THE CHILDREN'S BIBLE

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with
all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon
your hearts. Impress upon / diligently teach them to your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up... Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates - Deut. 6:5-7,9.

Answer this question: Why was there so much emphasis placed upon
parents specifically and those in authority generally to teach... to diligently teach... to impress upon the minds and hearts of children the Holy
Scriptures? Think. “You’ll never get it, but try anyway.” Take a moment and think. “Good try, but that’s not what I’m looking for.” Why was it clearly the responsibility of the adults to see to it that the children were taught the laws and principals of God’s Word Take a guess. Are you ready for the answer? It’s really simple. There was not one child in Deuteronomy chapter 6 that could read! Think of that for a moment... Think some more... Not one child could read.

You ask, “So what?” Well, my friend, if those boys and girls were not taught the Scriptures correctly and accurately both in words and in actions by their parents, they would never have the opportunity to learn it. As a matter of fact, there are only two times in the entire Bible that the written word addresses children and both times are found in Paul's epistles and they both say the same thing: Children, obey your parents. - Eph. 6:1, Col. 3:20. That is the only thing children are commanded to do. The Children’s Bible is basically 4 words in length. Everything else... EVERYTHING else they are to hear, see, and learn from Mom and Dad and Grandma and Grandpa - Deut. 4:9

Our only conclusion can be: The Bible was not necessarily meant to be read as much as it was meant to be lived and demonstrated. Certainly, I would never suggest that children not be allowed to read the Bible. But I would suggest that maybe, that is not how God would have intended for them to learn it. Up until a few hundred years ago, children learned the Scripture from the adults in their lives. Giving the Bible to children and expecting them to be successful adults is the same thing as giving someone the flight manual to an airplane and expecting them to be successful pilots. Some things in life are best learned under the careful tutelage of someone both knowledgeable and experienced in the craft. We have told boys and girls to read their Bibles while we fail to live its principals before their eyes and then we wonder why they fail to get it. We have perhaps done them the worst disservice of all by giving them the gift of reading without likewise giving them the gift of our example.