30: How to Remember God’s Faithfulness

[00:00] Stephanie: Surprise. It’s Season 3, episode 30.

[00:03] The podcast is on a break right now. But we could not resist coming and popping in with a bonus episode for you because it’s season three, episode 30 for three years of podcasting together and we just had to celebrate.

[00:18] Hello, Father.

[00:19] Marcus: Hello Daughter. So this is our Tree Trees podcast.

[00:22] Stephanie: Yes, our Tree trees. That’s a mother inside joke.

[00:25] Marcus: Tree trees.

[00:26] Stephanie: Yes, three threes, tree trees. Oh, yes. And also you can see we’re in a new format. We are on a break, we’re on the trail and honestly, stay tuned. This could be the start of a sneak peek for some season four stuff. I also just want to clarify, we’re popping up in the middle of the summer.

We’re currently going through our A Deeper Walk summer study and that will continue through the summer. Season four will start later, but we just wanted to pop in with a bonus summer episode.

We’re doing this because it’s our birthday, so we have presents, we have a giveaway for you. That’s right. We’re going to give away three of our heart-focused discipleship self-paced courses.

We’ve talked about Freedom Course, Identity Course and, guess what guys, Spirit and Scripture Course is coming. We are working hard on it right now and it is coming in the fall.

And so we want to give away three self-paced courses. One, two, three different winners. The way that you can enter that is if you come to the YouTube channel to Deeper Walk’s YouTube channel to this episode and comment in the chat, there will also be a link in the description for you to fill out an official form so we can contact you.

But to get us going, I want to ask you, if you’ve been with us for a while, what has been a favorite topic that we’ve covered over the course of our three years? However long you’ve been with us, what is something that makes you smile or just, “Oh, that was so good!” as you’ve been on the trail with us, would you comment on the YouTube channel? We would love to hear about it.

Father, would you also give a quick pitch for why the self-paced courses are exciting?

[02:11] Marcus: Yes, the self-paced courses represent a Deeper Walk putting together a complete curriculum on heart-focused discipleship. They’re designed to be the follow-up to the summer study that we’re doing, A Deeper Walk.

The idea is if you want to go deeper and say, take your own time and go through about three hours of content full of exercises and things on freedom, we’ve got that on identity. Spirit and Scripture are coming. And hopefully at the beginning of next year, we’ll have Heart-Focused Community so that you’ll have an opportunity, at your own pace, to go deeper and really internalize this stuff and make it your own.

[02:46] Stephanie: I’m excited for it. So let’s have a party in the comments. And if this is your first episode with us or you’re relatively new, you can join the party and  I’ll also give you another prompt at the end of the episode.

Without further ado, let’s get into some meat. Today’s topic is ‘How to Have a Biblical Birthday Party’. No? Okay. Broader than that. Broader than that. We’re looking at this idea of memorials and how to remember things of significance.

So, Father, would you open us up with that? What do you mean by memorials?

[03:17] Marcus: Well, you know, many times in scripture we see that memorials are erected for important events, and because it’s Israel, they’re usually stones because there’s a lot of stones everywhere so it’s easy to put piles of stones. The idea is that future generations will see that pile of stones and go, “What is that all about?”

Now, these piles of stones weren’t six inches high. They made these things big. One of the more famous ones would be the stones that were set up in the middle of the Jordan River. I think we’re going to talk today about the Ebenezer Stone that Samuel erected.

But memorials go beyond stones. There are other kinds of memorials, from the stone tablets and the tabernacle, and the Ark of the Covenant was a form of memoria, Sabbath day is a form of memorial. And in the New Testament, Jesus gives us the Lord’s Supper to remember him by. The whole point of memorial is that it’s either an activity or an object that helps you remember something important about God and what he’s done.

[04:17] Stephanie: That’s so good. Well, you mentioned Ebenezer. I know that from the hymn, “Here I Raised Mine Ebenezer.” Can you give us some context? What is that memorial?

[04:28] Marcus: Yes, eben is the Hebrew word for stone, and ezer is the Hebrew word for help or helper. And so it’s kind of the Stone of Help or the Stone of our Helper, something like that. It was set up by Samuel and I’ll give you the context.

The book of 1 Samuel is chronicling the end of the period of the Judges and the rise of the period of the kings. In fact, I tend to think of 1 and 2 Samuel as 1 and 2 David, because 1 Samuel introduces us to David. You know, in the middle of the book, he kills Goliath, and then he’s running from Saul for the rest of that book. And then 2 Samuel is all about the reign of David. In fact, Samuel has passed away by chapter 25 of 1 Samuel. He’s not in 2 Samuel at all. So it’s confusing to people, so I just think of him as 1 and 2 David.

What’s happening here is that the period of the Judges was a period of idolatry. It was a period of syncretism. It was a time when the Torah was lost, it was forgotten. People were not following God’s laws. And Samuel is that bridge. He is the last judge and he is a prophet, and he is trying to turn the hearts of the people back.

To give you an example of where they were and what syncretism looks like, syncretism is the unnatural blending of worldviews. It’s putting two worldviews together that don’t belong together. And so when the Philistines, who were the archenemies of Israel, attacked, they were losing battle after battle with the Philistines.

