REMEMBER Larry W Peebles May 29, 2020 20.19
Memorial Day is a U.S. federal holiday honoring those who sacrificed their lives in military service to this country. Flags are placed on grave markers of the deceased or on crosses to mark the remembrance. A wreath is placed at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and there are many other events commemorating the deceased. The holiday began May 30, 1868 as Decoration Day in honor of the fallen from the Civil War. In 1971 the observance was changed to the last Monday in May. My father served in WW II in the Pacific. He returned home safely, and told stories from the war for as long as he lived. My father and my mother both grew up in large families, so I had lots of aunts and uncles. Almost all my uncles served in the war. Remarkably, all of them came home from the war, as did my father-in-law, and his brother. While my dad talked incessantly about the war, many of them talked only occasionally, and some not at all. They were all affected differently. I was impressed that they served, did their duty well, picked up their lives when they came home and went back to work. Many others did not come back. In different ways, mostly at family gatherings, I told my father and my uncles how much their service meant to me, and how much I appreciated the freedom we have in this country as a result. It is right and proper that we should remember, because freedom is not free.
This Memorial Day, as I prepared to write this article, I felt the Lord give a different direction. He took me back to the children of Israel, held as slaves in Egypt for 430 years. Jacob (Israel), his wives and family, including eleven sons, came to Egypt looking for food during a famine. Direct descendants, not counting the wives of his sons, totaled sixty-six. Including Jacob and one son, Joseph, who was already in Egypt, together with his two sons made a total of 70 who came to Egypt. Joseph was second in command to Pharaoh, so Jacob and his descendants were well received and favorably treated. They not only survived the famine, they stayed and flourished, as God had promised.
In Exodus Chapter 1, we see they prospered and multiplied, until a new pharaoh, who knew nothing of Jacob and Joseph, realized that they had grown into millions in number. He viewed them as a potential threat. They were suddenly made slaves. They had stayed too long, and done too well. Their own prosperity served as bait for the trap, and they lost their freedom. Now they were to tend Pharaoh’s sheep and cattle, raise his crops, make his bricks, and build his cities. They provided the back-breaking labor under harsh work and living conditions, and Pharaoh got all the rewards. Under the heavy oppression of slave labor, their condition was miserable. Treated ruthlessly by the Egyptians, their lives became bitter. Their sleep became tearful instead of restful. To curtail their explosive growth, Pharaoh ordered the mid-wives to kill all the male babies at birth. The wailing and cries of the children of Israel could be heard over all the land. There seemed to be no hope.
Then the God of all hope spoke in Exodus 3:7- 8-“I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey.” These words were spoken to Moses, a man who had divinely escaped Pharaoh’s execution at birth. He was the man God had chosen to lead the people out of captivity.
As we celebrate Memorial Day, and we remember what is important, God would have us remember two things:
Cry out to God- The children of Israel needed to remember God and turn back to Him. They were not only slaves, they had taken on the ways of Egypt-their customs, culture and practices. Egyptian gods (idols) of nature and previous pharaohs were commonplace. Jehovah God was no longer their provider, as they depended on their labor and Pharaoh for food and shelter, albeit minimal. Their will was not their own, as Pharaoh dictated what they would do. Generations passed. If they remembered God at all, many had become bitter toward Him because of their plight. No matter how bad the conditions of this group of people, it only took a remnant to cry out to God. Those who remembered God cried out and were answered.
God will answer the cry- In the fullness of time, and with His chosen leader in place, God answered forcefully and decisively with miracles, signs and wonders against the most powerful and influential nation on earth at the time. When the demonstration was over, Egypt not only released the slaves, they sent them on their way with great wealth. The morning after the last miracle, they walked out of their homes a free people, wealthy and on their way to a new life. They were a new nation. God caused a sudden change in their circumstances. Pharaoh’s change of mind and attempt to bring them back with his army, the best-equipped on earth, ended in disaster for Egypt at the Red Sea.
Although our form of government establishes a number of freedoms, in many ways the current situation in our nation is similar to the children of Israel in Egypt. We have turned our back on God. For the first time in my lifetime, professing Christians are in the minority. We have fallen into false religions and the worship of idols such as money, houses, entertainment, sports, and the internet. Pornography and sex-trafficking are rampant. The family structure is broken, and poverty is widespread but ignored. As a society, we have become more dependent on government and our jobs to meet our needs, and have neglected God just as the Israelites did. While He remains very interested in us, we need to become more interested in Him. God has an outward focus; we tend to have an inward focus. It is time for this nation to cry out for Him to intervene in a forceful and dramatic way, and to make a sudden change.
Throughout the Bible, we see this pattern–when His people cry out, He answers. Draw comfort and encouragement from these scriptures:
Exodus 2:23- 24- “The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. God heard their groaning, and He remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob.”
1 Samuel 9:16- “About this time tomorrow I will send you a man from the land of Benjamin [Saul]. Anoint him leader over my people Israel; he will deliver my people from the hand of the Philistines. I have looked upon my people, for their cry has reached me.”
Psalm 9:12-“He who avenges blood remembers; He does not ignore the cry of the afflicted.”
Psalm 10:17- “You hear, O Lord, the desire of the afflicted; You encourage them, and You listen to their cry.”
Psalm 18:6- “In my distress, I called to the Lord; I cried to my God for help. From His temple He heard my voice; my cry came before Him, into His ears.”
Psalm 34:17- “The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them; He delivers them from all their troubles.”
Psalm 107:19- “Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and He saved them from their distress.”
Isaiah 41:10- “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”
God has given His word. He has committed Himself to answer when we cry out to Him. As a nation, as well as individually, we must remember on this Memorial Day to cry out to Him for help. We are in a desperate situation without Him. We are destined to die in bondage unless He intervenes, and resets this nation toward Him. First we cry out, then we wait, because He has promised to answer.
