Remember

I’ve been reading Exodus recently and noticed some things that I hadn’t noticed before.

What God Has Done

Moses is led by God to go to Pharaoh to demand that Pharaoh free the Israelites. As soon as there is any hardship, the Israelites immediately complain, despite wanting freedom. The two things that always stood out to me in Exodus is God doing great miracles and the Israelites complaining and failing to obey or to trust God, but there is a bit more in between from which we can learn.

God performs a succession of miracles, i.e. staff turned to serpent, water turned to blood, frogs everywhere, gnats, etc.. During these miracles, God allows Pharaoh to set the start or end time for many of the plagues to prove that the plagues were actually from God. God then starts differentiating between the Egyptians and the Israelites. The Egyptians are sent plagues, while the Israelites are protected from them.

God’s plagues on Israel are not just for the purpose of forcing Pharaoh to free the Israelites. It is also about building the faith of the Israelites, so they will follow Him. God is also showing the Egyptians who He is. At one point, Pharaoh repents with his lips, “I have sinned this time, the Lord is righteous,” (Exodus 9:27b) but it was not a change of heart. Pharaoh just repented of the consequences of his actions, but did not repent of his disobedience and obey God. Moses directly addresses this saying, “you do not yet fear the Lord God.” (Exodus 9:30b).

God specifically says why He is bringing these plagues on Egypt.

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, that I may perform these signs of Mine among them, and that you may tell in the hearing of your son, and of your grandson, how I made a mockery of the Egyptians and how I performed My signs among them, that you may know that I am the Lord.” (Exodus 10:1-2) {emphasis mine}

God’s plagues were not just to free the Israelites, but also to grow their faith and to give them something to point to when guiding their children to believe in their God.

In the final plague, God commands the Israelites to slaughter a perfect lamb and to paint the door posts to their homes with its blood. Moses explains that God will pass over their home and not destroy the first born of their family. In this plague, the Israelites have to obey to be protected. After seeing all of God’s great works, they obey fully:

Then the sons of Israel went and did so; just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did. (Exodus 12:28) {emphasis mine}

Having seen God’s awesome judgments, the Israelites obeyed completely and reverently.

Now the sons of Israel had done according to the word of Moses, for they had requested from the Egyptians articles of silver and articles of gold, and clothing; (Exodus 12:35) {emphasis mine}

Once again the Israelites did as God commanded.

Then all the sons of Israel did so; they did just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron. (Exodus 12:50) {emphasis mine}

The Israelites had seen God’s glorious miracles and they naturally obeyed. They knew what God could do. If they were so good at doing “just as the Lord had commanded,” why did they change to being a people who continually complained and disobeyed God’s commands? What changed?

God knew that the Israelites would tend to forget His greatness and would fail to obey His commands. He forewarned them.

Moses said to the people, “Remember this day in which you went out from Egypt, from the house of slavery; for by a powerful hand the Lord brought you out from this place. And nothing leavened shall be eaten. (Exodus 13:3) {emphasis mine}

God told them to remember. He created a week long festival of remembrance to help them remember what God had done. He warned them to actively and intentionally teach their kids what great things their God had done for them and against their enemies.

You shall tell your son on that day, saying, ‘It is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.’ And it shall serve as a sign to you on your hand, and as a reminder on your forehead, that the law of the Lord may be in your mouth; for with a powerful hand the Lord brought you out of Egypt. Therefore, you shall keep this ordinance at its appointed time from year to year. (Exodus 13:8-10) {emphasis mine}

God knew that if they focused on their personal circumstances instead of what God had done, then they would go astray. All they had to do was remember and to teach their children to remember what God had done.

We see that they fail to teach their children or even stay faithful themselves, so the adults, that God miraculously led out of Egypt, never got to experience the promised land. We also see that the parents and their children failed to teach the younger generations.

