How can we Help People to Remember?
In England each year from October, there is a flurry of artificial poppies being distributed for cash. The purported aim is that ‘We should not Forget’, that is forget the price paid by soldiers and other that we can live in a free democratic society. The more cynical may think it is a means of raising money for support of ex-servicemen more than remembering the past.
Today there is more emphasis in the media and in advertisements on remembering Valentines Day, Mothers Day and the need for presents at Christmas time than to encourage people to remember the significance of what has happened in the past. We do erect occasional statues to commemorate famous people and their actions. Clearly there was an intention that festivals such as Easter and Christmas were there to remind people of vital facts but the facts have largely been forgotten or at least overtaken by the activities themselves.
Symbols in the Old Testament
Symbols that help people remember important facts are everywhere in the Old Testament. Rainbows were to remind Noah of God’s covenant with all people’s of the earth that he will never repeat the great flood and ‘destroy all life.’ How many people today, looking at a rainbow think of God’s promise in Genesis 9?
Tabernacle symbolism
The tabernacle was a giant symbol with sub symbols within. The Holy of Holies was perfect cube, reminding people of God’s perfection. The curtain that separated the Holy Place with its table for the shewbread and the seven lamped lamp stand was to be erected to prevent anyone from entering the Holy of Holies where the Lord god’s Ark of the Covenant was placed. When Moses was given his instructions over the manufacture of this curtain he stipulated,
“Make a curtain of of blue, scarlet and purple yarn and finely twisted linen, with cherubim woven into it by a skilled worker.” Exodus 26:31
This was to remind God’s people that they had been excluded from God’s presence because of the choice made by their forebears, Adam and Eve. God had then placed shrubs armed with swords to the entrance to the Garden of Eden to portray the fact that mankind had no right to be admitted to God’s presence. Only the High Priest could enter the holy of Holies once a year and he had to have a rope tied around him so that he could be retrieved if he collapsed inside the Holy of Holies. The High Priest was a symbol for God’s Messiah who would gain the right of permeant admission to heaven both for himself and those who belong to him.
God’s people have always been obliged to live as God wants, for his glory.
“Hear now, O Israel, the decrees and laws I am about to teach you. Follow them that you may live and may go in and take possession of the land that the LORD, the God of your fathers is giving you. Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the LORD your God that |i give you.” Deuteronomy 4:1-2
Much stress was laid on passing on these teachings. This would require great skill and determination.
“Only be careful and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them. Remember . . .” Deuteronomy 4:9-10
One way they were to remember these priorities was that one day in seven had to be dedicated to remembering the Lord. In the Ten Commandments, the first three refers to the relationship with God himself, then comes one means to help them remember this.
“Observe the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy, as the LORD your God has commanded you. Six days you shall labour and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.” Deuteronomy 5:12
Teaching God’s word was vital and keeps being repeated.
“These are the commands, decrease and laws the LORD your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess, so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the LORD your God as long as you live.” Deuteronomy 6:1-2
Do note that it was not by keeping the 613 commands in the Old Testament that was the means of pleasing God. It was the relationship with him that mattered, but this was demonstrated by their doing what God wanted. Jesus also emphasised this,
“If you’ve me you will obey what I command.” John 14:15
That God wants a loving relayionship with him that is demonstrated by obedience is made clear by the ‘Shema’, the Jewish confession of faith recited daily by serious Jews:
“Hear, O Israel: The LORD your God is one. Lovethe 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 been your hearts.” Deuteronomy 6:4-6
Helping others to learn and remember what God has taught in his word is an absolute priority for all God’s people. Directions are given how this should be done.
“Impress them on 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” Deuteronomy 6:7
In other words, Bible teaching must be a central feature of every Christians daily family life.
“Talk about them when you sit at at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.” Deuteronomy 6:8
Everything God’s people do with their hands or even think about should be subject to God’s word. All that goes on in our homes and towns should be subject to God’s word. Surely this is what is behind the following directions,
Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them to your foreheads. Write them on the door-frames of your houses and on your gates.”
