WRITING MEMORIALS AS REMINDERS

DAY 27,

Read Ex. 17:14; 24:4; 34:27; Dt.31:9-13

Key Verse: “Then the LORD said to Moses, “Write this for a memorial in the book and recount it in the hearing of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven” (Ex.17:14).

Few days ago we did state that Israel for some reason forgot the mighty works God did in their midst when they were delivered from Egypt. We all are victims of forgetting the works of God in our lives. One way of ensuring that we don’t forget the great works of God is to write them down.

Memorials are created or written down to serve as reminders of past significant events or happenings. More often than not, they are records of past event rather than of future intentions. But in key text above, God commanded Moses to record what he intended to do to Amalek, and to ensure that he rehearsed it to Joshua so that he will be aware of it.

We write down important information or facts for various reasons. Writing is an art of retention. We write for preservation. We also write for remembrance. We write for edification. Moses, on the other hand, wrote for various reasons. He wrote due to a divine command, he wrote for retention, he wrote so as to have a living witness against the children of Israel and also to be able to teach Israel what God had commanded. “So it was, when Moses had completed writing the words of this law in a book, when they were finished, that Moses commanded the Levites, who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord, saying: “Take this Book of the Law, and put it beside the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, that it may be there as a witness against you; for I know your rebellion and your stiff neck. If today, while I am yet alive with you, you have been rebellious against the Lord, then how much more after my death? Gather to me all the elders of your tribes, and your officers, that I may speak these words in their hearing and call heaven and earth to witness against them. For I know that after my death you will become utterly corrupt, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you. And evil will befall you in the latter days, because you will do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger through the work of your hands” ( Dt.31:9,19,22,24.NKJV).

Writing down God’s acts for the purposes of retention and preserving records matters to God. This was God’s way of getting Moses to keep the memory of his future deeds. In the three texts we read today, God commanded Moses to write down his dealings with him. Writing is an art of retention. In many cases because we are prone to forget what God has done, or what he has said to us, it is mandatory we commit them into writing.

There is a call on every Christian, especially leaders, to start writing God down dealings with them for the benefit of posterity. The scriptures would have been incomplete if John the beloved had failed to write the vision God gave to him in the Island of Patmos. But, today, his records of God’s assessment and X-ray of the seven Churches of Asia Minor is a constant reminder that God will someday require of us to give an account of our stewardship.

PRAYER: Father, releasing upon me the anointing to write and keep journals of your daily dealings with me for the sake of posterity.