Remember

Last Sabbath I spoke about freedom

God is a god of freedom, he created us to be free

God’s freedom is different from political freedom, or even social freedom.

A country may say they are free but to many, it may seem like they are not free to do as they want.

Social freedom - to interact and speak

Religious freedom - free to worship as you want

In Egypt - Israel didn’t have political freedom, social freedom was restricted, and religious freedom was very limited. Egypt came first and then your beliefs.

In order to be truly free, God had to take them out of Egypt because Israel needed to be far from the place and people who enslaved them.

God had to show them that true freedom comes from the ability to worship God freely, to live a society that sharing your faith is encouraged, to be in an environment conducive to spiritual growth.

Free to obey without thinking that your obedience is legalism.

The Israelites were learning to live free.

God gives them laws (laws of liberty)

In order to preserve this liberty, he sets up special days...

Days so that we don’t forget. Days to remember what God had done in the past.

Holidays, feasts, anniversaries are times to remember a special day - that originated with God.

God started the idea of anniversaries - these were to remember our freedom

Forget? / ¿Olvida?

Forget?

We know how important it is to forget certain things from the past. But truly we don’t forget everything. Even those painful memories are there for a reason, but we don’t celebrate bad memories. We celebrate good things that come out of bad situations.

To truly “forget” would almost be a negative thing

To forget would mean to repeat the same mistake again.

If we forget the pain we suffered, we would suffer once again

The painful memory, of a failed relationship, of a fall, in a way, is a gift that propels us to overcome, grow, and to know how to help others.

God tells his people that they should remember their Egyptian experience. Not just to wish they were there again, but to appreciate where they are now.

We should never forget where God has taken us from. All these experiences have helped us to become the people we are today. Without those experiences, we wouldn’t be so strong, so ready, so compassionate.

We look back and lament. We remember bad decisions, bad moments, but many of those experiences God can use to bless you and for you to bless others.

Specifically, God told them to remember the moment they left Egypt.

We tend to forget things - how do we remember things?

Things we do over and over again

Things we commit to memory

Things you didn’t try to remember but you did

Adrenaline stores memories of trauma

Every time I cross the intersection where I was hit brings back that memory.

After many times crossing it again, I remember less the event when crossing, but I’ll never forget it happened.

do you think the Israelites lived a traumatic experience in Egypt?

The moments leading up to their release and freedom

Plagues, death, leaving in a haste, leaving your home behind for good, walking into the unknown in the desert...

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Exodus 12:14 NKJV

14 ‘So this day shall be to you a memorial; and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generations. You shall keep it as a feast by an everlasting ordinance.

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Exodus 12:14 RVC

14 »Este día deberán recordarlo y celebrarlo generación tras generación, como fiesta solemne en honor del Señor. Es un estatuto perpetuo que deben celebrar.

The Torah affirms the importance of remembering

Six Commandments of Remembering // Seis mandamientos de Recordar

The Sabbath - Exodus 20:8

The Exodus - Deut 16:3

Receiving the law at Sinai - Deut 4:9-10

Amalek - Deut 25:17-19

The golden calf and other incidents that provoked God’s anger - Deut 9:7

Mary punished by God for speaking bad about Moses - Deut 24:9; Numbers 12:1-9

Why is it important to remember? // ¿Por qué es importante recordar?

Gives meaning to history / le da significado a la historia

we need to know how we got here.

We learn from history / aprendemos de la historia

freedom is the greatest human desire and its worth struggling/fighting for. The Exodus story has inspired many movements of social change than any other story in literature.

Leads to Wisdom / lleva a la sabiduría

we learn from our mistakes and avoid to repeat them. Let’s not forget our fundamental right of freedom. Many have good intentions to change things in society, but it takes wisdom to not forget and go back to what enslaved them. Many in this country would like to go a system that enslaved millions