Remembering

I have. It's just that the circumstances have changed. I've had this dream—I won't quite call it a nightmare, but it's been very frustrating, because in it, I'm back at one of the schools that I've attended, from high school to college. Sometimes it's even been said at a college that I never attended, but I was thinking about.

And it's near the end of a term, and I realize there's an exam scheduled. And exams are coming up in all the classes, but I realize there's a class that I've just plain been forgetting to go to. And I can't believe that weeks have gone by, and I keep forgetting to go to this class, and now I've got an exam. Like, I feel terrible.

And there's even some versions of the dream where I say, well, maybe I can cram and I can go show up and take the exam, but I can't seem to remember what room it's in. So I'm zooming around campus trying to find where this class is supposed to be before it's too late.

As I said, frustrating. Not scary in that way, but after I'd had that happen several times, I would look at the circumstances in my life, and I realized usually I would have that dream when I was a real busy time of life. When I had so many things going on that I know subconsciously, I think my brain was trying to tell me that you're probably forgetting something.

Later on, I realized, Frank, you shouldn't worry. You almost always are forgetting something. I think you've known me long enough to know how well my memory doesn't work. So I'm working on trying not to be so uptight about forgetting things. But how about you? I can't be the only one who sometimes forgets things or gets frustrated about it. Some of us have better memories than others. And that's one of the reasons we've invented memory techniques or things to help our memories.

How many of you have heard of every good boy deserves fudge? Or is it every good boy does fine? It has something to do with learning to play the piano or guitar, I believe. It's the different chords or notes. And since I never played, I didn't know that. But when at summer camp, I ran this activity called the Amazing Race. At one step, we asked the teenagers to list all of God's festivals in order. And I found some of them would say, Pup-Tattle! You remember Pup-Tattle? What in the world is Pup-Tattle? Well, it's an acronym. It stands for Passover, Unleavened Bread, Pentecost, Trumpets, Atonement, Tabernacles, and Last Great Day.

So if they can remember Pup-Tattle, they can list the festivals in order. And of course, we have things as a nation and as a people. We just celebrated Thanksgiving. Does that help us remember something? It's sort of an annual reminder, of course, to be thankful. It reminds us somewhat of our heritage in the United States.

Of course, remembering is only part of what we need to do. Once you remember, if you've made a commitment, you also have to follow through on what we've committed to. You might be wondering, well, what does this have to do with God's way of life? Is this important for Christians? And I believe it is. There are a number of times God tells us, remember. Many, many times, actually. He says, remember. And we have a perfect example. God, unlike me, has a good memory. He remembers. And He always follows through every single time. We know that God wants us to be like Him.

So that must mean that learning to remember and follow through are something important to Christians. Maybe it's a simple or obvious point, but I wanted to explore it some. Let's first think of some examples of God making a commitment that He would remember and follow through. Now, I could turn to various prophecies because every prophecy could be considered a promise that, when it's fulfilled, is followed through on.

But there are some other examples where God makes a personal commitment. And the first example is probably one that would come to your mind if I said, did God make a commitment and make a reminder? We find it in the book of Genesis. After God created man in His image and sort of set them loose, I was going to say it didn't take long.

It doesn't take long in reading the Bible, but it might have taken close to 2,000 years for God to get sort of fed up with mankind's sin and depravity. And God decided to exterminate the population, except for Noah and his family. As it says in Genesis 6, verse 8, Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. I'm not going to read the story of God calling Noah and giving him instructions for building an ark. Although I will mention, during the Feast of Tabernacles, Sue and I got to go down and visit the new ark exhibit that's about 45 minutes south of Cincinnati. It's pretty exciting to see.

But in Genesis, well, in the following story, we know that he built the ark. God brought the various animals to him, and thus God preserved them. And in Genesis 9, we'll find God revealing that He decided He would never repeat this particular action. In Genesis 9, verse 11, God said, So God here promises. He makes a commitment. He'll never again use a flood to destroy all or even almost all life on earth. Now, this doesn't say that He won't use fire or some other method when the time is right. But God not only makes the commitment, He provides a memory device.

He put the rainbow there. As we see reading in verse 14, This reminds me of the times where I've broken down when I had to remember something and tied a string around my finger. Have any of you ever done that? I know it's an old saying, but I find it works. Or sometimes something less obvious. I'll remember in the car, I need to stop and get gas, so I'll set something up on the dashboard.

