The Importance of Memorials

In our society we try to remember things. We hold memorials to remember our loved ones who have gone on, we take pictures and post them to social media to remember special moments of our life, and we buy souvenirs to remember the vacations and trips that we go on. This helps us as we often are creatures who easily forget things.

In Scripture, God also gives His people memorials. After the flood, Noah offered a sacrifice to God and then God says, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done” (Genesis 8:21b, ESV). Later, expounding on the covenant, “God said, ‘This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth’” (Genesis 9:12-13). Not only does God make a covenant with mankind but also gives us a symbol to remember that covenant. He uses a bow, which to word can also mean ‘war bow.’ This symbolizes God lifting His weapon in truce to humanity, not to destroy the whole of it again with water. 

Another example of God giving His people a memorial to remember an event is in Joshua 4. In the chapter prior, Joshua, by the ability of the power of God, splits the Jordan river to cross into the promised land, just as Moses, by the ability of the power of God, splits the Red Sea to free God’s people out of Egypt. Then, God commands the people through Joshua to, “And Joshua said to them, ‘Pass on before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of the Jordan, and take up each of you a stone upon his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the people of Israel, that this may be a sign among you. When your children ask in time to come, ‘What do those stones mean to you?’ then you shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it passed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. So these stones shall be to the people of Israel a memorial forever’” (Joshua 4:5-7). These stones were set in place so that the future generations of Israel would remember the great work that God did for them.

Then, as Christians, we have an everlasting reminder of the work that took place on the rugged cross of Jesus the Christ. “And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “‘This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood’” (Luke 22:19-20). Jesus Himself sets up a practice that all Christians are to partake in, the Lord Supper. When we partake in this, we remember Christ’s sacrifice and shed blood on the cross that was shed for our sins and to give us new life. 

As we go about our Christian walk, it is vital that we heed the same warning that God gave to His people in Deuteronomy 8:11-20 to not forget the Lord in our comfortable lives as they might, and did, in their comfortable lives in the promised land. When we begin to forget, we can be reminded every week by the Lord Supper, and when our children and grandchildren ask us why we eat unleavened bread and drink the fruit of the vine, we can tell them of the glorious work that Christ did for us.