People are forgetful. We tie strings around our fingers, buy sophisticated appointment calendars, and some use computerized tickler systems. But we still forget. I see my spouse daily, yet have trouble remembering important dates like our anniversary or her birthday.
Sometimes, daily contact produces forgetfulness. I’ve watched my children grow to adulthood and, because I see them daily, I forget their appearance last year or 5 years ago. When I see pictures of them, I have to look closely to be sure I’m looking at my own sons. Perhaps our short memories are a blessing when we forget painful experiences or sad occurrences, or when we fail to remember our failures and embarrassing moments. Our God, in His mercy toward us, even chooses to forget certain items:
...for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
Jeremiah 31:34 (Hebrews 8:12)
Because God knows our ability—our propensity—to easily forget, He urges us to maintain regular reminders of our need of Him, our relationship to Him, and His grace and blessings to us individually and corporately.
Throughout the history of Israel, certain festivals were kept at recurring intervals, pursuant to God’s precise instructions, for no other reason than to serve as memorials to God’s blessing upon Israel. Because Israel was an agricultural society, it was fitting that these feasts (or festivals) were related to God’s blessing on the produce of the nation. The first feast, Passover or the Feast of Unleavened Bread, commemorated the exodus from Egypt and was celebrated by the eating of a lamb without blemish and bread containing no leaven. The second feast, Pentecost, was also called the Feast of Weeks or the Feast of Wheat Harvest or the Feast of Firstfruits. It occurred 7 weeks after Passover (thus the name Feast of Weeks) and was celebrated by the baking of bread with the very first grain harvested from the recently planted crops. The third feast, Tabernacles or Ingathering, celebrated the successful harvest just completed and required the people to dwell in tents (tabernacles) for a week to remind them of their days of sojourning during the wilderness wanderings enroute to Canaan—a time of great joy for their deliverance from the tyranny of Egypt. Each of these festivals required all the men of Israel to appear "before the Lord;" that is, to appear at the tabernacle or the temple to honor and acknowledge God.
Our Lord was crucified during the week of Passover, and rose from His grave the day following the holy day of convocation—the high Sabbath—of Passover. For this reason, the Christian celebration of Easter is closely associated with the Jewish Passover. On the Jewish day of Pentecost—a day when all the men of Israel were required to appear before the Lord in Jerusalem—Our Lord sent the Holy Spirit to baptize and empower those 120 faithful followers gathered in a small second floor room, ensuring a large hearing for the bold message of Peter and the other disciples. These two historic events, coupled with the day set aside to commemorate our Lord’s birth in Bethlehem, keep alive in the church a tradition of remembrances of God’s blessings in our lives. We think of the incarnation of our Lord at Christmas and His substitutionary death and victorious resurrection at Easter. Though we think of the Pentecost following Christ’s actual resurrection as the birth of the church, we don’t usually celebrate the church’s anniversary or the coming of the Holy Spirit with the same fervor as the other historic events. (Perhaps we should—Pentecost is the 7th Sunday after Easter, June 3 this year.) But Christians, like the nation of Israel, have regular reminders in order that we not become dull of memory concerning the grace of our Lord.
Of course, we meet weekly to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ—that is why we are gathered here today. All that we hold worthwhile stems from the historic fact of Jesus’ triumphant, bodily resurrection from the dead. But, just as I so easily forget the birthday of someone I see daily, just as I forget the appearance of those I love due to daily contact; just so easily can I go through the weekly motions of celebrating Christ’s resurrection, of singing songs of worship and praise to Him, of petitioning the throne of Heaven with urgent requests, and of reading and hearing the Word He has given and others have died to preserve, and yet fail to remember Him.
David realized this difficulty in his life, and admonished himself:
Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.
Psalm 103:1,2
Jesus’ words to two of the Asian churches of the first century, recorded for us in Revelation, contained admonitions to remember.
To the church at Ephesus, He said:
Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.
Revelation 2:5
And to the church at Sardis, He said:
Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent.
Revelation 3:3
Almost from the beginning of redemptive history, God has given warnings of the danger of forgetting. The subtleness of forgetting is that it doesn’t require devious planning or crafty intent; it needs no malice aforethought or contrived artifice. It comes without intent or plan, without design or purpose. All that is necessary is that we forget.
