Oh His Marvelous Ways, May We Never Forget

Oh His Marvelous Ways, May we Never forget!

"God thunders with His voice wondrously, Doing great things
which we cannot comprehend. For to the snow He says, 'Fall on the earth,'
And to the downpour and the rain, 'Be strong.' He seals the hand of every man, that all men may know His work. (JOB 37:5-7)

”For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”-Isaiah 55:8,9

Tomorrow is Veterans Day. This is a day to honor and remember the great sacrifice, bravery and service the men and women of the military have given to this great Country. The will be parades, special ceremonies and a time to view memorials. In Honolulu is the memorial to Pearl Harbor, where you can see the memorial to the heroes of the sunken ship, the Arizona. It is a very moving experience to be taken out to the memorial built above the sunken ship and quietly contemplate the events that led to its destruction and the death of so many crew members. It is easy to be very moved, and to this day, the memorial, and the events it represents remain in our minds. Such sacrifice!

We can sometimes forget events of the past. To help His people remember the works He has done for them, the Lord commanded that certain memorials be erected to remind the people throughout the future generations of His miracles and His special care for them.

The Lord knows how important it is for the people to remember His works. For example, in Deuteronomy 6:10-12, He tells the Israelites: “10 ‘So it shall be, when the LORD your God brings you into the land of which He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you large and beautiful cities which you did not build, 11 houses full of all good things, which you did not fill, hewn-out wells which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant—when you have eaten and are full— 12 then beware, lest you forget the LORD who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.’”

We find in the Old Testament histories, in fact, that many times the people of Israel are told not to forget all God had done for them, by the Lord Himself, as well as by Moses, Joshua, and the prophets.

Look at Joshua 4 for a moment. The meaning of the Hebrew word for" memorial" in verse 7 is literally “to remember” or “rememberance.” Memorials have frequently played an important role in biblical history—memorials like this pile of stones, altars, the ark of the covenant—and memorials consisting of special holy days and celebrations

It is to be a time of remembering what God has done

“And these stones shall be for a memorial to the children of Israel forever” (v. 7). First, the memorial stones were to be a reminder of their own personal experience. Notice that in verse 6 that this memorial will cause the children to ask; “What do these stones mean to you?” These stones are first of all to be a reminder those who were present of their personal experience, what they saw, heard and felt. To paraphrase, “Tell your story, Keep a clear memory of what God did for you. Keep on telling your stories so that you never lose your own sense of awe and wonder of what God has done in your life.”

I want you to consider with me: What kind of memorials do we have in our lives? We all have memorials in our lives, no not a monument of stones, but one built of memories. There are memories of places, places that trigger memories just as the memorial stones in Gilgal. There are some significant places in your life that bring back memories.

We also have other memorials in our memories. There are memories of people God has used in our lives. For me, many of these are the people who encouraged me when I was wrestling with giving up a career and going to seminary. There are memories of experiences, of God’s answers to prayer and of God’s marvelous hand of provision. I remember in seminary how God always provided for our needs. We learned some valuable lessons about faith. Most lessons in faith are not something you can be taught, it is something that you must experience to truly understand. Those days in seminary and God’s constant provision for our family are memorials in my memory of His faithfulness and love.

There are also mementos of the past. If you were to come into my office and look around you would see miscellaneous objects that are reminders to me of life experiences—a picture of the family and many others. No doubt when you look around your home, you find similar memorials. Each of those objects triggers memories of what happened then, of the things that God did, and of things you experienced; some are experiences that have changed your life; others are memorials to warm memories you always want to remember.

The point is that God knows how we think and that is the reason that he instructs Joshua to build a memorial. So that each time the Israelites saw it they would be reminded that they had not crossed the Jordan on their own ability, their own strength but because of God. To understand what God was trying to teach His children Israel, spend some time thinking through your memorial stones, let them draw you closer to God and remind you of His faithfulness.

As with other memorials in the Old Testament, the intention of the memorial was to provoke questioning especially from future generations.

We need to remember that our faith is never more than one generation away from extinction. Just think about our own country. We have drifted away from our Christian foundation in just the last couple of generations. We need to tell each generation about the eternal life God offers to anyone who believes and the great things God has done for us and the rest of His people.

Perhaps we, too, can remember a monument, a pile of stones, a memorial to a time when we by an act of bold faith we decided to abandon ourselves to God and step out into the unknown to take new territory for Him—to step into the waters of the flooding river in faith that God will take us across and show His mighty Ways are true and can be trusted.