REMEMBRANCE DAY -THEN AND NOW
What does Remembrance Day mean to you? For some who lost loved ones in the wars of the 20th century it will have very special memories, but for most of us it’s a very necessary reminder of suffering and sacrifice by ordinary men and women in the interests of their nation and its cherished values. We commemorate this unique event every year. Perhaps we should pause to ask the question "Why?"
The trouble is we forget so soon. That’s why even small communities have a memorial column; that’s why we in Britain wear our Poppies, as a reminder, so that each generation of men and women should not forget what was done on their behalf. These memorials are there to help us to remember; they are there as visual aids to remind us of how, in the mercy of God, we’ve been delivered from tyranny ... “lest we forget”.
The Israelites had the same problem of forgetfulness. They, too, had passed through a great liberation experience. The story is well known. They had become enslaved in Egypt and were enduring harsh treatment as forced labour, probably building the now famous pyramids. Jehovah, the God of their forefathers, heard their cries of misery and desperation.
Moses was chosen by the Lord to lead the people out of Egypt in a great national deliverance that we know as the Exodus. But do you know, incredible as it seems, they were so caught up with the minor difficulties of the journey that they soon forgot that red-letter day of their deliverance from their enemy by the hand of Jehovah. They forgot that they had an obligation to God who had so miraculously saved them from a life of slavery. How like human nature to be ungrateful.
You remember how God had given Moses that moral code we know as the Ten Commandments. In the years that followed he often repeated them in stirring addresses to the young nation and there we find the words of my text for Remembrance Sunday: "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" (Deut 5:15). The call is to "Remember". That’s why Remembrance Day is so important; it’s kept year after year so that we have the opportunity to reflect on its significance.
The words of our text are repeated 3 times in the space of a few chapters as if to emphasize the importance of the fact. They were to "remember" the past so that they might be better in the present and the future.
REMEMBER - WHAT WE WERE
At all costs the people of Israel were to "remember" what they were. They were slaves. God had done something wonderful for them; he had liberated them. It wasn’t something they had accomplished by their own efforts: they were entirely dependent on someone else’s intervention on their behalf; they were indebted to God, if only they would acknowledge it, for what he had done.
Some of us are old enough to remember wartime experiences. People of many countries occupied by hostile forces have been reduced to slavery, compelled to work under grim conditions; others, more fortunate, were not slaves, but were captives in their own countries,
enduring a virtual imprisonment under armed guard. Others served in the Forces and were captured as prisoners. It still happens today. We do well to remember them.
Captivity or worse takes place, not only in a physical sense, but, even worse, spiritually as well. We all know from our own experience that we are fallen beings. All of us have sinned; that is, we’ve fallen short of God’s standard. The Bible is the definitive source of information as to what is our state before God, using phrases like "dead in your transgressions and sins ... you followed the ways of this world ... gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts" (Eph 2:1-3).
The basic tragedy of humanity is that the people who were created by God and for God should now be living without God. Of course there are degrees of depravity. That who perpetrated atrocities had sunk lower than most, but that doesn’t excuse our captivity to anything which is alien to God’s standard. Haven’t we all got to confess that we’re tainted with the dread disease of sinfulness?
It may show itself in the more open sins of the flesh, the sort of thing the newspapers like to expose, or the more secret sins of heart and mind, of being selfish or deceitful. Yes, if we’re honest, we’re all captives in spirit in the same way as the Israelites and those caught up in war situations. But thank God the story doesn’t end there, as we follow the instructions of Moses to call to remembrance.
REMEMBER - WHAT HAPPENED
The people of Israel were called upon to "remember": "remember ... that the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm." This was a marvellous deliverance. Their oppressor, Pharaoh, proved to be cunning and stubborn tyrant. He badly wanted to keep his source of cheap labour, and he subjected his people to the most appalling hardships. Jehovah had to show him he meant business by increasing the pressure on him by inflicting various plagues, culminating in the death of the firstborn children.
The same horror took place in the World Wars of the last century, and now continuing in the 21st. The enemy didn’t capitulate without a bitter struggle that affected the innocent equally with the guilty parties. Yes, freedom is only won at great cost.
The whole of the 20th century is a story of conflict and it’s easy to think of it superficially until it affects us personally. For those who have such a personal experience it was traumatic, whether involved in military conflict or as civilians subjected to military occupation, or worse as homeless evacuees. Every Remembrance Day anniversary we focus on the freedom gained, with emphasis on the debt of gratitude owed to those who made the longed-for freedom possible. It was at great cost that the Allied Forces gained the victory that made possible our continuing freedom.
The key to the victory that brought about the liberation from tyranny of both the Israelites and ourselves was sacrifice. There was a grand design, a plan of action, but it was only made possible by sacrifice, the laying down of life by one that another might go free. This principle of substitutionary sacrifice is seen particularly in the Exodus story of the Passover.
You’ll remember that the final plague to be inflicted on the whole land of Egypt was the passing of the angel of death upon sinful people: no one would be exempted, Egyptian or Hebrew. Moses told his people that the only way of escape was to show on the doorpost of each of their homes that they had followed his instructions of offering the sacrifice of an innocent lamb.
The life of the firstborn was due to God, but the life of the lamb was offered in his place. It wasn’t a question of one Israelite offering his life for another. It was necessary that something, which symbolized a perfect and sinless life, be found, the Passover lamb, as the means of their liberation. When Jesus commenced his ministry, he was announced by John the Baptist as "the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). The original Passover lambs were but symbol looking forward to the ultimate Passover Lamb. The Lord Jesus came to the Earth to be our Saviour by laying down his life on the Cross as the substitutionary sacrifice for sin, that we might be saved. That is something to be remembered.
