The Rule of Law: Government of the Mind (3)

“And these words that I command you shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.” Deuteronomy 6.6-8

For the people of God to know the Lord and long for His promises, as He desired for them, they must apply themselves diligently to learning the Law of God. The Law was to become like frontlets before their eyes, a constant presence to guide all their thinking and actions. Parents were to teach the Law “diligently” to their children. The Law was to be topic and framework for all the conversations of the people.

God also intended that He people should learn the Law by watching as it was put to use. By instructing the elders and judges of each community to meet in the gates of the city, God ensured that people could listen in on their deliberations and follow their conversations as they sought to determine the proper application of His Law to particular situations (cf. Ruth 4).

Every seven years all the people were to be assembled in order to hear the reading of the Law of God in its entirety (Deut. 31.9-13). Since there would be few written copies of the Law available, this was a way of ensuring that all the people were instructed in all the Law, at least once every seven years. Parents, Levites, and priests, teaching at the local level, might also be reminded during these readings of areas where their own instruction of the people in their charge might need some shoring-up or balance.

God was determined that His Law, in all its complex details, should be embedded in the minds of His people, for by this Law they would know Him, be reminded of His promises, and receive the instruction they required in order to love God and their neighbors as He intended. Once settled in the land, the people would be reminded of the high and central significance of the Law of God by observing their king as he wrote out his own copy of the Law and read from it daily (Deut.17.18-20).

The Law of God thus comprised a body of instruction, a curriculum for covenant life, in which all the people of God were to be instructed. Holiness, righteousness, goodness, justice, and love would obtain in Israel as long as the people knew their God, sought His promises, and walked in His ways. Imprinting the Law of God on their minds was crucial to realizing each of these objectives.

For a practical guide to the role of God’s Law in the life of faith, get The Ground for Christian Ethics by going to www.ailbe.org and click on our Book Store.