This year marked 235 years since our Founding Fathers gave us our National Birth Certificate. We continue to be the longest on-going Constitutional Republic in the history of the world. Blessings such as these are not by chance or accidental, they are blessings of God.
Many people today claim that the Declaration of Independence was written merely by secular men. The challenge for mankind has always been a firm belief in the integrity of God's Supreme Word.
Here a choice is presented; do we accept and believe man's opinions or God's? If the Declaration was simply a secular document written by natural man without God's involvement, then these claims go unchallenged. However, if the Declaration of Independence reflected the biblical belief of the forefathers, then we have a wonderful record of God once again working in mankind. If this is true July 4th should be celebrated as a spiritual holiday also to serve as a memorial for God's deliverance and guidance.
Exodus 12:14 And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the LORD throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever.
God instructed Moses and said, "This day would be unto you a memorial." A memorial is something that is intended to remind people of the past. God wanted Israel and their future generations to know where they came from. The Lord wanted his people to know and remember what he had delivered them from.
Exodus 12:24-28 24And ye shall observe this thing for an ordinance to thee and to thy sons for ever. 25And it shall come to pass, when ye be come to the land which the LORD will give you, according as he hath promised, that ye shall keep this service. 26And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, What mean ye by this service? 27That ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of the LORD'S passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses. And the people bowed the head and worshipped. 28And the children of Israel went away, and did as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron, so did they.
Please note that according to verse 25, the memorial was associated with a promise of a land and new life in that land. Throughout the scriptures, the Lord has had men of God set up memorials so future generations would have the chance to learn of God's goodness and deliverance to his people.
Joshua 4:5-8 5And Joshua said unto them, Pass over before the ark of the LORD your God into the midst of Jordan, and take ye up every man of you a stone upon his shoulder, according unto the number of the tribes of the children of Israel: 6That this may be a sign among you, that when your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean ye by these stones? 7Then ye shall answer them, That the waters of Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD; when it passed over Jordan, the waters of Jordan were cut off: and these stones shall be for a memorial unto the children of Israel for ever. 8And the children of Israel did so as Joshua commanded, and took up twelve stones out of the midst of Jordan, as the LORD spake unto Joshua, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel, and carried them over with them unto the place where they lodged, and laid them down there.
Again we see the obedience of God's people. We also see the promise of a land and a new life. However, once Israel began to crossover into the land it took years accomplish this. Even then they never fully occupied and conquered all of the Promised Land. In other words, it was an unfolding and progression of the promise of God to them.
Why was that? Why is it that sometimes when God gives a promise it takes time to come to pass? Sometimes the reason is because of God's wisdom and revelation, but most of the time it falls on the people.
Exodus 23:29-30 29I will not drive them out from before thee in one year; lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against thee. 30By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land.
Here we see God's wisdom in allowing the people to move in slowly and occupy the land.
Numbers 14:27-33 27How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, which murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me. 28Say unto them, As truly as I live, saith the LORD, as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you: 29Your carcases shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against me, 30Doubtless ye shall not come into the land, concerning which I sware to make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun. 31But your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised. 32But as for you, your carcases, they shall fall in this wilderness. 33And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness.
Here we have an example of a promise of God given. The failure to receive fell on the people's refusal to remain thankful and obedient. So many times in the Word of God you will see a promise of God given and then mankind fails to immediately appropriate it to himself. Sometimes it's justified, sometimes it's not. Even before the record in Numbers 14 Israel rejected the promise of God. Ironically enough, the promise they rejected was the answer to their own prayer and cry.
Acts 7:23-28 23And when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel. 24And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him that was oppressed, and smote the Egyptian: 25For he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them: but they understood not. 26And the next day he shewed himself unto them as they strove, and would have set them at one again, saying, Sirs, ye are brethren; why do ye wrong one to another? 27But he that did his neighbour wrong thrust him away, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge over us? 28Wilt thou kill me, as thou diddest the Egyptian yesterday?
Israel added at least another 40 years to their bondage and sorrow because they were not ready to receive their deliverance according to God's providence and plan. Abraham took years before he received a son according to God's plan. David was ordained king and before he was able to reign as king, he went through years of wars and opposition. Did you ever ask yourself what was so different about Mary?
The promise of the coming one was given back in Genesis 3:15 and thousands of years elapsed before it came to pass. Why?
Every normal woman ever born since the beginning of time had the ability to bring forth the Christ. Why did we need to wait until Mary for the Christ to be born then? What was so different about Mary? The answer is nothing; she simply believed God's Word.
Now let's go back to the word and consider a few other accounts recorded in God's word regarding a memorial.
Luke 22:19 And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me. Matthew 26:6-13 6Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, 7There came unto him a woman having an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head, as he sat at meat. 8But when his disciples saw it, they had indignation, saying, To what purpose is this waste? 9For this ointment might have been sold for much, and given to the poor. 10When Jesus understood it, he said unto them, Why trouble ye the woman? for she hath wrought a good work upon me. 11For ye have the poor always with you; but me ye have not always. 12For in that she hath poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my burial. 13Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her.
To Be Continued …ÿ