“Our Heavenly Father Blesses Us through His Word”
(Deuteronomy 11:18-21, 26-28 – Pentecost 2 – June 7, 2026)
Deuteronomy 11:18-21, 26-28 – 18“Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 19You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 20And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, 21that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land of which the LORD swore to your fathers to give them, like the days of the heavens above the earth…. 26“Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse: 27the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you today; 28and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside from the way which I command you today, to go after other gods which you have not known.”
Dear Redeemed children of our heavenly Father through faith in His Son, Jesus Christ:
Parents like to pass on knowledge and wisdom to their children. We do it by word and example. At a young age, a mother may teach her child how to read, or a father may teach his child how to ride a bicycle. In later years, parents may pass on wisdom to their children about how to live on their own and make it in this world.
What greater knowledge and wisdom can we pass on to our children than God’s Word? In it there is wisdom – not only for this life, but for eternal life. Let us see how “Our Heavenly Father Blesses Us through His Word”: 1) Guiding us and our children in daily life, 2) Comforting us and our children with eternal life.
1) Guiding us and our children in daily life
In the context, God was emphasizing through Moses how He wanted to guide His people every day by His Word, to keep them in His way and truth. How important this daily guidance would be, as God brought His people into the Promised Land. After 40 years in the wilderness, God was about to settle them in Canaan. He would drive out pagan nations before them and give them this land, flowing with milk and honey. But God also knew the many temptations and evils around them. They would be surrounded by nations that served false gods and wickedness. Through Moses, God reminded Israel that He had chosen them out of all the peoples on the earth, not because they deserved it, but by His gift of grace. Therefore, they were to keep His covenant and laws with hearts of faith. As long as they did, they would keep their privileged place as a holy nation, set apart to God among all the nations. But if they did not keep His covenant, if they forgot the Lord and His Commandments and joined the pagan nations around them in serving false gods and sin, they would forfeit God’s gift in the Promised Land.
Since God wanted what was best for them, He said: “Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates” (vs. 18-20).
As God’s people lived among the many temptations and evils of the world, He wanted them to go about their lives so focused on His Word that it would be like it was hanging between their eyes. He wanted them so conscientiously to apply His Word in all that they did, that it would be like it was attached to their hands. He wanted it to be before them in their home and as they went out in public. This would only happen as they treasured His Word in their heart and soul and applied it in their lives by faith. Then it would bring blessings to them and their children.
As God’s people today, we are surrounded by an unbelieving world. There are temptations on every hand to depart from the Word of God and embrace falsehood. The world wants us to accept other religions and philosophies as having equal claim to truth. The world wants us to coexist with Satan’s lies and accept them. We and our children are bombarded with new ideas of morality, right and wrong. The world wants us to tolerate and accept sinful lifestyles as God-pleasing.
Just as a loving father protects his children by warning them of dangers in the world, our heavenly Father speaks to us and our children in His Word, to guide us in the way of truth and protect us from evil. Since we are surrounded by temptation and evil every day, we need to meditate on His Word every day and let it guide us in all that we do.
God repeated this command in Ephesians 6:2-4: “Fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.” What more important calling is there for Christian parents than to share the Word of God with our children? It comes with His promise in Proverbs 22:6: “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.”
As a loving father seeks the good of his children in teaching them the right way to live, our heavenly Father wants to guide us in what is God-pleasing and good for us. His Word guides us in many issues of daily life. It guides us in matters of marriage and family, to pray for and look for a spouse with whom we agree in the faith, that we may share a most blessed Christ-centered marriage; and as God blesses us with children, we may bring them to baptism and continue teaching them His Word, that they may know the most important treasure of God’s gift of salvation and eternal life in Christ. God’s Word guides us in choosing friends, that we not join bad company who will lead us in paths away from Christ, but those with whom we can live our faith in truth. God’s Word guides us in employment, that we serve as to the Lord since it serves the highest good. God’s Word guides us in citizenship, that we live godly lives under government and among neighbors. God’s Word guides us in stewardship, that we use the strengths, abilities, and resources He gives us to His glory and for the good of others.
God’s Word also teaches us in regard to our place in the church. Whether or not He blesses us with children, we may be spiritual fathers or mothers – mentors to those who are younger in the faith. God’s Word teaches that we are the family of God by faith in Christ. As His family, our heavenly Father wants us to come together regularly in His house to encourage one another in the faith. Colossians 3:16 says: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.”
In this way, we share the highest wisdom of our heavenly Father with each other. What more important calling is there, as Christian parents, as the family of God in Christ, than to share His Word? Our heavenly Father wants to bless us through His Word by guiding us and our children for our good in daily life.
2) Comforting us and our children with eternal life
But above all, He wants to comfort us and our children with His promise of eternal life. What can be more important, as we live each day in this fallen world as sinners? Not only do we need the Law of God to show us the right way; we need His gracious Gospel and the daily assurance that He has saved us for eternal life.
How important that promise would be as God settled the Israelites in the Promised Land. Here, God set before the people a blessing and a curse. His Law said that if they applied their hearts and minds to His Word and Commandments: “your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land of which the LORD swore to your fathers to give them, like the days of the heavens above the earth” (vs. 21). But if they turned aside from the way He commanded and served other gods, they would be cursed.
The problem is, sinners cannot keep the covenant of the Law. In Israel’s history, the people often strayed in sin and served the false gods of pagan nations around them. Then they would feel God’s curse. He would discipline them by letting their enemies defeat them. In their desperate condition, in their captivity to sin, they would cry out to the Lord in repentance seeking His deliverance. Then He would graciously declare His Gospel, forgiving and restoring them, showing His unfailing love to them once again.
Isn’t this how our heavenly Father deals with us? Hebrews 12:9-11 reminds us: “We have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness.” When we turn aside to our own way in sin, when we join bad company, when we serve the false gods of the world instead of the true God, it brings a curse. Since our heavenly Father loves us, He cannot bear to see us stray. He admonishes and disciplines us under His Law; He calls us to repentance.
Then, He shows the true blessing of His Gospel. Our heavenly Father reminds us that, because He loves us so much, He sent His Son to the cross to be cursed in our place. Jesus took the punishment for all the ways we children have dishonored our parents and others in authority. Jesus suffered also for all the ways we parents have failed to teach our children the right way by word and example. Jesus died for all our sins and rose again. And for the sake of His Son, our heavenly Father declares that He fully forgives us. He counts us with the perfect life of Jesus.
An earthly father wants to give his children lasting blessings. To the best of his ability, he wants to leave them a good inheritance. Here, God showed the children of Israel that He wanted to multiply their days in the Promised Land “like the days of the heavens above the earth.” But above all, He has always drawn His children by faith to set their hearts on that lasting inheritance He is preparing for them in heaven.
So our heavenly Father comforts us and our children, each day, with His promise of eternal life. Whether our days in this world are multiplied for many years, or even if we should live only a few days in this world, we know that God extends our days eternally: “like the days of the heavens above the earth.” Therefore we say with1 Peter 1:3-4: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you.”
Truly, our heavenly Father blesses us in the highest way through His Word. What a blessing it is to be able pass on to our children, and to share with each other as the family of God in Christ, the wisdom of our heavenly Father – as He guides us daily in this life, and as He comfort us with eternal life!
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be. Amen.