Near the end of Moses’ life, he gathered the entire nation of Israel to review its history and that history’s evidences of God’s grace to the nation. He had led them 40 years, taught them, judged them, and interceded for them. To that point in their history as a separate nation, he had lived their entire history with them. He knew their strengths and weaknesses.
Listen to his counsel:
Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the LORD my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to possess it. Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the LORD our God is in all things that we call upon him for? And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day? Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons’ sons;
Deuteronomy 4:5-9
This theme is evident throughout Moses’ last discourse to the nation of Israel, recorded for us in Deuteronomy. (The word "remember" or "remembrance" is used 16 times in this book.) And he sought creative ways to make the people remember God’s law and his own admonitions. For example, chapter 27 of Deuteronomy records that Moses had priests ascend a mountain on either side of the gathered people (Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal) and alternately shout out blessings and curses that would come upon the people as a result of the peoples’ adherence to or rejection of God’s law.
Upon Moses’ death, Joshua assumed leadership of the nation and led them in conquering the land of Canaan. Like Moses, Joshua was about 80 years old when he became the leader of Israel. And like Moses, he realized the importance of remembering the grace of God in his life and the life of the nation.
Within days of the death of Moses, Joshua sent men throughout the encampments of Israel telling the people of his plans to immediately cross the Jordan River and begin taking the land. Part of the message of these men to the people was:
Remember the word which Moses the servant of the LORD commanded you, saying, The LORD your God hath given you rest, and hath given you this land.
Joshua 1:13
Most of the book of Joshua is a fast paced history of the victories of Israel over the land of Canaan and its many fortified city-states. But we learn something of the caliber of Joshua’s leadership in the last two chapters (which we read earlier this morning). Those chapters are primarily a recounting of God’s grace in the life of the nation from the time of Abraham’s call to the end of Joshua’s leadership. And Joshua was so effective in keeping the grace of God before the people that it is recorded:
And Israel served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that overlived Joshua, and which had known all the works of the LORD, that he had done for Israel.
Joshua 24:31
It is significant that Joshua’s ministry had such a long-lasting benefit to Israel; through his own generation and the next. And it is significant why this was so—because the people "had known the works of the LORD."
A very interesting aside to Joshua’s reminder to the nation of God’s grace recorded in these last two chapters of the book bearing his name—perhaps even a significant factor—is where Joshua’s speech was made. Chapter 24 verse 1 tells us that Joshua called the people and the elders of Israel to him at Shechem, and that is where he recounted to the people their spiritual heritage. But why is that interesting?
Shechem, even in Joshua’s time, had a long association with God’s redemptive history. This small valley and city, about 35 miles almost due north of Jerusalem, was the first stopping place for Abraham after he left his brother’s home in Haran. Here, Abraham built an altar to the Lord, commemorating God’s promise to give the land of Canaan to Abraham and his descendants. (Genesis 12:6,7) It was just east of Shechem that Jacob met Esau when returning from his flight to Haran where he worked for Laban to earn his wives and cattle, and it was in Shechem that Jacob first pitched his tents and built an altar upon his return to Canaan. (Genesis 33:18,19) Also in this place, Jacob dug a well known for centuries for its faithful supply of water. The parcel Jacob bought in Shechem was later given to his son Joseph, and it was to this site that Joseph made his descendants promise to carry his bones. And it was here, evidently after Joshua gave his final exhortation to the people, that Joseph was finally buried. (Joshua 24:32)
It was also in Shechem that the people of Israel gathered on the day that Moses had the Levites ascend the two mountains and shout curses and blessings over the people. On one side of the valley of Shechem is Mount Gerizim, on the other is Mount Ebal.
Joshua could not have known, of course, that this site would continue to be important in Israel’s history. But it was here that Solomon’s son Rehoboam was anointed king, and it was here that Jeroboam was proclaimed king of the northern 10 tribes in rebellion to Rehoboah—an act that divided the nation of Israel. It was this location that became the national seat of government for Samaria after the fall and dispersal of the northern 10 tribes of Israel—a fulfillment of the curses pronounced upon Israel centuries before in this very location, should she depart from the ways of God. It was also here that Jesus demonstrated that His grace reaches all men, regardless of nationality; for it was here, sitting on the side of the well dug by Jacob, that Jesus gave the water of life to the Samaritan woman (John 4), in a city then known as Sychar, only a few hundred feet from the tomb of Joseph.