The people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who survived Joshua, who had seen all the great work of the Lord which He had done for Israel. Then Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of one hundred and ten. And they buried him in the territory of his inheritance in Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash. All that generation also were gathered to their fathers; and there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord, nor yet the work which He had done for Israel. (Judges 2:7-10) {emphasis mine}

The first generation failed to obey God or teach their children to obey God. After seeing unbelievable miracles, they failed to trust God when the going got tough and therefore wandered for 40 years and died in the wilderness.

Their children did slightly better. They followed God into the promised land and trusted Him to give it to them as He had promised. They did not, however, teach their children and grandchildren the wonders of God or His faithfulness. Once they were gone, the following generations “did not know the Lord, nor yet the work which He had done for Israel.”

How to Avoid Their Failure

There are several things that we need to do today.

• We need to remember what God has done and how He has been faithful in our own lives and throughout history.
• We need to know the Bible, so we can know what God has done and what He has promised to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.
• We need to remind ourselves daily what God has done. His power, goodness, and faithfulness needs to be at the forefront of our minds every day, or we will tend to drift away.

Equally as important is that we need to teach our kids and grand kids what God has done and who He is. We need to teach them the promises of God. We need to teach them about His everlasting faithfulness. Don’t let a new generation come that does not know the Lord.

Practically how can we remember what great things our God has done?

• We should study our Bible every day to learn who God is, what He has done, what He commands, and what He promises us.
• We can keep a log or journal of our prayers and how God answered them and/or write down how God brought us through hard times in our life.
• We can write down the things that God has given us that we are thankful for (My son does this every day. I love the idea, but haven’t yet gotten in the habit yet.)
• We can reminisce and tell others about God and what He has done.

Practically, how can we teach our kids about who God is and what great things He has done?

• Read the Bible to them, especially together as a family.
• Pray with the kids and then talk about how God answered their prayers.
• Find a good devotional book to do with them.
• Sit down and talk about what great things God has done in your life.
• Take them to church, to Sunday School, to youth group, etc. (admittedly some programs are better than others, so do verify what is being taught so they are not misled)
• Read books or listen to podcasts about God, the Bible, Creation, etc.
• When correcting your kids, when they sin, use the Word of God for correction. (When my kids were little I read them the “My ABC Bible Verses: Hiding God’s Word in Little Hearts” which allowed us to memorize verses together and then those verses would be brought back for discussion during correction.)
• Memorize Bible verses together.
• When you experience things in life, whether interactions with others or entertainment, take the time to talk with your kids about what they say, explaining what was godly and what was contrary to God’s law.

Another thing Israel was told to do was to celebrate what God had done through multiple festivals. We don’t necessarily have to celebrate the old Jewish festivals. As Christians, we have our own holidays of remembrance, primarily Easter and Christmas. Unfortunately, most of us tend to celebrate both holidays in a secular way instead of as days of remembrance.

At Christmas, do you spend more time on the food, tree, and presents, or are you remembering the day that God came to earth as a baby because He cares so much for us? At Easter, do you spend most of the time on egg hunts and Easter baskets, or are you focused on Jesus’s death and resurrection? What we do matters.

It isn’t wrong to have a Christmas tree, lights, presents, and good food on Christmas, but it shouldn’t be our focus. Do your kids hear the Christmas story at Christmas? What do you do on Christmas to focus on Jesus? In my family we read the Christmas story before any other Christmas activities and we sing “Happy Birthday” to Jesus in remembrance of Jesus. At the meal, we have gone around the table and told each other what Jesus has done for us (not always because my parents and sister are not Christians).

At Easter, do you spend more time hunting for Easter eggs and eating Easter candy or do you focus on Jesus’s death and resurrection? Do you attend your church’s Good Friday service? Do you attend your church’s Easter Sunday service? Do you talk about God’s work on the cross to your children? We need these holidays to help us remember what great things God has done for us, but they don’t remind us if we spend all of our time on the secular manifestations of these holidays.

May God help us to hunger for His word and His presence, so that we can know His great works and the glory of His person. May God help us to remember all of the good things He has done for us and use these memories to encourage us during times of trouble. May God give us the courage and motivation to share God’s great works with those around us, but especially with our kids and others of the younger generations.

Trust Jesus

All verses are NASB unless otherwise noted.