Religious Jews often affix a ‘mezuzah’ (Lit. “doorpost”) to their front doorpost to indicate that the home is Jewish and to comply with this law. A mezuzah contains a small parchment scroll upon which the Hebrew words of the Shema are handwritten by a scribe. It is all to easy to formalise these concepts and forget them in practice.
What a disaster it is when Christian parents and churches neglect these requirements to prioritise the teaching of God’s word. We must be constantly teaching our children and grandchildren the word of God. We must be discussing it and applying its teaching to every aspect of life. God’s people have always been a ‘people of the book.’
It is so easy with the businesss and busyness of life for this priority to be overlooked, yet the Bible is clear that even then,
“ . . . be careful that you do not forget the LORD, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.” Deuteronomy 6:12
There is no substitute for learning and meditating on God’s word. Moses started this section with these words,
“Hear, O Israel, the decrees and laws I declare in your hearing today. Learn them and be sure to follow them.” Deuteronomy 6:1
Tassles
Jewish people wear a tassled garment or ‘tallit’ as reminders. This can refer either to the "tallit katan", an item that can be worn over or under clothing, or to the "tallit gadol", a Jewish prayer shawl worn over the outer clothes during the morning prayers. Tassles at the four corners characterise the dress of Jews as this was commanded in the Mosaic Law.
“The LORD said to Moses, ‘Speak to the Israelites and say to them,’Throughout the generations to come you are to make tassels on the corners of off your garments, with a blue cord in each tassel. You will have these tassels to look at and so you will remember all the commands of the LORD, that you nay obey them and not prostitute yourselves by chasing after the lusts of your own hearts and eyes. Then you will remember to obey all my commands and you will be consecrated to your God.’’” Numbers 15:37-40
These tassels called ‘tzitzit’ [tsiˈtsit] have great meaning. They are the specially knotted ritual tassles, wornsince Moses time by Israelites and still by observant Jews. They were given as reminders that God’s people should constantly remember that they should always live as God wants.
Festivals
Another means of helping God’s people to remember their Lord were the regular annual religious festivals that all of God’s people were obligated to be involved in. These were commanded by God, which served as reminders of their history, identity, and relationship with Him. These are decribed in Leviticus 23 and Deuteronomy 16.
1. Passover (Pesach) & Feast of Unleavened Bread – Remembering the Exodus from Egypt, 14th day of Nisan (March-April). The Jews eat unleavened bread for seven days to remember the haste in leaving Egypt.
2. Feast of Weeks (Shavuot / Pentecost) – Celebrating the Giving of the Law & Firstfruits. This occurred 50 days after Passover. They offered the firstfruits of the wheat harvest; later associated with the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai.
3. Feast of Trumpets (Rosh Hashanah) – A Call to Repentance & New Year, This was on the 1st day of Tishrei (September-October) and included the blowing the shofar (ram’s horn) as a call to repentance.
4. Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) – National Cleansing from Sin on the 10th day of Tishrei and involved
fasting, prayer, and animal sacrifice for the atonement of sins.
5. Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot) – Remembering Israel’s time in the Wilderness on the 15th-21st day of Tishrei
The Jews lived in temporary booths (sukkot) to recall their ancestors’ journey through the wilderness.
Added to this were two other national festivals
Purim – Celebrating the Jews deliverance from Haman’s plot described in Esther 9:20-32
Hanukkah () – Celebrating the rededication of the Temple during the Maccabean revolt against the Seleucid occupation described in the apocryphal books of Maccabess .and in John 10:22-23
These annual festivals reinforced Jewish identity and God’s faithfulness.
In the Christian era there also used to be meaningful festivals that reminded people of all God has done for them. It is surely a tragedy that festivals such as Easter, Christmas, Whitsun and the like have largely last their Christian significance. Is there not some way that church leaders can restore the value of these festivals.
