Bird's-eye view
This passage is a divine anticipation of a living room catechism session. Moses, speaking for God, is not just giving laws; he is providing the very script for how those laws are to be passed down through the generations. The scene is set for some future time when a son, growing up in the blessings of the Promised Land, looks at the rhythms and requirements of the covenant community and asks the fundamental question: "Why?" The answer God provides is not a dry, abstract legal treatise. It is a story. It is the gospel story in its Old Covenant form. The entire meaning of the law is anchored in the historical reality of redemption. We obey, not in order to be saved, but because we have been saved. The foundation of all covenantal faithfulness is God's mighty act of deliverance from bondage. This passage teaches us that the law is not a ladder to climb up to God, but rather the joyful path of gratitude for a people God has already brought down to Himself. It is a story of grace from beginning to end, a story that defines our identity, fuels our obedience, and secures our future.
The structure is straightforward: a question from the next generation, followed by a prescribed, four-part answer. The answer begins with their past state of slavery, moves to God's powerful intervention, clarifies the purpose of that deliverance (to bring them into their inheritance), and concludes with the reason for the statutes, for their own good and survival. The final verse on righteousness is crucial, tying their careful obedience not to a merit-based system of salvation, but to the appropriate, grateful response of a people already in a covenant relationship with Yahweh. It is their vocational righteousness, their covenant-keeping faithfulness before the God who has already saved them.
Outline
- 1. The Catechism of Redemption (Deut 6:20-25)
- a. The Inquisitive Son (Deut 6:20)
- b. The Gospel Answer (Deut 6:21-25)
- i. The Prequel: Bondage in Egypt (Deut 6:21a)
- ii. The Deliverance: God's Mighty Hand (Deut 6:21b-22)
- iii. The Purpose: Brought Out to Be Brought In (Deut 6:23)
- iv. The Response: Obedience for Our Good (Deut 6:24)
- v. The Result: Covenantal Righteousness (Deut 6:25)
Context In Deuteronomy
This passage sits within the larger section of Deuteronomy where Moses is delivering his final sermons to the generation of Israelites poised to enter the Promised Land. Chapter 6 begins with the Shema, the central confession of Israel's faith: "Hear, O Israel: Yahweh our God, Yahweh is one," followed by the command to love Him with all one's heart, soul, and might. The instruction to teach these things diligently to their children is paramount (Deut. 6:7). The verses that follow our passage warn against forgetting Yahweh in the midst of prosperity. Therefore, this catechism section (vv. 20-25) is not an isolated thought but the practical application of the preceding commands. How do you teach your children to love God? How do you ensure they don't forget Him? You do it by grounding every statute and ordinance in the grand story of His redemptive work. This is the pedagogical heart of the covenant renewal. The law is not presented as a set of arbitrary rules but as the family code for the children of the great King who rescued them.
Key Issues
- Generational Faithfulness
- The Role of Story in Catechesis
- Law and Gospel in the Old Covenant
- The Meaning of "Righteousness" by Obedience
- The Father's Role as Theologian of the Home
- Redemption as the Foundation for Ethics
The Story-Shaped Law
Modern man, and particularly the modern Christian, has a bad habit of trying to understand ethics in a vacuum. We want principles, axioms, and rules that can be applied universally without any reference to a particular history. But that is not how the Bible works. Biblical ethics are always rooted in a story. The commands of God are never presented as a free-floating list of dos and don'ts. They are always the stipulations of a covenant that has been established by God's gracious, historical actions.
This passage is exhibit A. The son asks about the meaning of the rules, and the father is commanded to answer with a story. "What do these laws mean?" "Let me tell you what God did for us." This is foundational. You cannot understand the law until you understand the gospel of the Exodus. You cannot grasp the "what" of obedience until you have been gripped by the "who" and "why" of redemption. The law is the constitution for the liberated nation. The Ten Commandments don't begin with "Thou shalt not." They begin with "I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery" (Ex. 20:2). The deliverance provides the context and the motivation for all the commands that follow. Our obedience is not a grim payment on a debt, but a joyful dance of gratitude for a debt that has been cancelled.
Verse by Verse Commentary
20 “When your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What do the testimonies and the statutes and the judgments mean which Yahweh our God commanded you?’
The scene is set in the future, in time to come. This is a forward-looking faith, concerned with covenant succession. God anticipates and welcomes the questions of children. A healthy faith is an inquisitive faith. The son is not asking a rebellious question, but an intelligent one. He sees the shape of the life his family lives, the feasts, the Sabbaths, the dietary rules, the civil laws, and he wants to know the rationale. He asks about the testimonies and the statutes and the judgments. These terms cover the whole law: testimonies are stipulations that bear witness to God's character and actions; statutes are the engraved, permanent ordinances; and judgments are the case-law applications. The son sees a life ordered by God's commands and asks, "What is the point of all this?" This is the best question a son can ask his father, and God Himself provides the answer key.
