Thursday, May 28, 2009

Hannah's Memorial Day Report

"It shall be as a sign to you on your hand and as a memorial between your eyes, that the LORD’s law may be in your mouth; for with a strong hand the LORD has brought you out of Egypt.'"
Exodus 13:9
Here is the report that Hannah gave on Memorial Day:


Memorials

Definition of memorial:

“That which preserves the memory of something…the Lord’s Supper is a memorial of the death and sufferings of Christ.” Webster’s 1928 Dictionary

“A monument, statue, holiday, or ritual that serves as a reminder or remembrance of a person or an event.” Bible Dictionary

There are two different kinds of memorials; there are physical memorials and spiritual memorials.

A physical memorial would be like when Joshua and the children of Israel crossed the Jordon River and set up a pile of 12 stones to remember what the Lord had done. It was so that when their children’s children saw the stones they would ask why they were there then the parents would be able to tell their children the marvelous work of the Lord God of Israel.

A spiritual memorial would be like the day you accepted Christ as Savior or the time you prayed to God and He heard you and answered you. An example would be when Cornelius cried out to God to show Him more of Himself and then the Lord sent Peter to him who then shared the Gospel of Christ with him and household and they all accepted Jesus as Savior.

Memorials in the Bible:

Spritual Memorials

1. The Passover- this was a time that the Jews remembered their divine deliverance from Egypt which is found in Exodus 12:11,14

2. Feast of Purim- this feast was a time for the Jews to remember another miraculous deliverance from total annihilation while in the country of Persia, now the country of Iran, during the reign of King Ahasuerus and the noble queen, Queen Esther. This “memorial” is found in Esther 9:26-28

3. The Sabbath-this was a time for the Jews to remember that they were a chosen pople, holy unto the lord. Also it was a time to rest and remember that the “earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof.” See Exodus 20:8-11.

4. Resurrection Sunday- this is a day that Christians remember that their Savior, Jesus Christ, arose from the dead and is alive forevermore. See Mark 16:6.

5. Judgment Day- the Day when all flesh will stand before God and will be judged and if their name is not written in the Book of Life they will be cast into the Lake of Fire. See Revelation 20:11-15


Physical Memorials:

1. Korah’s Rebellion: When Korah rebelled against Moses and Aaron the Lord told Korah and his company to take a censor, put incense in it, than, whosever incense the Lord regarded would be the chosen. Well, as the story goes, Korah, his family, and some others, died and the censor’s where taken, at the command of the Lord, and hammered into a sheet that was then put on the altar “to be a memorial to the children of Israel that no outsider, who is not a descendant of Aaron, should come near to offer incense before the Lord.” Numbers 16:40

2. Aarons Rod: The Lord told Moses to take the rods of the 12 leaders of Israel and put them in the tabernacle and “it shall be that the rod of the man whom I choose will blossom;” Numbers 17:5a. Aaron’s rod was the one that blossomed and proved the Lord had chosen him and his house for the royal priesthood. “Bring Aaron’s rod back before the Testimony, to be kept as a sign against the rebels, that you may put their complaints away from Me, lest they die.” Numbers 17:10

3. The Fiery Serpents: The Children of Israel were complaining again and the Lord sent fiery serpents among them to poison them so they would die. In order to save the people they had to look up at a bronze serpent that Moses had made at the Lord’s command. See Numbers 21:9.

I’m sure there are plenty more that I did not record, but you’ll have to search the Scriptures themselves to find them.

A memorial in the Bible was to be a time of solemn remembrance of what either the Lord had done or to remember what they had done and the consequences thereof. A memorial is to be long lasting. In Proverbs it repeatedly states not to remove the ancient landmarks, which are a type of memorial.

If memorials are special in God’s heart, shouldn’t they be in ours?

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