The passover has become the Lord’s supper for Christians. It is a major way that the death of Jesus is comemorated. It does not have a mystical significance, receiving the elements cannot save us, only a personal faith in Jesus can do that.. We remember that through the ‘corpse’ and blood of Jesus, through his traumatic death, the penalty for our sin has been taken off us and taken by God himself. Receiving communion cannot save us but it does remind us that we are utterly dependant on the Lord Jesus death for our salvation.
Parents responsibility
We have seen how the Lord expects parents to remind their children of all that God has done for them. It is of immense value for the passing on of the faith to strongly encourage family bible times.
The prophet Joel recognised the significance of tragedy and encouraged parents to discuss what effect a devastating invasion by locusts should have on people by bringing them back to rely on god. He said at the beginning of this short book:
“Has anything like this ever happened in your days or in the days of your ancestors?
Tell it to your children, and let your children tell it to their children, and their children to the next generation.” Joel 1:2-3
Chuck Colson was an American who was in President Nixon’s inner Cabinet. He was heavily involved in the Watergate scandal and went to prison for the part he played. But he became a Christian at this time and since his release has spent his life helping others sort themselves and their families out. He set up the ‘Prison Fellowship’ to help those who had been and were in prison.
When visiting the United Kingdom, Chuck was invited to Buckingham Palace. Prince Philip asked him,
“What can be done about crime here in England?”
Chuck replied,
“Send more children to Sunday School”.
Prince Philip thought he was joking but Colson told the Prince of a study by a sociologist, Christy Davies, which found that, in the first half of the 1800s, British society was marked by high levels of crime and violence which dropped dramatically in the late 1800s and early 1900s. What had changed an entire nation’s character?
Throughout the nineteenth century attendance at Sunday Schools rose steadily till, by 1888 a full 75 per cent of children in England were enrolled. Since then attendance has fallen off with a corresponding increase in crime and disorder. So Chuck summarised to the ~Prince,
“If we fill the Sunday Schools we can change hearts and restore society.”
Out of love for our children we must teach and train them to become ‘wise’ people. One of King Solomon’s early proverbs reads,
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.’
Our society desperately needs our young people to have the opportunity of discovering whether the Christian faith is true and why all people must get right with God and live as he wishes.
The reason people need to become followers of the Lord Jesus is because of who he is and everyone needs to know the reliability of the evidence for this claim and all that Jesus has done and is doing for us - ‘lest we forget’ is importance, a failure to remember is a great danger to our communities.
The most frequent commandment
Robert Atwell, who later became Bishop of Exeter once asked a congregation:
“What is the most frequent commandment in the Bible?”
Some suggested ‘Love God’, others ‘Love your neighbour’ and other ‘obey God’. To everybody’s surprise it is ‘Remember’. This word comes about 130 times in the New International Version and around 160 times in the English Standard Version. The phrase ‘Do not forget’ comes a further 19 times in the New International Version. These verses are timeless:
“Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them fade from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them.” Deuteronomy 4:9
“. . . be careful that you do not forget the Lord, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.” Deuteronomy 6:12
This is why Jesus said,
“Do this in remembrance of me.” Luke 22:19
Just as the Passover feast was instituted so the Jews would never forget what God did to free his people from slavery in Egypt, so the Christian equivalent, the Lord’s supper is to remind us that our salvation is utterly dependant on what Jesus has done to free us from sin and so allow us to become members of his kingdom.
If we forget who Jesus is and all he has done for us we are in real peril. In Robert Atwell’s address he went on to say:
“Memory is the matrix of identity which is why Alzheimer’s is so terrifying. When memory fragments the soul is lost. We no longer know who others are or who we are. As the wife of a former colleague said to me of her demented husband, ‘The light is still on but there’s no-one at home.”
Authentic Christian ministry is a ministry of remembrance. We remember the completed word of God and the completed work of Christ. Both lie in the past. We live in the light of what God has done for us. In our homes, in our pulpits and in Communion services we look back to hear God’s timeless word for today and to rest in Christ’s once for all sacrifice. These give us access into the Father’s presence both now and in eternity.