We have seen, through the examples of David, our Lord, Moses, and Joshua, the importance of remembering God’s grace in our lives. We have noted the subtle nature of forgetfulness. And, through Joshua’s example in particular, we have had recounted for us the methods he used in bringing about a remembering of God’s grace—the linking of current events to the places and occurrences of the past. Joshua made it impossible for men and women to come near Shechem without thinking of God, His Word, and His mighty acts.
But Joshua used another method that I want us to consider here today. Joshua asked the people for a renewed commitment.
Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the LORD. And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will sere; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
Joshua 24:14,15
It almost sounds as though Joshua was addressing a heathen people, making an evangelistic plea for them to make an initial decision to serve the Lord. But he was, in fact, addressing a people that for 80 years had been under the leadership of Moses and himself, a people that was known by the surrounding peoples to be committed to God and His ways, a people that had been victorious in conquering the land, and a people that knew God’s Word and was regularly taught by priests. These people had already decided to follow God. They had, in fact, followed God from Egypt, through the wilderness, into Canaan, and through numerous battles to relative victory. But Joshua wanted a commitment.
Joshua even attempted to dissuade the people:
Ye cannot serve the LORD: for he is an holy God; he is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins, If ye forsake the LORD, and serve strange gods, then he will turn and do you hurt, and consume you, after that he hath done you good.
Joshua 24:19,20
Then, when the people made their commitment, Joshua let them know that it was serious and binding:
And the people said unto Joshua, Nay; but we will serve the LORD. And Joshua said unto the people, Ye are witnesses aginst yourselves that ye have chosen you the LORD, to serve him. And they said, We are witnesses.
Joshua 24:21,22
This is the commitment they made:
And the people said unto Joshua, The LORD our God will we serve, and his voice will we obey.
Joshua 24:24
And this was Joshua’s response:
So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and set them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem. And Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God, and took a great stone, and set it up there under an oak, that was by the sanctuary of the LORD. And Joshua said unto all the people, Behold, this stone shall be a witness unto us; for it hath heard all the words of the LORD which he spake unto us: it shall be therefore a witness unto you, lest ye deny your God.
Joshua 24:25-27
Today, I want to challenge us to remember what our God has done for us. For the moment, forget your present problems and frustrations, and think of where you were without Christ and where you are in Him today. Do you remember the guilt, the pain, the hopelessness, the growing despair? Can you contrast that with today’s forgiveness, joy, hope, and peace? Sure, we still have problems—just as Joshua’s Israel still had enemies. But these are only further opportunities to see God’s grace at work in our lives. These opportunities are only frustrations when we attempt to resolve them apart from God’s grace; when we fail to remember how He has delivered us in the past; when we forget His promise to never leave us, to never give us a problem larger than we can handle.
And I challenge you to leave the old gods, and commit to following only the true God. Leave behind the idols of self-sufficiency, pride, self-will, my way, and my goals. Replace these with commitment to the Lord and His sufficiency, His honor, His will, His way, and His ends.
I challenge you not to take this lightly. God is holy, He is jealous, He does desire all or nothing. He judges those harshly who give Him lip service but deny Him in their lives. But He is merciful and gracious, kind and compassionate to those who seek to serve Him in sincerity.
Finally, I challenge you to make a covenant. If God has revealed Himself to you in the past; if you know of evidences of God’s grace in your life and the corporate life of this church body, then surely He deserves your commitment to serve Him only. So choose today, anew and afresh, whom you will serve. If it seems unreasonable to serve my God, then choose another to serve. But know where your commitment is.
Joshua was speaking to a vast multitude of people. He asked for a public commitment. We are a small group, and I want no one to be tempted to speak a commitment he does not mean with his whole heart. So I ask that you do this: If you will join me in renewing your commitment to serve God and Him only, go to at least one other person—it may be your spouse or anyone else—and say to that person, "I declare to you my commitment to serve God and Him only." You may say this to as many as you want; you may come and say it publicly. I want this house, this physical location, to constantly remind us of our covenant this day with God. I want this body of people—this church fellowship—to be a witness among us of our covenant to serve our God.
If you have never before made such a commitment to serve God, then I urge you to talk with myself or one of the elders about your relationship to God.
mp 05/20/90