At the time of this writing, my children are 10, 9, and 6. None of them are really old enough to be baptized yet, but they are all old enough to ask lots and lots of questions.
We get them almost every time we drive to and from services.
“Why do we do this?”
“What’s the point of that?”
I do my best to answer them as fully as possible, but it gives me a lot of comfort to know that Moses anticipated these types of questions. And even expected them as the result of faithful religious service.
Moses knew that the religious rituals would look odd to children. All the sacrifices and feast days and prohibitions against this or that—it’s nearly impossible for the eight-year-old mind to comprehend.
But instead of simply telling the people to give the age-old reason of “We do this because I said so!”, Moses told them to tell their children why. Specifically, that they used to be slaves in Egypt and that God delivered them out with a mighty hand.
This reframes the commandments from a simple checklist of life obligations to a teaching tool in and of themselves. Alongside parables, songs, poems, prophecies, and other narrative devices, Moses saw the actual commandments themselves as ways to teach people about God.
You can almost imagine the back-and-forth.
“Dad, why do we have to stop working on the Sabbath?”
“Well, son, because God rested on the Sabbath, so we do it, too.”
“Oh, ok. Is that why we spread animal blood on the doorposts once a year?”
“No, that’s because of the Passover, where God saved us from slavery in Egypt. I’m really thankful for that. Aren’t you?”
“Of course!”
I understand not every conversation will go that easy, but it at least provides a model for the conversations to take place.
Moreover, it makes the why behind worship an imperative. We can’t just tell our kids to follow God’s Word without telling them why. To do so makes the obedience hollow, and any future obedience doubtful.
If we want your kids to follow God, we have to give them a reason why.