God wants to be remembered!
Remember
Memory is one of the amazing abilities we have as human beings. These days we are dealing with struggles in memory capacity. We have too many pictures, videos, and files in our computers. When it comes to our phones, the memory capacity struggle is real. We see the technology industry has shifted, and online cloud systems are widely used. What about our brain? What is the memory capacity of the human brain? Bottom line is that human brain memory capacity is pretty impressive. Paul Reber reported from his article Ask Brains, “The human brain consists of about one billion neurons. Each neuron forms about 1,000 connections to other neurons, amounting to more than trillion connections. If each neuron could only help store a single memory, running out of space would be a problem. You might have only a few gigabytes of storage space, similar to the space in an iPod or a USB flash drive. Yet neurons combine so that each one helps with many memories at a time, exponentially increasing the brain’s memory storage capacity to something close to around 2.5 petabytes (or a million gigabytes). For comparison, if your brain worked like a digital video recorder in a television, 2.5 petabytes would be enough to hold three million hours of TV shows. You would have to leave the TV running continuously for more than 300 years to use up all that storage.”
It is amazing to see how much potential we have. “Potential”, it is an interesting word. When we say, potential, we assume that we are not at the capacity of usage of potential ability. We assume that we have un-utilized abilities or capacities of our body, which if we can utilize, our performance must be much better. The notion of “potential” human body capacity is an interesting concept. If we are all about getting better, and we are all geared toward natural selection based survival mechanisms, then why do we want to emphasize potential capabilities of the human body? If we are evolved from simple forms of life to more complicated forms of life, doesn’t that mean that we must be at the capacity of our abilities, since we exist now? If survival is the ultimate way of existence, then why is our body not using every possible capability to survive? Good example is memory capacity of the brain. We know that we are not using 100%. If we can use more than what we can now, we certainly know that we can be better than we are now.
God knows about this challenge for us. So God came up with a plan, and asked us to remember Him since He knew that we, human beings, easily forget.
God Knew We Easily Forget
In Genesis 1, we see the amazing work of creation. He created the space, and filled His creatures to function. For six days, God created this space filled with creative and incredible forms of life. On the sixth day, God created animals and lastly, God created us, human beings. God did not create us to suffer. Because of suffering, we know that there is ultimate evil. By seeing ultimate evil, we can conclude that there must be ultimate good. If we see closely the creation process, it wasn’t ended on the sixth day. From the first day to the sixth day, the author of Genesis counts a day as “So the evening and the morning.” It is like a formula for the whole week. The last day of the week, was called the seventh day according to the Genesis 2:1. God has been busy creating the earth. God has been busy working on the details for Adam and Eve. Finally, after creating the human beings on the sixth day, God took actions to conclude His creation works.
Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made. Genesis 2:1-3
In Genesis 2, we can see that the work of creation was finished. God officially made the announcement that it is done. It was perfect enough from God’s perspective, God was able to stop working. God ended His work on the seventh day. Therefore, the seventh day must be the part of creation as a conclusion. As God concluded His creation work on the seventh day, God rested from all His work on the seventh day. First of all, God does not need a rest. He did not rest for the sake of rest. God rested for specific reason. God had a purpose to cease what He was doing in order to establish something.
As we look into the creation week, we know that creation of human beings was the highlight. Everything was there for human beings. God created everything for six days. Human beings were created on the sixth day, and then God ceased His work on the Seventh day. God blessed and sanctified the seventh day. Why do you think God ceased His works on Seventh day? It seems that God wants to give something to these created human beings to remember that they were created by God. God stopped everything. Gave full attention to Adam and Eve, to make sure they knew that God made them and indicating that He wants to have this relationship with them.
Sometimes, we spend too much time to figure out how to rest. God rested because He wanted to establish very genuine, real, and deep relationship with His children. God did not want to be bothered, God did not want to share any of His attention with anything or anyone. God literally ceased His operation, rested so that He can give His full attention on that day.
So here is the first lesson. On Sabbath, cease what you do for yourself, but do something to build a relationship with God.
It seems like it wasn’t an issue until the Israelites faced the oppression of slavery.
After 450 years of living in Egypt, and especially last several decades of slavery, the Israelites forgot about their deep relationship with the Creator. They were forced to forget the things about God. The evil wanted to try everything to make the Israelites to forget about that knowledge of the Creator. The evil attempted to kill all the male infants. The evil is all about separation, cruelty, and termination. But God is a god of unity, goodness, and restoration.