And I'll see it and go, oh yeah, that's supposed to remind me of something. God put that rainbow in the cloud. Now, I wonder, we could debate over how much He really needed something to remind Him. I suspect He's got a perfect memory. But it reminds us, doesn't it? How many times do we see a rainbow and think, oh yeah, God made that after the flood? It sparked our memory and it also provides us a perfect opportunity to teach other people. Most, I'll bet most people as a child, first heard about the story of Noah and the Ark when their parents or someone else saw the rainbow.

That's pretty interesting. To me, it's intriguing that God made such a public example in a memory device of something that we all know about.

But that's a pretty obvious example. We understand it. And pretty much everyone who calls himself a Christian understands it. This is one of those truths that you don't have to be in the Church of God to understand. Most people get it. There are some other less known commitments that God has made and fulfilled. I want to move to 2 Samuel to remind us that God made a personal promise to King David.

And that's a promise that when he fulfilled it, it affected not only David and his family, but has affected people all around the earth. It all started, or, well, I don't think it started, but it became known when King David wanted to build a temple for God, as we find in 2 Samuel 7.

I told you this Bible is slowing me down a little.

2 Samuel 7, beginning at the start of the chapter.

Now it came to pass, when the king was dwelling in his house, and the eternal had given him rest from all of his enemies all around, that the king said to Nathan the prophet, See, now I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells inside tent curtains. And Nathan said to the king, Well, go to all that's in your heart, for the Lord is with you.

And to no surprise, Nathan expected God to bless David's intent to build a temple, because God was blessing David and so many things. But Nathan was mistaken in this, and God soon sent instruction to set him straight, as we read there continuing in verse 4.

Now God didn't necessarily need or perhaps even want a temple built for him. Now, we know from what proceeds that he didn't want there not to be a temple. It just wasn't his primary concern. I'm going to skip ahead in the chapter, and as it turns out, God would tell David, No, I'm not going to let you build me a temple, because you've got too much blood on your hands. David had been involved in warfare since he was pretty young. He said, But your son, your son can build a temple to my name. But God turns to something else that's important in verse 16.

Actually, I'll start with verse 14.

And it shows that David was astonished. Not so much that he didn't think to go and tell God, Well, thank you, and please go ahead and fulfill this promise. But David was amazed. I just wanted to build a building, and you're making a promise that my dynasty, my descendants, will stay on the throne in perpetuity. Now, God would have to remember and take action to fulfill that. Actually, it only took a couple generations to require the follow-through. If we turn ahead to chapter 11 of 1 Kings, we can see that. 1 Kings 11 and verse 11. This is, of course, because David's son Solomon did many good things. But the story says that he married many women, and he let them turn his heart after other gods. And that brought punishment on him and the kingdom. 1 Kings... 2nd... Oh, I'm still on the tangent. Let me go to 1 Kings. 1 Kings 11. Starting in verse 11, you're probably already ahead of me.

2nd...

Breaking into a thought, God says, I will take the kingdom out of his son's hands and give it to you, ten tribes. This is a message coming to Jehu, or, no, Jeroboam, who would be made king. But it says, And we can see that promise being fulfilled throughout the books of Kings and Chronicles. The northern kingdom separated. It kept the name Israel, and it had a change of dynasty several times.

A man might rule in his son, and maybe a son's son, but sooner or later there'd be an uprising, they'd be killed, and someone else would take the throne. There wasn't a continuous line. But Judah, the southern kingdom, with Jerusalem as its capital, always had a descendant of King David. From David through Solomon to Rehoboam, all the way down to the last king that ruled in Jerusalem, Zedekiah. I've got that fresh in my mind. We're just about to cover that in the book of Jeremiah in one of my classes. The territory of the tribe he kept was Judah. And it's unusual. If you look at a map within Judah, there was some territory set aside for the tribe of Benjamin. Benjamin was smaller, so they gave them land that was within Judah. So, although it says, I'm going to give the dynasty of David one tribe, they ended up with two tribes, because Benjamin was sort of encompassed. And so many who were of the tribe of Benjamin became called Jews, because they were in the nation of Judah. They were Judahites, you could say, even though Benjaminites. There are some examples. We know the Apostle Paul in his writing said, I'm a Jew of the tribe of Benjamin. It was interesting to see that if you read the book of Esther, that Esther's uncle Mordecai, I think, I'm not sure if he was his uncle or cousin, the translation's vague. He was also a Benjamite, even though they're known as Jews. Interestingly, since the temple was in Jerusalem, a large number of the Levites also stayed in Judah or even moved there. And we suspect that a large number of those who think they're Jews in modern times are probably descended from Levi.

