DEUTERONOMY 32:2 | "May my teaching drop as rain, my speech distill as the dew; like gentle rain upon the tender grass, and like showers upon the herb."
The first time I read this verse, I thought "that has got to be taken out of context. There is no way there is that practical of a verse in here...especially in the old testament." However, as I poked around, lo and behold I found that it is really just that beautifully practical. Deuteronomy usually a bad rep. for being a book of rules, regulations, and thou-absolutely-shall-nots. However, I propose (and many others agree) that it is far more beautiful than that. While I have not yet studied it extensively, I have looked particularly at what it has to say on teaching and have found it to be eye-opening.
It answers the question I have so often asked: "Why do we teach?"
Yes, there are a lot of laws...laws that we have been set free from in the gospel...not that we are to avoid them, but that they no longer dictate our salvation. Rather, Christ's sacrifice covers us. The parallel that Deuteronomy makes is that God saves you and me from sin when we are slaves to it just as he saved His people from Egypt when they were slaves there. Therefore, we are to rejoice in the LORD and do what pleases Him just as the Israelites rejoiced in the LORD and committed themselves once again to follow Him. Deuteronomy doesn't teach us an obtuse number of things we have to memorize and which are only good for scribbling onto doctrine tests...it teaches us practical laws about how to care for people.
The essential understanding is that we as teachers, neighbors, parents, and students are sinners who need a Savior. God sent that Savior in the form of His Son who died on this earth and rose again triumphant. Every time a teacher reaches out to a student or a parent in kindness, every time a parent is patient with a teacher's misunderstanding or a student is willing to put their own interests down in the interest of their classmates, we are living out the love that marks Christians.
1 JOHN 3:10 | "By this [love] it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother."
1 JOHN 4:8 | "Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love."
all scripture from the English Standard Version Bible translation
The first time I read this verse, I thought "that has got to be taken out of context. There is no way there is that practical of a verse in here...especially in the old testament." However, as I poked around, lo and behold I found that it is really just that beautifully practical. Deuteronomy usually a bad rep. for being a book of rules, regulations, and thou-absolutely-shall-nots. However, I propose (and many others agree) that it is far more beautiful than that. While I have not yet studied it extensively, I have looked particularly at what it has to say on teaching and have found it to be eye-opening.
It answers the question I have so often asked: "Why do we teach?"
Yes, there are a lot of laws...laws that we have been set free from in the gospel...not that we are to avoid them, but that they no longer dictate our salvation. Rather, Christ's sacrifice covers us. The parallel that Deuteronomy makes is that God saves you and me from sin when we are slaves to it just as he saved His people from Egypt when they were slaves there. Therefore, we are to rejoice in the LORD and do what pleases Him just as the Israelites rejoiced in the LORD and committed themselves once again to follow Him. Deuteronomy doesn't teach us an obtuse number of things we have to memorize and which are only good for scribbling onto doctrine tests...it teaches us practical laws about how to care for people.
The essential understanding is that we as teachers, neighbors, parents, and students are sinners who need a Savior. God sent that Savior in the form of His Son who died on this earth and rose again triumphant. Every time a teacher reaches out to a student or a parent in kindness, every time a parent is patient with a teacher's misunderstanding or a student is willing to put their own interests down in the interest of their classmates, we are living out the love that marks Christians.
1 JOHN 3:10 | "By this [love] it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother."
1 JOHN 4:8 | "Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love."
all scripture from the English Standard Version Bible translation
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