Why is it important to teach our children to read instructions? Why do we spend the first ten years (or so) of a child's life emphasizing basic literacy skills, such as phonics, spelling, handwriting, and fluency in reading? Why should we expect that a child raised in a Torah-observant household would have a higher ability in reading than a child raised in a pagan home?

The fact that YHVH God has revealed Himself as the Word of God reveals how important words are. Not only is YHVH equal to the Word, but He used words to create the world -- which means that as humans, we are able to understand the creation around us by use of the written word. Most importantly, YHVH chose to reveal His instructions to us as words.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made" (John 1:1-3).

"So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Messiah" (Romans 10:17).

Think about this for a moment. YHVH is the Word.

YHVH is not a video. YHVH is not a podcast. YHVH is not oral tradition handed down from one generation to the next. No, He is the written Word.

It is true that YHVH's "invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made" (Romans 1:20).

We can learn much about YHVH from videos, television, DVD's, sermons, podcasts, and oral stories.

However, His instructions to us are written words. Let me show you:

"When Moses had finished writing the words of this law in a book to the very end..." (Deuteronomy 31:24).

"This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success" (Joshua 1:8).

In our curriculum, we want to emphasize literacy, or the ability to understand written words, to apply them to life, and to use language with proficiency in order to interact with the culture around us.