For instance, Cohen is a real common Jewish last name, but the Hebrew word Cohen means priest. And it's just guessing and speculation, but some people wonder if a large number of Jews named Cohen might actually be Levites, you know, who are from the nation of Judah.

This is speculation that we don't have to know, but we can know that God's promise to David is going to be fulfilled looking ahead to eternity, because the Bible clearly shows that Jesus Christ was descended from David. And when Jesus Christ returns to this earth, he will rule over Israel and all the nations.

Some might wonder, though, what about that in-between time? You know, from the time Jerusalem fell about 586 B.C. until Christ returns. Did God let his commitment lapse? Did he forget? Well, I don't think so. And we as a church believe he did not. Now, partly because, you know, what kind of God would he be if he just forgot for a while?

Now, the Bible doesn't tell us exactly how he kept that promise, but we see some hints here and there. I mentioned Zedekiah being the last king of Judah. We can turn to Jeremiah 43.

Jeremiah 43, beginning in verse 5. Now, I'm not going to read where it tells us that Zedekiah would be taken captive to Babylon.

And Nebuchadnezzar was a pretty cruel man. He wanted to make sure no sons of Zedekiah would rule over the Jews. So he had Zedekiah's sons brought before him and executed. And then they put Zedekiah's eyes out. So the last thing he ever saw was the sight of his sons being killed, which is a pretty gruesome thing.

But there was another way. And Isaiah 43, this is describing some of what happened to the few people left in Jerusalem by the Babylonians. Verse 5, it says, ...Johannan, the son of Kereah, and all the captains of the forces, took all the remnant of Judah, who had returned to dwell on the land of Judah, from all nations where they had been driven. Men, women, children, the kings, daughters, and every person who Nebuchadnezzar had been the captain of the guard, had left with Gedaliah, the son of Haikom, the son of Shaphan, and Jeremiah the prophet, and Baruch the son of Neriah.

So it lists several people, but the ones we want to focus in on are Jeremiah, with his scribe assistant Baruch, and these kings' daughters. Nebuchadnezzar had killed the king's sons, but the king's daughters survived. The book of Jeremiah shows that they all went to Egypt. And that's where the story ends.

The Bible doesn't tell us what happened next, but there are many legends and traditions that perhaps fill in the gaps. The legends say that Jeremiah the prophet took those kings' daughters and traveled on beyond Egypt, up through Spain, and then eventually to the land that we now know as Ireland. And those same traditions and legends say that a number of Israelites had previously moved and settled in that area. And so one of the king's daughters, who the tradition said was named Teatefi, married into the royal family of Ireland and produced children that ruled over descendants of Israel. As I said, we can't find that in Scripture, but there are legends that say this, and that over time that royal throne was transferred from Ireland to Scotland, and then from Scotland to England.

And if those legends are true, then Queen Elizabeth, representing the only continuously ruling family on the planet, is a descendant of King David, which means God has followed through on the commitment he made. God remembers. He follows through. And I think of that whenever I see news coverage, and there's pictures of young Prince George on TV, who's younger than Connor and Micah. But if this is true, and I personally believe it is, he's a descendant of King David. Now, you might say, now, come on, this is a bit of a stretch, isn't it? I might have thought so, but let's look at what God has to say about it. Turn back a few pages to Jeremiah 33. Jeremiah 33. We'll see God remembered the promise that he made to King David. And remember, the time between David and Jeremiah was a few hundred years. Human beings can forget and lose track of things in a few hundred years, but not God. Jeremiah 33, beginning in verse 17.

The Word of the Eternal came to Jeremiah, saying, That's a pretty powerful claim. Not only is David going to have a man left to rule, but apparently many. They're going to be as the stand of the seashore. And there's a memory device, too. Just think of the rainbow as a strong reminder of God's promise to Noah. How much more so is that the sun comes up every day and goes down every night.

God seems to be saying that as long as there is day and night, my commitment to David stands.

