Have you ever walked our nation’s capital? It is full of memorials and monuments. They tower and awe in their magnitude, causing the viewer to pause in their simplicity and meaning. Memorials give us an opportunity to remember those who walked before us.

In the Old Testament, Joshua made a memorial out of a pillar of stones after the Israelites had crossed the Jordan. “Then Joshua said to the Israelites, “In the future your children will ask, ‘What do these stones mean?’ Then you can tell them, ‘This is where the Israelites crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’For the Lord your God dried up the river right before your eyes, and he kept it dry until you were all across, just as he did at the Red Sea when he dried it up until we had all crossed over.” (Joshua 4:21-23)

The Old Testament is full of stories reminding the Israelites of all God had done. Often, holidays and special ceremonies were developed to aid in that remembrance. In the OT, the Hebrew word “zezher” is used for the word memorial. It is used in the sense of remembrance. Sometimes it was an actual monument that was built to remember something that had happened, like the stones Joshua set up on the other side of the Jordan. Jacob also set up a pillar in Genesis 28 to remember when he saw the face of God and lived. God’s very own name is referred to as a memorial in the OT for his people to remember all that he is and has done. In Isaiah 56, God made this promise “I will give them—within the walls of my house— a memorial and a name far greater than sons and daughters could give. For the name I give them is an everlasting one. It will never disappear!”

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