“And Moses said unto the people, Remember this day, in which ye came out from Eygpt, out of the house of bondage…” – Exodus 13:3 (KJV)
The word ‘remember’ is used over two hundred times in the Bible, all for good reasons.
The Hebrew word for remember is ‘zakar’ which means to go through the files in your head until you find what you are searching for. Embedded in our hard drives (brain) are records of information on how the Lord has helped us throughout life’s journey. Similarly, this was the experience of the freed captives (the Israelites) from the nation of Egypt. Their hard drives contained countless files of how God:
- Caused Aaron’s rod to become a serpent, devouring all of the serpents of the sorcerers and magicians (Exodus 7:10-12).
- Protected the Israelites from the ten plagues of Egypt (Exodus 7:14-12:30).
- Orchestrated their escape from the wrath of Pharaoh and miraculously delivered them by creating a safe path through the Red Sea (Exodus 14:19-31).
Remember, the journey of life is seasonal and comprises good and bad experiences, happy and sad ones, too. Seasons of plenty and seasons of lack. However, the season of ‘thanksgiving’ is unconditional and should be done whether we are in the wilderness or on top of the mountain (1 Thessalonians 5:18).
We are warned not to be like the Israelites who, at times, forgot to retrieve the files and refresh themselves on all of the wonderful things the Lord had done for them. Rather, we are admonished to revisit the archives and rediscover what the records show. That is, how we were once a people broken, rejected, enslaved to sin, held captive by generational curses, living without any sense of purpose and direction, fearful of the past, anxious about the future, bound in our minds, but now free.
In this season of thanksgiving, let us retrieve the files of God’s graciousness towards us and give thanks in the manner of Psalm 100:4. The Lord is good!
Read: Deuteronomy 8:18; 1 Chronicles 16:8
Bible Reading Guide: Psalm 136:1-12; 1 John 1; 1 John 2:1-11; Daniel 5:17-31; Daniel 6