Reminder (Exodus 20:8-12)
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
God called Moses and called the Israelites to come out of Egypt. When they got to the mountain of God, God reminded them their relationship with God from the beginning of the earth. What God did on that mountain was claiming that I am Your Creator. I created you. I made you. You are special. God gave them the Ten Commandments. But there is one particular commandment which begins with the word “Remember.” God said, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.” The same language God used in Genesis Two, God blessed the day and made the seventh day sanctified. This day is special. He was willing to cease and stop in order to be with you.
From Exodus, we do see a different expression about Sabbath, as a day of no labor, or refreshing and relaxation. In Genesis, God did not say remember the seventh day, but in Exodus, God specifically mentioned that Sabbath day must be remembered. The fourth commandment begins with “ceasing” part. God said, don’t let anyone to do any work or labor for themselves on the Sabbath because it is a special day.
I think, God who ceased His work shows significant meaning. It shows God’s priority. It’s not because what He was doing was not important. God ceased the works in order to give His full attention to that human couple. We are special from God’s eyes.
Another notion is God’s perspective on people. Who shouldn’t be working on the Sabbath day? “In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates.” It is simply everyone. God wants us to be with Him on that day, and when God says “you” in the verse, it means all the life especially everyone. They already had some kind of social class and ranking. God works with people where they are. In this case, it is God’s expression to everyone, regardless of socioeconomic class, that “I am the creator for EVERYONE!”
Then, God repeats actions He took in Genesis 2:2-3. God said, this is the reason why all of them need to cease what they do. “For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the ease and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it”
One difference we can find in this verse from Genesis is the verb “rest.” In Genesis, rest, or ceased verb (sbt) has more spiritual implication. But in Exodus, a physical relaxation aspect has been added to it. The concept of Sabbath (rest) has been broadened as we go farther in the Scripture. These three actions, “Rest (priority), Bless (spiritual connection) and Sanctified (special, distinctiveness)” show that God’s limitless love and intention to everyone on the earth.
How To Remember?
First of all, we have to acknowledge unintended side effects of observance of the Sabbath. It is a habitual or ritualistic approach on Sabbath. Furthermore, some have been making Sabbath as stumbling block to others. Some take Sabbath as just a law from God. Some think that they are defending the Sabbath by their actions on Sabbath. Some people have skeptical view on Sabbath especially by putting Sabbath as promotion of exclusivity of Seventh day Adventist church. Some folks who have traditional view of Sabbath tries to disconnect people by talking about Sabbath. On the other side, some people perceive Sabbath as the symbol of legalism.
Can I defend Sabbath now?
For that exclusiveness claim, I can say that everyone has their own exclusive view. When it comes to community, there is no community in the world that doesn’t have any exclusiveness. Every community has its own values and distinctiveness. Vikings fans cannot be Packers fans. If you want to be a Vikings fan, you must like the Vikings. Let’s just say if the prominent leader of anti-abortion group, all of sudden said, I agree and support abortion, then what’s going to happen? No community can be totally open. There is a positive exclusiveness which will create some kind of identity for people. The real questions are,
Which community has beliefs that lead its members to treat persons in other communities with love and respect to serve them and meet their needs?
Which community’s beliefs lead it to demonize and attack those who violate their boundaries rather than treating them with kindness and humility?
Remember Sabbath The Right Way
Do you remember the Periodic Table of Elements in chemistry? I did not like chemistry when I was in high school. I did not like it, and so I did not have that much interest in it. It became a vicious circle so my disengagement on the subject of chemistry resulted in bad grades in that subject. About 12 months before the college entrance exam, I realized that I had to tackle that subject. It was hard, and my brain just didn’t click. I talked to a chemistry teacher, and she helped me a lot. I was catching up with that but it was still hard. Later, she said, for an exam preparation shortcut, just memorize the charts. There were several charts I memorized but the Periodic Table of Elements was definitely the one I still remember. I spent so much time studying it, and memorized the entire chart, especially the ones that would be in that exam. It was automatic. I did not have to think about it. It was just my memory that gave me the ability to solve the problems in the exam. It worked really well but I did not know the depth or any scientific implications from that chart. I was able to answer those questions, but I did not fall in love with it. I just did it for the sake of a good grade.
Somehow, we treat Sabbath like way I did that table chart. Traditions and rituals take over the space where we should be able to have genuine and real experience of God on that day. God wants to be remembered on that day. God wants to be remembered that He was the one who created this earth. God wants to be remembered that He was the one who sent His only begotten son to die for us. God wants to be remembered that we are all His children. God wants to be remembered that He is a loving and kind God.
He wants to be remembered not for any transactional expectations but as someone who loves you unconditionally.
How do you remember God? That’s the real question we want to think about.