And that leads me to say God must have fulfilled that promise somehow. And that's where that, to me, gives a lot more life to those legends and traditions. And I always say it in that way, because as a history professor, I can't say, Okay, we can look at this written source that says exactly how that happened. But those, usually traditions, come from somewhere. And I'd say we could count on God fulfilling another promise that's here. We don't focus on this as much, but he also made a promise to the descendants of Levi. Now, we could go back in the first five books of the Bible and see how God chose the tribe of Levi to serve at the tabernacle and then the temple. And Aaron was of the Levites, so the priesthood would be preserved.

This promise here in Jeremiah might cause some consternation or doubt, because it says, Yeah, promise with the Levites. I want to make sure I read the right words. Yeah, in verse 18, the priest of the Levites will never lack a man to offer burnt offerings and grain offerings and sacrifice. Well, we know that we're not offering burnt offerings and sacrifice this day. Did God let that promise lapse? Well, I think not. We know that the sacrifice at the temple stopped when the Romans destroyed it in 70 AD. And the book of Hebrews was probably written before that to prepare Christians for that happening and to help them realize that we don't have to burn animal sacrifice anymore. Those sacrifices were symbolic of the only sacrifice that really matters, of Jesus Christ. But let's turn to Hebrews 7 to see what it does tell us. Hebrews 7 will begin in verse 26. Hebrews 7 and verse 26. As I said, remember, the whole book could be said to be devoted to explaining God's spiritual priesthood. It says, For such a high priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens. This is referring to Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is not only a king who will sit on the throne of David, but He's also a high priest. If we drop back up in this chapter to verse 12, we see that there was a change of the priesthood. Jesus, of course, was not descended from Aaron, and He wasn't a Levite. Here in Hebrews 7 and verse 12, it says, The priesthood being changed, of necessity there is a change of the law. For he of whom these things are spoken belongs to another tribe, from which no man has officiated at the altar. It is evident that our Lord arose from Judah, of which tribe Moses spoke nothing concerning the priesthood. It is yet far more evident if, in the likeness of Melchizedek, there arises another priest who has come not according to the law of fleshly commandments, but according to the power of an endless life. I'm going to stop there. But this is reminding us that Jesus Christ did become high priest after the order of Melchizedek, who we actually believe was Jesus Christ before he came in the flesh. But what about God's promise that the Levites would continue, that they would have someone to minister and offer sacrifices? Did he fail to fulfill his commitment? Did he forget? Again, I don't think so. Here in verse 12, it says, The priesthood being changed, of necessity there is also a change in the law. We refer to this chapter, and even to this scripture in particular, many times to explain some changes of how things are done in particular. You know, that we don't have to kill animals in sacrifice. We refer to it in how we tithe, that we no longer give a tenth of our produce to a tribe of Levi, but we pay our tithes to God's church to support the work of God that he is doing today.

So if we still tithe, but in a slightly different way, does it make sense that there might be sacrifice, but in a different way? Well, the writer of the book of Hebrews thinks so. If you turn over to chapter 13, in verse 15, Hebrews 13 and verse 15, it says, Therefore by him, let us continually, it says, let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name. Interesting. The sacrifice of praise. I want to turn to 1 Peter 2, but I'll mention that in Psalm 51, David's famous Psalm of repentance after his sin with Bathsheba, in Psalm 51 verse 17, it says, sacrifices of God are a broken and a contrite heart. And we could add to that 1 Peter 2 and verse 5, where it says, I take this to mean that while there's no need for us to burn the fat of animals and we don't have to sprinkle blood, we don't have to burn incense. Matter of fact, Revelation 8 and verse 4 says, our prayers, the prayers of the saints are his incense before God's throne. That was Revelation 8.4. So I didn't want to turn there. I wanted to give the reference. My students are always asking me to go back and say the Scriptures again. Our prayers and our praise to God are a type of spiritual sacrifice that they're telling us. And those that God has called in to be in his church, the body of Christ, are a royal priesthood. We must be then, therefore, after the order of Melchizedek, since we can't all... or we don't know that we're descended from Levi. So we could say sacrifice has always been offered to God. It changed at Christ's crucifixion from being the animal sacrifice on the altar to spiritual sacrifice. Still, what about the Levites? Back in Jeremiah 33, God promised the Levites would never lack a man to serve him and offer sacrifice. We could say, well, it doesn't say that no one else in addition to Levites would offer. That it must be true. Otherwise, why would there be a priesthood after the order of Melchizedek, with Jesus Christ being descended from Judah?

