Memorial

A memorial is something established to remind people of a person or event. The Lord’s Table is a memorial. The bread and the cup remind a church of the body and blood of Christ, His substitutionary and sacrificial death on the cross. The last Monday of May is Memorial Day in the United States, a federal holiday for honoring and mourning those who have died in the performance of their military duties while serving in the United States Armed Forces. The dedication of a certain day as a memorial began with spontaneous memorials at the tombstone of American soldiers, who fell in battle. Women decorated these stones as a way to honor these who had died. Then it turned into an annual day to decorate these tombstones. It started out as “Decoration Day.” By 1890, every northern state celebrated this as a holiday. In 1971, Congress designated it as a national holiday, called “Memorial Day.” The idea of memorial comes from God though. We should use symbols, days, statutes, and now what are actually called “memorials” to remember what is very important, not to be forgotten, and use them to motivate us. The word “memorial” is found 32 times in the King James Version. It’s mainly a Hebrew word in the Old Testament, tsekaron. It means “remembrance,” and God exalts the practice of making a special day in honor of something for the purpose of remembering. God wants remembrance. In Exodus 12:14 it is a day. In Exodus 17:14, it’s a book. In Exodus 28:12, they are the stones on the garment of the priest.