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Features: The Other "Great" Homeschooling Verse by Peter Storz

Most Christian homeschoolers are familiar with Deuteronomy 6:6-7: These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. The verses place the responsibility for educating children on their parents and prescribe an education "method" that incorporates all waking hours and all the day's activities.

Today in my daily Bible reading, I came across a "companion" to this passage, Judges 2:10-11: "After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up, who knew neither the LORD nor what He had done for Israel. Then Israel did evil in the eyes of the LORD and served the Baals." In reading the rest of Judges chapter 2 and the beginning of chapter 3, the reader will discover that the generation, "who knew neither the LORD nor what He had done for Israel", was the generation after Joshua's, the generation after the one that had received the command in Deuteronomy 6:6-7! In other words, the very generation who received the command to teach their children about God throughout their daily lives was the first to fail to heed that command.

Second, God brought on Israel the consequences of their unfaithfulness - the consequences God had promised. The nation (Israel) that, in Joshua's lifetime, had defeated several other nations suddenly could not successfully defend themselves against bands of raiders.

Third, the failure of Joshua's generation to educate their children properly started some 400 years of Israel oscillating between unfaithfulness and repentance, between enslavement and deliverance. In other words, the failure of Joshua's generation initiated some 10 generations of failure.

In summary, God has both given us His command and shown us the consequences of failing to heed His command. One can only imagine the benefits for Israel had Joshua's and each succeeding generation educated their children to follow God. We can, however, learn those benefits first hand by obeying God's command in our own families.