Here's where I want to speculate on something that I can't prove. But I'm confident that within God's church, there is at least one person offering spiritual sacrifice to God, who is the descendant of Levi. I suspect perhaps there are a great many. Remember in Jacob's prophecy... I'm not going to turn there, but back in Genesis 49, before he died, Jacob brought all of his sons and said, I'm going to tell you what will befall you in the last days. And he said several things to two of the tribes. He said, you're going to be scattered. You won't all stay as a group. That was Simeon and Levi. And of course, that was fulfilled with Levi when they entered the Promised Land. They weren't given a chunk of land. They were given cities throughout Israel. So they could serve God in that way. But that means when Israel scattered the Levites, many of them went also. I think many Levites did go to Jerusalem to serve the Temple, but many also went with the northern tribes. That makes me think, if many who think they're Jews today are actually a Benjamin or Levi, how many who look at themselves primarily as Americans or British or Scandinavians are descended from Levi? Perhaps a great many. And I suspect many who are called into God's Church. There could be a number of us in this room who are descended from Levi. But for God to have fulfilled His promise, only one person in all the world who's offering spiritual sacrifice would have to be. I just suspect there's probably more than that. The Levites survive, and they must be among us in God's Church. I mentioned Cohen as the Hebrew word for priest, and there are Jews with that last name. It came to mind because I was able to serve in Scotland, SCP, for a number of times. And there was a family there that was in the Church whose last name was Templeman. And I always thought, boy, it'd be cool if Templeman was someone who'd served at the Temple. I did some work on researching the linguistics, and I can't find a connection. The Hebrew word for Temple isn't Temple, but who knows? There could be something to it. But I want to move on from this, though. We see that God sometimes makes long-term personal commitments. He made a personal commitment to David. He made a commitment to the Levites. And we see there are some to others where God does that, and He remembers. He doesn't forget, and He follows through. So we could ask, what about us? We know God never fails. How about our memory? And what does God want us to remember? I gave some thought to that, and then I realized the first thing I should put on my list is God wants us to remember Him. I'm not going to turn there, but Ecclesiastes 12, verse 1, says, Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth. God wants us to remember Him. I do want to turn to Psalm 77. I think this is well put. Psalm 77, beginning in verse 11.

I can't get to that page. Psalm 77, starting in verse 11, says, I will remember the works of the Eternal. Surely I will remember your wonders of old. I'll meditate on your work and talk of your deeds. Thus, beyond remembering that God exists, it's good to remember the things that He's done, and talk about them, share them with others.

That's the job of the ministry. Part of our teaching and preaching should include reminders of God and talking about His great works. Let's go one further. If we turn back to Deuteronomy 8, verse 11, we'll see actually just one example of something that God tells us very clearly to remember.

That was Deuteronomy 8, verse 11.

It says, Be aware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments. His judgment and His statutes was I command you this day. God says, Remember Him by keeping His commandments, statutes, and judgments.

This seems to be going beyond saying, Oh, it's a good idea, because do this. A way that we remember God is keeping His commandments. So to remember God, we worship God, and we obey Him.

And we say, Well, okay, that's not so hard. To remember God, I just have to keep His commandments.

And I say, Knowing my memory, I say, Well, what if I forget His commandments? We're not supposed to do that. David thought it was pretty important. I'm going to turn to Psalm 119. I wanted to string three scriptures together that I thought were going to make this point pretty well. Actually, I was wrong. Four scriptures, all in Psalm 119.

But Psalm 119 is long enough to be longer than several other books of the Bible. The first verse being verse 83.

And it's the last part of the verse that I want to note. The first part says, I've become like a wineskin in smoke, yet I do not forget your statutes. Do not forget your statutes. Looking ahead to verse 109. Verse 109 says, My life is continually in my hand, yet I do not forget your law.

Don't forget your law.

Across the page in verse 141.

Verse 141 says, I'm small and despised, yet I do not forget your precepts.

And to sum it up, I'm going to go to the last verse in the chapter. Verse 176.

I've gone astray like a lost sheep, seeked your servant, for I do not forget your commandments.

David, of course, he was a poet, and he was saying it in poetic language. But he's telling us we better remember God's law, His judgments, His precepts, His statutes, and His commandments.

