What Was it I Was Supposed to Remember?
“Would you please remind me to . . . ?”
Who hasn’t made that request of a friend or family member? Or come home from the store with purchases other than the one(s) for which we went shopping?
Between two major biblical holidays (Pesach/Passover and Shavuot/Feast of Weeks) Israel’s calendar includes two solemn days of remembrance: Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day, which fell on April 21 this year) and Yom HaZikaron (Memorial Day follows one week later).
Israel’s Chief Rabbinate conducted the first Holocaust Remembrance Day in December 1949 to honor the six million Jewish victims of the Nazis. By 1959 the Knesset (Parliament) established the date on which the Shoah would be remembered annually.
Each year special ceremonies are held at Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust Memorial Museum in Jerusalem. The names of victims are read aloud[1] as a way of keeping their memory alive.
At 10AM sirens sound throughout the country and for two minutes everything comes to a standstill. I remember experiencing this when we lived in Jerusalem. Drivers halted along the roads and stood beside their vehicles; pedestrians (including me) stopped walking. It is a deeply moving demonstration of national mourning.
The week following (April 28 this year) is Israel’s Memorial Day. “The Day of Remembrance” honors those who have given their lives to defend the State of Israel. Since days begin in the evening on the Hebrew calendar, at 8:00 on the 27th a one-minute siren blast echoes across the land. Memorial services are conducted, candles lit in memory of the fallen, and ceremonies held at military cemeteries.
The national flag, which has flown all day at half-mast for the Day of Remembrance, is raised to full height at sunset. Israel’s Independence Day celebrations now begin! Like throwing a light switch, mourning turns to joy as holiday festivities break out. [Normally streets would be filled with families greeting one another. This year the “social distancing” and lockdown of businesses due to COVID-19 necessitated virtual partying.]
Memories are important to us humans. It’s why we have scrapbooks and photo albums. We circle certain dates on our calendars. We retell old stories.
The verb form of remembering is found 187 times in the Tanakh (Old Testament). Interestingly, the first five uses of the Hebrew word for remember in Genesis are all attributed to God.[2]
The first references to remembering in the Book of Exodus also have God as subject. He remembers His covenant with the patriarchs[3] and comes down to rescue them from bondage.
We must not think of God having a “slap your forehead” moment, as though He had forgotten His people or His promises. The Omniscient One does not suffer memory lapses.[4] Rather, at specific times He “is mindful” of His children with an intent to act on our behalf.
This is the basis of prayers of godly people throughout history. Childless Hannah, for example, includes in her vow to the LORD, “If you will indeed . . . remember me, and not forget your maidservant . . . .”[5]
The Psalms are a rich treasury of remembering.[6] For example, David writes in Psalm 25:
6 Remember, O Lord, Your compassion and Your lovingkindnesses,
For they have been from of old.
7 Do not remember the sins of my youth or my transgressions;
According to Your lovingkindness remember me,
For Your goodness’ sake, O Lord.
God also instructs His people to remember, as in “Remember this day in which you went out from Egypt, from the house of slavery.”[7] The annual celebration of Passover was instituted for this very commemorative purpose.
“Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy”[8] also goes beyond simply recalling. In this case, God calls His people to inaction; that is, resting from labor. This is a weekly reflection on the Creator and His created order.
In Deuteronomy we find the Israelites preparing to enter the Promised Land. Their 120-year-old leader will not cross the Jordan with them. In his last series of messages, Moses instructs the Hebrew people, “Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years.”[9]
Specifically, Moses desires that the Jewish people remember what the Lord had taught as He humbled them, testing their hearts, and doing good to them in the end.[10] When we forget these life lessons,[11] or succumb to the temptation to remember sinful pleasures of the past,[12] we get to experience “remedial wilderness” – not at all pleasant.
Perhaps especially in difficult times (such as being in lockdown because of the novel coronavirus) we need to pay attention to what we are thinking. Are we fixated on remembering the “good old days” (when toilet paper and hand sanitizer were not priority shopping items)? Are we making ourselves (and those around us) miserable by forgetting to count our blessings and not praising God for His daily goodness and mercies which are new every morning?[13]
After all, “this too shall pass.” The State of Israel’s swift switch from mourning its past losses to joyful celebration of its present illustrates this truth every year.
As Scripture reminds us, “Weeping may last for the night, but a shout of joy comes in the morning.”[14]
Written by Wes Taber, LIFE Global Ambassador
What would it look like if we truly forgot what lies behind (Philippians 3:13) and daily remembered God’s faithfulness to His promises?
What is it that you need to put behind you in the sea of forgetfulness?
What would God have you call to remembrance and praise Him for right now?
Footnotes:
[1] We encourage groups visiting Israel to include Yad Vashem on their itineraries. The Children’s Museum is especially moving; reflected lights represent the young victims who perished and their names and hometowns are spoken, personalizing the tragedy.
[2] God remembered Noah (Genesis 8:1); promised to remember His covenant to not destroy the earth with a flood (Genesis 9:15 and again in vs. 16); remembered Abraham and spared Lot (Genesis 19:29); and remembered Rachel, allowing her to conceive (Genesis 30:22).
[3] Exodus 2:24; 6:5.
[4] Thankfully, God DOES intentionally “forget” the sins of His children; see Jeremiah 31:34, e.g.
[5] 1 Samuel 1:11. See also Nehemiah’s prayers in Nehemiah 13:14, 22, 31.
[6] Of the 187 Biblical references to remembering, 47 are found in the Psalms.
[7] Exodus 13:3.
[8] Exodus 20:8. In Deuteronomy 5:12 God uses another verb, “Keep” (or “guard”) the Sabbath.
[9] Deuteronomy 8:2.
[10] Deuteronomy 8:16.
[11] Deuteronomy 9:7.
[12] E.g., Numbers 11:5; Judges 8:34.
[13] Lamentations 3:22-23.
[14] Psalm 30:5.