“12 Call them all together–men, women, children, and the foreigners living in your towns–so they may hear this Book of Instruction and learn to fear the LORD your God and carefully obey all the terms of these instructions. 13 Do this so that your children who have not known these instructions will hear them and will learn to fear the LORD your God. Do this as long as you live in the land you are crossing the Jordan to occupy.” – Deuteronomy 31:12-13 NLT
Two Great Lessons from Torah:
The present generation must teach the founding national texts to every generation, or they will cease to be a nation!
and
Yahweh God’s foundational Truths (the Book of the Covenants the OT) must be taught to every generation of Christian or Christianity will dissipate.
This last summer (2024) I chose to immerse myself in the Book of Deuteronomy.
As we celebrate Thanksgiving this year, we ought to be mindful of and grateful for the roots of our Constitutional Republic. By understanding the foundations of our Republic, we can be propelled to bring biblical righteousness through our daily behaviors and expressing our informed perspectives. With the victory of Donald Trump in the November election, it behooves us to use our freedoms and liberty to uphold the Founders of America’s biblically based form of government –a Constitutional Republic (Exodus 18:21), not a pure Democracy (Exodus 23:2).
Responsible freedom was also a value to the Apostle Peter.
“16 For you are free, yet you are God’s slaves, so don’t use your freedom as an excuse to do evil.” – 1 Peter 2:16 NLT
Freedom is defined as independence, the permission to do as one wants, the consent to do as you please. Freedoms are bestowed by man, and/or governments, and can be taken away from both. Under freedom, others can negate an individual’s rights anytime they can acquire enough military, political, or physical power to do so.
Liberty is given to us by God Almighty. Thomas Jefferson described liberty in the Declaration of Independence when he wrote that “all men are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable [unable to be taken away] rights.” Liberty like life, is the right endowed by the creator. It cannot be revoked. Liberty is part of you, just as are your mind, will, emotions, and spirit. Liberty provides for the protection of an individual’s rights, expressly because with it we have been endowed by our Creator with the capacity for self-government. Freedom is something that government grants; Liberty is something we own that the government cannot take away.
Our past leaders wrote frequently about freedom and liberty.
“God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the Gift of God?” – Thomas Jefferson
“There are more instances of the abridgment (curtailment of rights) of the freedom of the people, by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power, than by violent and sudden usurpations”. – James Madison
“Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.” – Thomas Paine
“Freedom has its life in the hearts, the actions, the spirit of men and so it must be daily earned and refreshed – else like a flower cut from its life-giving roots, it will wither and die.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower
A Brief Explanation of The Deuteronomy Passage
Now that Moses has finished expounding his teaching (the book of Deuteronomy), which he has imparted orally until now, he writes it down and arranges it for its regular public reading so that the people may be reminded regularly of its contents and future generations may learn it. These were steps of far-reaching significance! The writing of the teaching was part of the process that eventually led to the creation of the Sacred Scripture—that is, the Bible—which is the heart of Judaism and Christianity.
To this day, the complete Torah is read through in its entirety over the course of a year during the Sabbath morning service. A Jew who regularly attends weekend services (brief portions of the Torah are also read on Mondays and Thursdays), as well as the Sabbath services, will never go longer than three days without hearing verses from the Torah. If, throughout their history, Americans had heard sections of the US Constitution read aloud each week, this practice would have greatly helped preserve the American people as one people with shared ideals.
To Repeat …
The Torah’s great lessons are to teach the nation’s founding texts to every generation or you will cease to be a nation.
And
Yahweh God’s foundational Truths (the Book of the Covenants the OT) must be taught to every generation of Christian or Christianity will dissipate.
Applications
- Please read this article out loud at the end of your Thanksgiving dinner with your family and friends.
- What insights and actions do you glean from the Deuteronomy passage?
- Discuss one or more of my quotes from the past leaders of America. Seek to bring everybody into the discussion. Help young children to understand the concepts. This could be a really fun and substantive time together.
- From the Founders Bible, select several people to read out loud portions of the article titled: How Now Shall We Live, pages 179-190.
We have read portions of this article together as a family for the last five years. One of our grandchildren said to me two months ago, “Papa I hope we read portions of that article again.”
- Purchase a copy of the Constitution and read it out loud three times a year.
- If you purchase the Founders Bible with general editor David Barton and read a selected number of the 210 articles you will have a firm foundation regarding our biblical national roots and our historical texts that define our Constitutional Republic.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Dale