God’s
Memorial
Examples of
Memorials
What was the
monument erected by Joshua declared
to be?
“Tell them that
the flow of the Jordan was cut off
before the ark of the covenant of the
Lord. When it crossed the Jordan, the
waters of the Jordan were cut off. These
stones are to be a memorial to the
people of Israel forever.”
Joshua 4:7.
What were these
stones to commemorate?
“He said to the
Israelites, “In the future when
your descendants ask their fathers,
‘what do these stones
mean?’ Tell them,
‘Israel crossed the Jordan River
on dry ground.” Verses
21,22.
Note – These
stones were to be a standing
memorial, or reminder, of
Israel’s coming dry-shod over
the Jordan.
What was the
Passover called?
‘This is a day
you are to commemorate; for the
generations to come you shall
celebrate it as a festival to the
Lord – a lasting
ordinance.” Exodus 12:14.
Note – This, the
Passover, was a periodical
memorial to be observed on the
fourteenth day of the first month of
each year, the day the Israelites
were delivered from Egyptian bondage,
and its celebration was to be, with
the seven days’ feast of
unleavened bread following and
connected to it, in commemoration of
that event. (See Exodus 13:3-9.)
God’s Creation
and Memorial
What has God
commanded men to observe in memory of
His work of creation?
“Remember the
Sabbath day by keeping it holy.
Six days you shall labor and do all
your work, but the seventh day is a
Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it
you shall not do any work, neither
you, nor your son nor daughter, nor
your manservant or maidservant, nor
your animals, nor the alien within
your gates. For in six days the Lord
made the heavens and the earth, the
sea, and all that is in them, but he
rested on the seventh day. Therefore
the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and
made it holy.” Exodus 20:8-11.
Of what was the
memorial to be a sign?
“Keep my Sabbaths
holy, that they may be a sign between
us. Then you will know that I am the
Lord your God.” Ezekiel 20:20.
How
long was the Sabbath to be a sign of
the true God?
“It will be a
sign between me and the Israelites
forever, for in six days the Lord
made the heavens and the earth, and
on the seventh day he abstained from
work and rested.” Exodus 31:17.
Note – It is
manifest that if the subject of the
Sabbath was to remember God as the
Creator, and the day had always been
faithfully kept, there would not be a
heathen or an idolater on the face of
the earth.
Memorial
of Deliverance and Redemption
What besides creation
were the people of Israel to remember
when they kept the Sabbath?
“Remember that
you were slaves in Egypt and that the
Lord your God brought you out of
there with a mighty hand and an
outstretched arm. Therefore God
has commanded you to observe the
Sabbath day.” Deuteronomy 5:15.
Note – The
recollection of their bondage and
oppressed condition in Egypt was to
be to the Israelites an additional
incentive for keeping the Sabbath in
the land of freedom. The Sabbath
therefore, besides being a memorial
of creation, was to be to them a
memorial of their deliverance from
bondage, and of the great power of
God as manifested in this
deliverance. And as Egypt stands as a
symbol of the condition of everyone
in the world under the slavery of
sin, so the Sabbath is to be kept by
every saved soul as a memorial of the
deliverance from this slavery by the
mighty power of God through Christ.
Of what else does God
say He gave the Sabbath to His people
to be a sign, or reminder?
“Also I gave them
my Sabbaths as a sign between us, so
they would know that I the Lord made
them holy.” Ezekiel 20:12.
Note –
Sanctification is a work of
redemption – of making holy
sinful or unholy beings. Like the
work of creation itself, this
requires creative power. (See Psalm
51:10; John 3:3,6; Ephesians 2:10.)
And as the Sabbath is the appropriate
sign, or memorial, of the creative
power of God, so it is also of
God’s re-creative power. This
will be one reason for the
saints’ keeping it throughout
eternity. It will remind them not
only of their creation and the
creation of the universe but also of
their redemption.
Through
whom do we have sanctification?
“It is because of
him that you are in Christ Jesus,
who has become the wisdom from God
– that is, our righteousness, holiness
and redemption.” 1 Corinthians
1:30.
Note – Then, as
the Sabbath is a sign, or memorial,
that it is Jehovah who sanctifies us,
and as Christ is the one through whom
the work of sanctification is
accomplished, the Sabbath is a sign,
or memorial, that the believer is
united with Christ. Through the
Sabbath, therefore, God designed that
the believer and Christ should be
very closely linked together.
God’s
Memorial in the Hereafter
How often will the
redeemed congregate to worship the
Lord?
“As the new
heavens ands the new earth that I
will make endure before me,”
declares the Lord, “so will your
name and descendants endure. From
one New Moon to another and from one
Sabbath to another, all mankind will
come and bow down before me,”
says the Lord. Isaiah 66:22,23.
Note – The
Sabbath, which is the memorial of
God’s creative power, will never
cease to exist. When the sinful state
of things shall give way to the
sinless new earth, the fact upon
which the Sabbath institution is
based will still remain; and those
who shall be permitted to live in the
new earth will still commemorate the
creative power of God, while singing
the song of Moses and the Lamb.
(Revelation 15:3. See Revelation
22:1,2.)