21 then you shall say to your son, ‘We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, and Yahweh brought us from Egypt with a strong hand.
The answer begins not with a rule, but with a testimony. The first word of the catechism is about their former identity: We were slaves. This is the doctrine of original sin in narrative form. We were in bondage, helpless, and under the thumb of a cruel tyrant. This is the condition of every man apart from grace. But that is not where the story ends. The second clause is the gospel: and Yahweh brought us from Egypt with a strong hand. Salvation is an act of God. It is not a cooperative venture. We did not negotiate our way out or climb our way out. God intervened with His strong hand, a phrase emphasizing His sovereign power and irresistible might. The starting point for understanding any of God's commands is to know, deep in your bones, that you are a rescued slave.
22 Moreover, Yahweh showed great and calamitous signs and wonders before our eyes against Egypt, Pharaoh, and all his household;
This deliverance was not a quiet, behind-the-scenes affair. It was a public spectacle of divine power. God's salvation was accompanied by judgment on His enemies. He showed great and calamitous signs and wonders. The plagues were not just unfortunate natural disasters; they were targeted, covenantal blows against the gods of Egypt and the pretensions of its king. And this happened before our eyes. This is eyewitness testimony. The faith is historical. It is based on verifiable events in space and time. The father is to tell his son, "We saw this. We were there." This is how faith is passed down, not as a set of abstract ideas, but as a true story about the mighty acts of God in history.
23 But He brought us out from there in order to bring us in, to give us the land which He had sworn to our fathers.’
Here we have the purpose of redemption. God's salvation is never just a "from," it is always a "to." He brought us out in order to bring us in. This is the positive content of the gospel. He did not rescue Israel from Egypt only to leave them wandering in the desert forever. He rescued them from bondage in order to bring them into the glorious liberty of their inheritance. The goal was the land which He had sworn to our fathers. This connects their immediate story to the older story of the patriarchs. God is a promise-keeping God. The Exodus was the fulfillment of the covenant He made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Our salvation in Christ is the same. We are saved from the penalty of sin in order to be brought into the kingdom of His beloved Son, to inherit a new heavens and a new earth.
24 So Yahweh commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear Yahweh our God for our good all our days and for our survival, as it is today.
Notice the crucial word So, or "Therefore." The commands are the result, not the cause, of the redemption. Because God did all that, He commanded us to live this way. And what is the purpose of this commanded life? First, to fear Yahweh our God, which means to live in reverent, loving awe of this great Redeemer. Second, it is for our good all our days. This is a vital point. God's law is not arbitrary. It is not given to restrict our happiness but to secure it. The commandments are the manufacturer's instructions for human flourishing. Obedience is not a burden, but a blessing. It is for our good, and for our survival. Disobedience leads to death and destruction; obedience leads to life, as it is today. Their very existence as a people in that moment was proof of God's goodness in giving the law.
25 And it will be righteousness for us if we are careful to do all this commandment before Yahweh our God, just as He commanded us.
This is one of those verses that gets twisted by those who want to find a religion of works-righteousness in the Old Testament. But read in context, it is nothing of the sort. This is not talking about the forensic righteousness that justifies a sinner before God, that is by faith alone. Rather, this is talking about covenantal righteousness. It is the faithfulness of a people who are already in a right relationship with God by grace. When Israel is careful to do all this commandment, they are living out their identity as the redeemed people of God. This obedience will be righteousness for us in the sense that it is the evidence of our covenant status. It is our vindication, our proof of loyalty, before the face of our God. It is not how we get saved, but how saved people live. When we walk in the ways He has commanded, we are demonstrating that we are indeed His people, and He is indeed our God. This is the righteousness of a faithful son, not the righteousness of a hired servant trying to earn his wages.
Application
The application of this passage for Christian parents today is direct and potent. When your children ask you why they have to go to church, why they have to memorize Scripture, why there are rules about what they can watch or how they should speak, your first answer should not be "Because I said so," or even "Because the Bible says so." Your first answer should be the gospel. "Let me tell you a story. We were slaves to sin, dead in our trespasses, with no hope in the world. But God, in His great mercy, sent His Son Jesus to die on a cross for our sins. He rescued us from that bondage with a strong hand, by the power of His resurrection. He brought us out of the kingdom of darkness in order to bring us into His marvelous light."
All our instruction, all our discipline, all our family worship must be drenched in this redemptive story. Our children need to understand that the Christian life is not a joyless slog through a rulebook. It is the joyful response of a liberated people. The commands of God are not for our harm, but for our good always. They are the guardrails that keep us on the path of life. And our obedience is not how we earn God's love, but how we enjoy it. It is our "righteousness" in this sense, it is the right and fitting way for a child of the King to live. We must be fathers who are ready with the gospel story, because it is the only story that can turn the heart of a child from seeing the law as a burden to seeing it as a glorious gift from a redeeming Father.