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A Day To Remember (#20050530)
by Henry Morris, Ph.D.

"And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever" (Exodus 12:14).

The above command was given to the children of Israel by God through Moses, as He was preparing to lead them away from slavery in Egypt into the Promised Land to establish their own free nation. On that day, an angel of death would slay every first-born son in Egypt, except that he would "pass over" the homes of the Israelites because of the blood of a slain lamb sprinkled on the lintels and door posts of their houses. That particular date would thereafter be made an annual "memorial day," called Passover, throughout future generations.

Our forefathers, who established our own U.S.A. nation, often felt that there was a kind of spiritual analogy between the deliverance of Israel from Egypt and our deliverance from a despotic king in England via our War of Independence. Memorial Day (originally called Decoration Day) was established about the time of the Civil War as a special holiday honoring those who had died in a war fighting to establish or preserve our freedoms.

Just as Israel often forgot to observe their Passover memorial day in later generations, however, so the purpose of our own Memorial Day often is forgotten, with the day being used by most as just another holiday for travel and recreation.

This should indeed be a day to remember and honor all those who have fought and died to maintain our land of the free. If we forget them, we may also soon forget their God and our God, who is the ultimate giver of freedom. We must never forget the sober and fearful warning of Psalm 9:17: "The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God."

Lest Thou Forget

“Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons’ sons” (Deuteronomy 4:9).

Some of us can remember the words of a melancholy song of the twenties: “You promised that you’d forget me not: but you forgot to remember.” Words like these seem to apply increasingly to our observance of Memorial Day, which was originally established in 1868 to honor the Civil War dead, as well as all those others who have given their lives to establish and preserve our “sweet land of liberty.” But now it has become just a holiday, a day for leisure and pleasure, rather than for prayer and thankfulness, at least for most Americans.

Like the Israelites of old, who had been urged by Moses not to “forget the things thine eyes have seen, . . . but teach them thy sons, and thy sons’ sons,” but who did indeed soon forget and go the way of the world, the flesh, and the devil, we Americans have largely forgotten these patriots of the past who sacrificed their lives that we might live in freedom. Especially have we—especially our political, educational, and commercial leaders—largely forgotten the God in whom our forefathers believed, and who answered their prayers for our land.

Because Israel forgot, their land eventually was taken over by strangers and her people dispersed all over the world. America is not immune to judgment either, and we need to remember that, “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God” (Psalm 9:17).

In the haunting words of Rudyard Kipling, we surely need to pray: “Lord God of hosts, be with us yet; lest we forget, lest we forget.”

MEMORIAL DAY, MAY 30, 2006
(observed on May 29th, 2006 )


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            Forget-Me-Nots

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                    In Loving Memory of all our troops, and                   
                              Veterans

                                         God Bless You