I say, is your memory that good? Yeah, a mind isn't. God knows our memories are limited, so He did the most obvious thing. He wrote it down for us. He didn't just say it once. I think it's fascinating, looking back in the story of God giving the law to Israel, we know He spoke the Ten Commandments in all their hearing. And of course, they said, Moses, we're going to die if we keep hearing God talk. Please, you go talk to Him and come back and tell us what He said. And God said, yeah, that's fine, Moses. You send Him back to their tents, come up and listen to Me. And Moses went up and God wrote down the Ten Commandments on a very permanent substance, tables of stone. Well, sort of permanent, because the first ones, Moses got angry when he saw the golden calf and he broke those. God wanted that memorial to stay, so He said, Moses, carve out two more tables and bring them up, and I'm going to write the Ten Commandments on those. And that's exactly what He did.

But I do want to go back. I didn't want to turn there, but if we go back to Deuteronomy 31, we'll note that God wanted to make sure that this law was written down where people could see it and read it.

Not just the Ten Commandments. Well, actually, I'm going to get to that in a moment. First, I want to read Deuteronomy 31 and verse 9 to make sure that the people would know the rest of this.

Deuteronomy 31 verse 9. I don't think there is a chapter 39.

Moses wrote this law and delivered it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who bore the ark of the covenant of the Eternal and to all the elders of Israel. And Moses commanded them, saying, At the end of every seven years, at the appointed time, in the year of release, at the feast of tabernacles, when all Israel comes to appear before the Lord your God in the place which he chooses, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing. Gather the people together, men and women and little ones and the stranger who is within your gates, that they may hear, and they may learn to fear the Lord your God and carefully observe all the words of this law.

Back then, they didn't have mass printing the way we do today, so written words were fairly few. So most people probably didn't have their own Bible. But God said, When they come together, at least once every seven years, read it all to them.

But the written law was to be made available in a very public way. If you turn back a few pages to chapter 27, Deuteronomy 27 and verse 5, this is something we don't note that often, but I've always found it to be intriguing.

God instructed Moses, who told the people, after they entered the Promised Land, he said, There you shall build an altar to the Lord your God, an altar of stones. You shall not use an iron tool on them. Build it with whole stones, the altar of the Eternal, and offer your burnt offerings, and peace offerings. It goes on from there.

And verse 8, And you shall write very plainly, or it could say legibly, on the stones all the words of this law.

We could call this like a public memorial. Build this larger-than-life altar, I would suspect, and write the whole law. Write out Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. It's what I suspect was on it.

And I'm not going to turn there, but it's...

Now, where was that? In Joshua 8, verses 30-32, it shows that Joshua carried that instruction out. I believe it says, They whitewashed the stones and then wrote the law on it. So it was out there where anybody who could read could come at any time.

The written law is a powerful reminder.

We could add to it hearing it regularly.

Now, we don't, every seven years, go to the feast and just spend services having someone just read the law to us.

And I think the main reason is, well, we believe that that particular instruction was part of the sacrificial system that's not required by us. But we've got something better. We do each own our own copy. Matter of fact, Sue and I were visiting her parents, and I'll bet you they've got at least 20 copies of the Bible in that house.

We've got Bibles coming out of our ears. We can read it. Every single day, we don't have to wait until the seventh year.

While we're here in Deuteronomy, I'll note something else that God instructed. In chapter 17 and verse 15, God was looking ahead. There are certain people He wanted to make sure that would remember.

Deuteronomy 17 and verse 15, "...you shall surely set a king over you, whom the Lord your God chooses, one from among your brethren you shall set his king over you. You may not set a foreigner over you who is not your brother." Dropping down to verse 18, "...it shall be, when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself a copy of this law in a book from the one before the priest of Levites. And it shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord as God, and be careful to observe all the words of the law and the statutes." I'm glad we don't have to hand-write our own copy of the book of the law. If we did, we'd probably remember it much better. But I don't know, I'd have trouble reading mine, because my handwriting's not so good. I think we should read our Bibles, though, all our lives. And I believe we should read it every day. We encourage daily Bible study. We don't treat it like we do other books. I've got a lot of books that I've read once and set on the shelf. They're there if I want to make a reference. Or, you know, Sue and her mom have found there are some bookstores where you can buy books and then bring them back and sell them and buy other ones. You know, you read those books once and that's good enough. But we read the Bible daily and over and over again, partly because it's a memory device. We read God's law and we remember God's law and we do it. And thus we remember God. But I'm pausing. There is one problem there. Looking at history shows us that's not enough. The people of Israel had God's law. They had it read to them. They had the Ten Commandments written on tables of stone. They had the whole law written on that altar. But they still forgot. They disobeyed. They broke their covenant with God. That could be us. So we need something more. We need a better memory device. And the truth is, we have it. Let's read in the New Testament. I want to go back to Hebrews, to chapter 8.