And so they were like, “We’ve got to change strategies. What are we going to do? Well, there are stories about us, Israel, being undefeated when the Ark of God was with us.” So they said, “What if we bring the Ark of the Covenant in?

And they were treating the Ark of the Covenant like it was an idol. They were treating it like it was a magical object. That just having this, Indiana Jones style, this object would create enough power to win. And the Philistines took it the same way. The Philistines were like, “Uh oh, their God has entered the camp. The idol of their God is now in the camp. We’ve never had to fight against a God before.” And they were like, “Come on, Philistines, let’s be men and fight.” And God’s like, “Yeah, no, that’s not me. That’s not how this works.”

This is syncretism. You’re taking paganism and the worship of Yahweh and you’re putting them together, and those don’t belong together. So, kind of to teach everybody what was going on, he allowed the ark to be captured. He humbled the God Dagon in his own temple when the Philistines captured him. You know, that’s the story where the idol falls and the head and the hands fall off and God was showing, “No, I am what’s important here, not objects.”

Right after this, Samuel leads the nation in a revival. And he is saying, “Look, we got to get rid of our idols. We’ve got to turn to Yahweh with all of our hearts. We’ve got to go back to following God’s law.” And they are in the middle of this ceremony, rededicating themselves to God right now. Who would not like that? Satan would not like that. So what happens is, as they’re in the middle of this revival service, basically the Philistines sneak attack. But God shows up. This time, no ark, no magic. God shows up. He makes it thunder through the thing. We don’t know the whole story, but God basically wins this battle for them.

Afterwards, they complete the ceremony and they’re like, “Okay, we’re going to be God’s people now. And he raises this Ebenezer, he raises a stone. It may have been a big pile of stones. We don’t know quite how big it was, but it was meant to last for generations to remind people that when you do it God’s way, God will be your helper. He is here to help, but he helps those who follow him. Unfortunately, Israel didn’t really pay attention to that, because in the very next chapter, chapter eight, the very next story, they’re like, “We can’t count on God showing up at the last minute like that. We need a king and a standing army.”

[08:14] Stephanie: That’s not a plan.

[08:16] Marcus: Yeah. So that’s basically their idea. It’s not a plan to just trust in God to show up. And God’s like, “Actually, that’s a pretty good plan.”

[08:27] Stephanie: Especially if he tells you to.

[08:29] Marcus: Yes. The context here is that the Ebenezer was erected to remember the revival, to remember getting rid of the idols, not putting your trust in man, putting your trust in God and doing things his way. And so the idea was, every generation in the future, when they walk by those stones, you have an opportunity to remember that lesson and to teach that lesson to the next generation.

[08:52] Stephanie: Mm. It’s not a mile marker, but as you’re walking, right, you’re like, “Give some directions.”

“Oh, past that memorial over there.”

“What is that memorial for?” Well… yeah, exactly. So let’s linger on this idea of remembrance. What does the Bible have to say about the importance of remembrance?

[09:12] Marcus: I often think of Deuteronomy when Moses, well, God, through Moses was saying, he used the word remember on several occasions in the book. Kind of like, remember what Egypt was really like, remember what slavery was like and remember the deliverance. Remember what I did to the Egyptians. Remember what happened at the Red Sea. Remember how you were delivered from the bondage and brought into this land.

Because if you forget, he said forgetting is the first step towards backsliding. But remembrance keeps us from backsliding. Remembrance keeps us from drifting towards idols, from drifting in our trust in God, from drifting in our walk with him. And so if forgetting, to God, is that important, he’s like, “Let’s make sure you remember. I’m going to give you things to help you remember.”

So he gave him the Sabbath day as a remembrance every week. He gave them festivals. He gave them a lot of things, because not forgetting is a really important part. And then Jesus, as I mentioned, did the same thing with the Lord’s Supper. It’s important not to forget or you’re going to drift.

[10:14] Stephanie: It just strikes me, for those of you who are with us on our long Exodus series, we spent a long time trying to unlearn the slave mindset and learn the new identity and to know God. And you have Pharaoh saying, “Who is Yahweh? I don’t know Yahweh.” And he’s like, “Let me introduce myself.” And you have all of these tests and these times of learning, who are we? Who is God? How do we act?

And then they forget. Let’s not unlearn all of that. Let’s keep this discipline. So we have rhythms and, like you said, the festivals and then even sunrise and sunset, time for remembrance, right? It’s baked into creation. So it’s so good.

You mentioned New Testament stuff. Could you linger there real quick on communion and how it’s not just in the Torah festivals and stuff that we see remembrance in the Bible.

[11:11] Marcus: Jesus clearly said, “Do this in remembrance of me.” So this was his memorial. This was the ceremony he put in place for remembering him so that we don’t forget. Every time that we do communion, there’s always a past, present and future part to it. There’s remember the past, remember me. That’s where we start. There’s the present, that is examine yourself. Paul says, when you take the Lord’s Supper, examine yourself. That’s the present.

