little compartment of our life and kept there, because the whole of this world is His world. And therefore the whole of education comes under His sovereign rule. Or to put it in New Testament terms: Jesus Christ is Lord over everything. Covenant education ought to be a total education. Where the whole of life is to be seen in the light of God’s Word.

What is it in our text that parents were responsible for teaching? Well, it says that parents are to teach “THEM”… in other words: God’s commandments. That is what they were to teach…! The “THEM”… refers to God’s laws. But then ask yourself a moment what God’s laws were all about. Well, yes, there was God’s moral law – summed up in the Ten Commandments. But there were also, in the Old Testament, countless other laws. Some were directives for agriculture, some for dealing with animals. Others had to do with diets and still others with clothing. There were not really many areas of life in the Old Testament for which God had not somewhere given a law of some kind. Why? Just to make life tough for the people of Israel? No…. to show them that the whole of life was lived under the covenant.

God didn’t say to His people, “Now when you get to Canaan just make sure you don’t kill, steal, lie. Just obey the Ten Commandments and for the rest just do things the way the Canaanites do it or the way they did it in Egypt.” No… God gave them many, many laws and guidelines in Leviticus and Numbers. And ALL THESE were to be impressed on covenant children. In other words: God’s ideal is to look at everything in life from a different point of view…. from His point of view. A truly covenant education takes all subjects up within its scope.

This is also made clear in the verses after our text. You see these things were not only to be taught to the children… they were also to be tied as symbols to the hands… in other words… let them guide your actions… your deeds. They were to be tied as ornaments on the forehead…. in other words… let them guide all your thinking. They were to be written on the doorpost of the houses… in other words… let them guide all your family life.

For God’s people the whole of life is covenant living. In every area of life there is that one God our God. In every area of life He seeks that response of love. And therefore a truly covenant education is an education that seeks to honour the covenant God in all of life… in every subject. This is what our Christian schools struggle to do. And we as Christian parents…. and we as God’s people together may share in that wonderful work. For Christian parents a solemn duty…. for the rest of us a wonderful privilege to work at that in a free land.

Conclusion:

The basic policy of our State school system is to remain neutral in matters of religion. Often they try very hard to uphold that neutrality. More often they fail…. undermine faith and give the impression that God is not really important for most areas of life.

Covenant education on the other hand seeks to be a total education. Every subject taught in the light of God’s word… nothing less will do. This is not easy, and for our Christian teachers it is a challenge. But what a blessing it is that we have schools where that is attempted. Where it is indeed being shown that God’s word cannot be restricted to some small part of life but that our covenant God meets us in every sphere of life. Let us strive for that total education In our homes… in our churches…. and in our schools.

Amen.