Under the cover of the Passover the Israelites were able to make their escape from bondage, and just as surely all who trust in the sacrifice of Jesus are saved immediately and eternally, and become filled with a sense of unspeakable gratitude and a sense of unpayable debt. There’s a verse of the hymn that says it all, "Bearing shame and scoffing rude, In my place condemned he stood; Sealed my pardon with his blood: Hallelujah! What a Saviour."
The words of our text are particularly appropriate as on this Remembrance Sunday we think of the Israelites over 3,500 years ago, and our ourselves some decades ago and our own Christian experience: Remember what you were - captives; remember what happened - "God brought you out ... with a mighty hand and a stretched out arm." The words are relevant for today and tomorrow as well. We are to "remember" the past to be better in the present and future. On each of the three occasions the text is repeated it’s noticeable that a reason for the call to "remember" is given. It is to:
REMEMBER - WHAT WE SHOULD BE
In the first place the newly freed Israelites were told "to observe the Sabbath day" (5:15). They were a covenant people and they now had the duty to recognize God’s gracious provision for them and it would be demonstrated in their observance of the seventh day as a day of rest.
The Old Testament Sabbath is a foreshadowing of the New Testament Lord’s Day, our Sunday, when the Lord Jesus himself was liberated from the grave. In the words of our text the Lord raised him from the dead "with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm." It’s no wonder that Christians want to "Keep Sunday Special". But how should we keep it?
Sabbath observance has often got a bad name because of an over-emphasis on being negative - "Thou shalt not..." But this wasn’t how the first Christians used their Sundays. Many had to work as usual because they were living in a pagan society, but whenever they could they met for prayer and fellowship, to study the Scriptures, and also to express social responsibility and concern for others.
The New Testament writers refer to Christian believers as those who have been liberated entering into "a sabbath rest for the people of God" (Heb 4:9). The "sabbath rest" became a symbol, a badge of the true follower of Christ. It’s not a matter of resting in the sense of lying down and doing nothing. Christ’s followers are called upon to pursue their pilgrimage faithfully to the end.
It requires diligence and determination to be a follower of Christ’s way. It’s a costly business to be a Christian. The entrance fee into the kingdom of God is absolutely nothing, but the annual subscription is all that we have and are. It’s much easier to respond to the Ten Commandments as if they were only Ten Suggestions - to refuse or respond as I like depending on how it suits my purposes - but we need to remember that although they were first given to Moses, they are taken up in the teaching of Jesus. It must be our code for living now. It’s not an option; it’s an imperative.
The great Indian leader Ghandi was a Hindu, but in his early days was much impressed by the message of the gospel of Christ. He determined to find out more and for several Sundays attended a church in Pretoria. This turned out to be a sad experience for he found that his fellow worshippers weren’t serious believers at all; they were worldly-minded people going to church for recreation and in order to conform to the expected custom. Ghandi concluded, wrongly, that there was nothing in Christianity which he did not already better possess. He once said, "I’d seriously consider becoming a Christian - if it weren’t for Christians". What an indictment! Remember that Christians are the visible representatives of Christ here on earth. Are we giving the right signals to those around us?
The second time the call to "remember" is given was when Moses was passing on God’s instructions on how to treat the poor (15:15). It was a powerful reminder that in their newfound blessing they were not to forget those less fortunate than themselves. They were told, "I command you to be open-handed towards your brothers and towards the poor and needy in your land ... Remember that you too were slaves and were redeemed" (11,15). Remembrance Day is a reminder that we too are debtors. We’ve entered into the fruits of the labours and sacrifices of the generation gone before us.
Our nation, as a whole, seems to be far more prosperous that before the last World war. The standard of living has risen immeasurably for most people, and frankly we enjoy it. But we would do well to remember the needy; indeed, for God’s people it is a duty. In our relative affluence we shouldn’t begrudge that part of our taxes which goes to the modest budget allocation of Overseas Aid. In fact we might even be ashamed of the amount given, and if we have been blessed with resources to be sure to support a relief agency as well. This is now all the more urgent as charities are reporting "donor fatigue". This Remembrance Sunday is a moment to remind ourselves that prosperity brings responsibility.
The apostle Paul wrote, "I am a debtor" (Rom 1:14). He saw himself as a steward of God’s grace. It’s as if he had been given a large sum of money, not for his personal use, but to hand on to someone else. In the same way we, as liberated people, have been entrusted with a heritage to pass on to the next generation - a heritage of morality, and especially as Christians, to share the Good News with others.
The third time the text is repeated is again in connection with the social obligations of the Israelite nation. "Remember", they were told, to take care not to extort the poor or to deprive aliens of justice, and to take care of the fatherless and widows (24:10-22). How appropriate this is for Remembrance Day - to remember with gratitude and practical help those who still suffer as the result of war.
In3the blessing of freedom that we enjoy, the call comes again to "remember": "Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you from there. That is why I command you to do this" (18). One of the saddest moments in the Gospels is pictured in the words of Jesus when he said, "Where are the nine?" He was asking as to what had happened to the nine men who had known such wonderful release from the misery of leprosy and had forgotten to come back and say, "Thank you, Lord."
The real questions to ask ourselves this Remembrance Sunday are perhaps: do we see it as:
-a challenge to selfishness?
-a rebuke to materialism?
-a renewal of faith in God?
I’m told that immediately after World War II ended the churches were full of thankful people, but the sense of thankfulness soon faded. Many people experienced their "exodus" of freedom from the fear of the oppressor and entered their "Canaan", but many forgot their deliverer. Let’s determine with God’s help to make this Remembrance Day a milestone when we:
-Remember with gratitude those who made possible our deliverance; when we:
-Rejoice in our freedom and prosperity; and when we:
-Reaffirm our commitment to live responsibly.
