Remember the Past, Look to the Future
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Joshua 4:20-22
Joshua 4:20-22
And those twelve stones, which they took out of the Jordan, Joshua set up at Gilgal. And he said to the people of Israel, “When your children ask their fathers in times to come, ‘What do these stones mean?’ then you shall let your children know, ‘Israel passed over this Jordan on dry ground.’ For the Lord your God dried up the waters of the Jordan for you until you passed over, as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up for us until we passed over, so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the Lord is mighty, that you may fear the Lord your God forever.”
God’s memorials are so that we will never forget what God has done.
That makes sense to all of us. Tennessee and the South are filled with memorials of the Civil War. Washington DC has memorials of all the wars and more. As a nation, we are shouting, “Do not forget!” We know that if the people forget, they are doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past, and maybe worse, not appreciate what was done to give us the freedom we have today.The same is with God. By always remembering we are able to maintain humility and dependence on God. By always remembering how God saved us, we are more compassionate toward others and desire their salvation as well.
For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
The Lord wants us to remember the past. That is our history and it reminds us of the goodness of God. But, we are not supposed to live in the past. He tells us in Jeremiah 29:11 that He has a future planned for each of us. There is a reason the rearview mirror is so small in comparison to the windshield.
“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.
Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.