Although I'll admit, Hebrews 8 and verse 10 is quoting from what God wrote or told to Jeremiah back in Jeremiah 31 verse 33. But I'm going to read the New Testament quote of it. Hebrews 8 and verse 10 says, This is the covenant that I'll make with the house of Israel after those days, says the eternal. I will put my laws in their mind and write them on their hearts. And I will be their God and they'll be my people. And this is repeated a couple of chapters later. But we want to remember it's a metaphor. I don't think God is going to take us in the hospital and split open our sternum and get out of Sharpie and start writing on our hearts the law. We probably remember that, but we couldn't read what was there. It's a metaphor, though, for the way God does reach into our minds. And Jesus explained it very clearly in John chapter 14. John 14 and verse 26. It was on this last evening that Jesus got to spend with the disciples before his crucifixion. And it's interesting. He told him, I've got a lot of things to tell you, but you can't bear them now. But he said, but you're going to have a comforter that's going to help you. And he says this in John 14 and verse 26. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, which the Father will send in my name, it will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all the things that I said to you. And to that I say, hallelujah! As a forgetful person with a bad memory, it's such an encouraging thing that God says, the Holy Spirit is going to help you remember. The Holy Spirit could probably help us remember all kinds of things. Where did I put my car keys? What's the name of that person that I met at the feast four years ago that I bumped into and now I can't remember? And I will mention, when I've served at summer camps over the years, I usually start off by praying, God, please help me remember everyone's names. When you're a camp counselor, so only you've got 20 guys and you've got to learn their names by tomorrow. And it's always worked. But Jesus Christ promised specifically that the Holy Spirit will help us remember God's law, His words, everything He teaches. That's a terrific memory device. The power and essence of God in our very minds, giving us a better memory than we could ever have on our own. And one of the things that's fabulous is it also provides us the power to follow through. God remembered His covenant with David, but He did more than remember He followed through. He worked miracles to cause it to be fulfilled. God can work miracles in us through His Spirit so that we are able to obey, able to conquer our human nature and our desire to follow Satan. So we can do more than remember. We can follow God's commandments because of the power of God. I'll just quote Philippians 4 in verse 13. Philippians 4, 13 is where Paul said, I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me.

And I could go on at length about how the Holy Spirit works in us, and we talk about that at various times. I'll mention just briefly one other memory device that I think goes with this. Because education scholars have studied how people learn and remember, and they say people remember some of what they hear, and they remember more of what they see, but we remember most of what we do.

And I think that might be part of why God gave us commands to do certain things at certain times. He commands us to remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. And so, once a week, the Sabbath is not only a way to honor and worship God, but it triggers our memories. We remember God and we obey Him.

It's a great boost to our memories. And God also gave us a set of annual Holy Days. They're all listed in Leviticus 23. As I said just a couple days ago, we kept a national holiday of thanksgiving that reminds us of the things that our forefathers did in this country and of the blessings we have.

But the Holy Days remind us of so much more. And although it's been longer than a couple of days ago, the fact that we have those days, and they're coming around again in the spring, they remind us of what God has done.

It's interesting. He could have just told us His plan and left it at that, but by making us keep those days every year, it reminds us of His plan of salvation.

And as I was writing this, I thought He could have told us to keep these Holy Days once in a generation, like the Jubilee year would come once every 50 years, but notice it every year.

Year after year, we keep those Holy Days. And year after year, we have guys like me stand up and remind us of why we're keeping those Holy Days.

And we study in our Bibles to remind ourselves of why we're keeping them. And in doing that, we remember God, and we'll remember to obey.

To me, that's encouraging. And of course, it also encourages me that since we've just done that, I don't have to go through the meaning of the Holy Days. We've done it this year, and we'll do it again soon.

I'm very happy to say I've never had a recurring dream about forgetting to keep the Sabbath. That dream always involves forgetting to go to a class, but I've always remembered to keep the Sabbath and the Holy Days.

It should be hard to forget to keep God's commandments, as they get so ingrained in us.

And God set us an example that He always remembers. He always follows through on His commitments. And He wants us to become like Him.

We can use the memory devices that He gave us. We can study His Word. We can keep the annual Sabbath and the weekly Sabbath. And we can call on the Holy Spirit so that we can remember and we can follow through.