Remember when...?

Exodus 20:2 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

I’ve been reading Exodus and Leviticus lately. One thing that I’ve been noticing is that God continually reminds His people of what He’s done for them. God actually prefaced the Ten Commandments by proclaiming who He is and what He’d done for His people. So, I’m thinking this must be pretty important to God.

The first time the children of Israel are told to remember that God has brought them out of bondage by His strength and by His mighty hand is right after the first Passover. It was Moses who told the people to remember what God had just done for them and to keep His feast as a memorial (Exodus 13:3).

From this point on the people were continually reminded of what God did for them. When they complained about their situation, they were reminded by their leaders, Moses and Aaron, that God delivered them. The response to their whining was a reminder of who God is and how He saved them. Even more than just a verbal reminder would be a fresh physical revelation to the people of God’s unending favor for them. Water from rocks, bread from heaven, quail for meat: all of these things were reminders to the people of God’s great love for them. They were living under God’s covenant of grace by faith; they were living under a covenant that God had made with Abraham.

Something happened to the people: they forgot that it was God who did all of these things for them. And in Exodus 19 they made the biggest mistake of all time. The people boastfully told God that they were well able to do whatever He could tell them to do. They declared that they were well able to accomplish any task set before them by God (Exodus 19:3-8).

They said this to God right after Moses reminded them of what God had done for them. They replied to God in such a way as to imply that they were the ones who delivered themselves from Egypt.

God immediately changed His tone. He commanded the people to get away. He referred to Himself, and the mountain He was on, as holy. Death was the penalty for coming too close. God decided to give rules since the people were “well able” to do what He said, since they were “well able” to accomplish all that He had already done for them.

Right before God gave His commandments, His laws, and His regulations for how to live a right life, He declared once again what He had done for His people. From this point on, in His laws, God continually adds tag lines that declare Him to be God and declare His work and how He brought the people out of Egypt. 

What’s the point of all of this? God wants us to continually focus on what He’s done and is doing for us. God loves to take care of His family. It’s when we think that we’re able to do it on our own that bad things begin to happen. God’s greatest desire is for us to focus on Him, His grace, His work, and allow Him to provide for us, protect us, and save us. This is God’s nature.

Today we have Jesus and His finished work on the cross to focus on. It was on the cross that He suffered for our redemption. It was on the cross that He freed us from the burden of living into a law that God knew we could never obey. It is Christ that God wants us to focus on, not our abilities (or perceived abilities) to be good people and do the right thing.

Christ fully met the requirements of the law. It is by His perfection that we’re released from the curse and given the ability to be called sons and daughters of God. It is by His blood we are forgiven, by His stripes we are healed, and by His grace that we are abundantly supplied for every good work (both spiritually and physically).

Our job now is this: remind ourselves and remind each other every chance we get of what Jesus has done to deliver us. Our job now is to rest in His finished work and enjoy the favor that we have in Christ.