REMEMBRANCE DAY

 All Bible quotations are taken from the New King James Version

            Long before we celebrated Remembrance Day, the Lord instructed the children of Israel to keep a memorial. “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.” (Exodus 12:14).

          Why is the Lord telling the children of Israel to keep a memorial throughout their generations? The Lord is telling them to always remember the night He released them from Egyptian bondage. The children of Israel had been in bondage to the Egyptians for four hundred and thirty years. In Exodus 2:23, we pick up their story: “Then the children of Israel groaned because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry came up to God because of their bondage.” God heard their groaning and remembered the covenant He made with their forefathers.

          The Lord found Moses tending a flock of sheep on the back side of the desert. In Exodus 3:7 and 8, the Lord said to Moses: “I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry . . .for I know their sorrows. So I have come to deliver them out of the hands of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey. . .” The Lord told Moses that He has heard the cry of the children of Israel and He has seen their oppression and He is sending Moses to the Pharaoh to bring His people out of bondage.

          After telling the Lord how incompetent and unworthy Moses feels about this assignment, the Lord reminds him, “I will certainly be with you.” Moses finally submits to the Lord and goes before Pharaoh and performs the nine plagues as the Lord commands him to do. The plagues were to get Pharaoh to let Israel go from his bondage so they would be able to worship the Lord in the wilderness. Before each plague, Pharaoh promises to let the Israelites go. When the effects of the plague are over, the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart and he would not let the children of Israel go.

          The Lord is about to perform His final plague to cause Pharaoh to let the Israelites go. Before the Lord performs the last plague that was to kill all the firstborn of Egypt, including man and beast, He gives instructions to all Israel through Moses and Aaron. First, the Lord tells the Israelites the month of Abib was to be the first month of their year. Then the Lord instructs the man of each household to take a lamb without blemish for his household. On the fourteenth day of the month Abib, they were to kill and roast the lamb, and eat it with bitter herbs.

          The Lord instructed the Israelites to take the blood of the lamb and put some on the doorposts and on the lintel of their houses. This was done because at midnight the Lord’s angel was to slay all the firstborn of the Egyptians. When the angel came to a house where there was blood on the doorposts and lintel, he was to pass over that house. Once the angel had slain all the firstborn of Egypt, there was a great cry throughout the land. “So Pharaoh rose in the night, he, all his servants, and all the Egyptians, and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where there was not one dead.” (Exodus 12:30). After this final plague, Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron during the night and said, “Rise, go out from among my people, both you and the children of Israel. And go, serve the Lord as you have said.” (Exodus 12:31).

          “It is a night of solemn observance to the Lord for bringing them out of the land of Egypt. This is that night of the Lord, a solemn observance for all the children of Israel throughout their generations.” (Exodus 12:42). From the night the Lord delivered the children of Israel from Egyptian bondage, after four hundred and thirty years, they were to keep the Passover throughout their generations. The Passover Feast was to be observed on the fourteenth day of the month Abib.

          After the first World War, which was from July 28, 1914, until November 11, 1919, we celebrate the ending of the first World War, and all the other Wars which have occurred since then on November 11. Remembrance Day is observed on November 11 at 11 a.m. as that was the day and time when the first World War was over with the signing of the Armistice Agreement which ended the War. Remembrance Day was first observed in the Commonwealth states. At first it was called “Armistice Day” in honor of the men and women who gave their lives so we can live in peace and freedom today. The first Remembrance Day was held on November 11, 1931.

          Each year, on November 11, Canadians pause for a moment or two of silence to honor the men and women who have served and continue to serve our country in times of war and conflict, as well as in times of peace. We remember the 2,300,000 men and women who have served our country, as well as the 118,000 who have given their lives in the line of duty that we may live in peace and freedom. “If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men.” (Romans 12:18). The men and women who have served in times of War have made it possible to live in peace. Now, it is up to us to keep that peace.

          This Remembrance Day, as we wear the Red Poppy, we are remembering and honoring all the men and women whose blood was shed so we could live with all the freedoms we enjoy today. On November 11, may we observe one or two minutes of silence to honor those who have given their lives on the battlefields of the world so we can live in freedom today. We also need to give the Lord thanks and praise for the freedom and abundance He has blessed our country with.

          There is another kind of freedom which cannot be obtained with any weapons of war. I am speaking of a spiritual freedom which Jesus Christ, God’s Son purchased for us on the Cross. If you would truly repent of your sin, and turn from sin and live 100% for Jesus, then pray this prayer, “Father, I come to You, to repent of my sin and live totally for You. Please cleanse me from my sin and give me the freedom in the areas of my life that You alone know of. I will follow You for the rest of my life.”

          If you have a Bible, or can access one online, begin reading in the Gospel of John, which is the fourth book of the New Testament. It will explain to you how much God loves you and wants to have a relationship with you.