And then there’s the future. Because Jesus said, “I’ll do this with you someday in the future. We’re all going to be together when the kingdom is going to come.” So when I take the Lord’s Supper, it’s an interesting opportunity to remember, to examine and to anticipate and to be encouraged. The Lord is coming and his kingdom will prevail.

[12:00] Stephanie: So how can we, on a practical level, aside from taking communion together at church and such, how can we reflect on biblical memorials?

[12:11] Marcus: I remember in the little book on Advent that I did a few years ago, it’s been longer than a few years now, but one of the little exercises we had people do is to go around the dinner table and give everybody little pebbles and have everybody tell something they’re thankful for and then put the pebble in the middle of the table and gradually build their own little pile of rocks, kind of like they did in the Old Testament.

You can do this over and over again throughout Advent if you want to, and just keep building that pile of rocks in there. What happens is every time we have something to be grateful for, that’s an opportunity to remember God’s provision. We want to think of God as the God who provides.

If we get this really anchored well in our minds, that he is a God who provides, then when problems come up and I don’t know where the provision is going to come from, I am much more likely to remember that God is the one who provides. He is Jehovah Jireh or Yahweh Yira. He is the God who provides. That’s one example.

There’re other things people do. They prayer walk their yards, and maybe leave something as a marker that they’ve done that. I know churches that have had weekend retreats and things where people have written things on stones or they’ve written things on paper and burned it in the fire.

There’s things like that are meant to be markers. I know people kind of write special things in their Bible, as on this date, made this commitment, and that sort of thing.

[13:44] Stephanie: Well, and that’s on the trajectory of creating memorials in our own lives of how to remember things, which is really good. This is a really little thing, but I remember when I officially became full time at Deeper Walk, we were at a staff and board retreat, and I got this teacup from the location that we were at as a remembrance. Anytime that I drink out of it, I’m like, “Thank you, Lord, for the provision of this job and thank you for the end. It’s like a call too.”

[14:15] Marcus: Oh, that’s really good. You gave me a little statue when my first book was published of a knight kneeling and offering up the pen. Every time I see that, I remember you giving it to me. I remember also that it was the fulfillment of a dream that God would allow me to write books someday.

And it reminds me, too, that when I graduated with my one degree, my parents gave me a picture to commemorate that. It just is calligraphy of Proverbs 3:5 and 6: Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Then later, when I got another degree, they gave me a little statuette of Moses because there was meaning behind that in terms of my call to being involved in freedom ministry and Moses being associated with freedom.

And so, yeah, there’s a lot of little things like that that are good for remembrance. I see the Moses statue right here,

[15:17] Stephanie: I was going to say, I can see your knight with the pen from where I’m at right now. I love it.

So, on that note, I did want to circle back around. At the start of the episode, I said I would give another prompt to comment on our YouTube channel. Another prompt for listeners, whether you’ve been with us for all three years or this is your first episode and you’re like, “How did I get here? Who are you people? But this was cool.”

I just wanted to encourage you, in light of this idea of remembrance, and being intentional about remembering significant things that God has done in your life, do you have any practices or memorials like this that you already have? Or is this discussion inspiring to you to think through that and maybe start one? Why don’t you let us know in the comments. We would love to encourage each other and get inspiration from each other in that.

So, Father, I guess I’m asking you for final thoughts, but before I ask for final thoughts, I do want to just remind people because I don’t want to end on the giveaway call out.

I do want to remind you, we want to give away 3 copies of our self-paced courses for our heart-focused discipleship. You can choose which one you want. You can choose Freedom, Identity or Spirit and Scripture if you win. There is a link in the description with all the details there, I won’t overwhelm you with how to do all the things here. But, we would love to equip three people for our third birthday with this.

But yes, Father, final thoughts for memorials?

[16:44] Marcus: Yeah, reflecting on this, it’s interesting to see what the Bible itself emphasizes as being core to our walk. What I find is this theme of remembering and forgetting. Remembering and forgetting is in the Bible a lot. One of the things it tells us to do, which maybe isn’t a memorial but it’s in the same vein, is the meditation on God’s Word. Because the idea is that if I meditate on His Word day and night, it helps me remember, right? It helps me not to forget and it keeps it in the forefront of my thinking.

The idea is that if I’m meditating on this, and memorials help us do this as well, they help me to meditate on what God has done so that I am more likely to remember and to act. We’ve been talking about not forgetting. The Bible also sometimes refers to, “And God remembered,” like when Noah was out in the ark and it says, “And God remembered Noah was there.”

It’s not that God had forgotten, but it’s interesting when it says that God remembered, that means that was the moment where he acted. I think that’s partly what we’re trying to do. If we want to act in the moment in the way that God wants us to, then we need to make sure that we do things to help us remember, not forget.

[17:55] Stephanie: Good word. Well, thank you all again for a happy three years together.

Stay tuned for Season 4 updates and we’ll see you back next week for the summer study. Thanks for joining us on the trail today.

Did you like this episode? Would you like more people to see it? This is the part where I ask you to like, comment, subscribe, share with a friend. And do you love this channel? One of the best ways that you can support us is by becoming a Deeper Walk Trailblazer.

Thanks again. We’ll see you back on the trail next week.