Life for the people of God is to be permeated with his words. They are to dominate action and thought - “tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads” - and this in a real and vital way, far removed from the wearing of phylacteries (Matt. 23:5) or its modern equivalent of inscribing texts on salt-shakers and ball-point pens.
One sure way of enabling the words of God to have this wholesome influence is to teach them to our children. We are to do this in a spontaneous way, “talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up” (Deut. 11:19). Delight in the law of the Lord is the source of such spontaneity (Ps. 1:2).
“Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates” (Deut. 11:20). Are we to take that literally? Or should texts on the wall have gone out with the aspidistras of a former age? A well chosen text thoughtfully hung on a wall can surely be meaningful. Besides being a witness to the visitor, its words may well be remembered by our children long after they have left home.
““You shall therefore impress these words of mine on your heart and on your soul; and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontals on your forehead.”
Deuteronomy 11:18 NASB1995
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