1. We set up memorials to help us remember; as permanent reminders. USS Arizona Pearl Harbor Memorial Vietnam Veterans Memorial Washington Monument USMC Memorial

2. Memorials Serve as visual aids to our history. Help us remember, and honor what and/or who went before us. Usually seek to honor the dead, though they are really for the living. This practice of setting up stones or works of metal or other permanent materials is ancient; even biblical.

3. In the O.T., altars were built to commemorate a special event and/or place: Animals were typically sacrificed on them, but the stones themselves commemorated the event, and were thus special, cf. Ex.20:25; Deut.27:5 (This prohibition was likely to prevent engraving images on the stones which could become idolatrous.) Noah “built an altar to the Lord” upon coming out of the safety of the ark, and sacrificed “of every clean animal and of every clean bird…” to mark the occasion; God set a “bow in the cloud” as a sign of His covenant to never destroy the world by water again, Gen.8:20 – 9:17.

4. In the O.T., altars were built to commemorate a special event and/or place: Abram, after receiving God’s 3 great promises, and traveling from his home to Canaan, commemorated the Lord’s appearance/speaking to him by building an altar at Shechem, Gen.12:4-9. When the Lord appeared to Isaac at Beersheba, and repeated those promises to him, he too built an altar to the Lord, Gen.26:23-25. Jacob, likewise, when commanded by God, returned to the place where God had appeared to him at Bethel and built an altar, Gen.35:1-7.

5. In the O.T., altars were built to commemorate a special event and/or place: After receiving God’s Law on Sinai, and delivering it to the people, Moses built an altar of 12 pillars representing the 12 tribes of the nation, and offered burnt sacrifices to commemorate the covenant, Ex.24:1-8. 12 men, one from each tribe, were commanded to take up 12 stones from the midst of the flooding Jordan river, and build an altar where they lodged the first night in Canaan. Additionally, Joshua used 12 stones to build an altar in the midst of the Jordan where the priests had stood while the people crossed on dry ground, Josh.3:14 – 4:9. After the defeat of Ai, which had previously defeated Israel because of the sin of Achan, Joshua built an altar to the Lord in Mt. Ebal (near Mt. Gerazim), and reread all the Law of Moses to the people, Josh.8:24-35.

6. In the O.T., altars were built to commemorate a special event and/or place: The tribes of Reuben and Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh built an altar “not for sacrifice” but “for witness” at the Jordan as a reminder to future generations of their attachment to Israel despite being on the opposite side of the river, Josh.22:10-34. The Hebrew word eben (stone) is combined with ha ezer to produce Ebenezer (stone of help) in 1Sam.7:12 where Samuel “took a stone and set it up” to commemorate the Lord’s help in confusing the Philistines to protect Israel.

7. Now, aside from the history lesson, what does all of this mean? We’ve seen how all of these altars of stone(s) were set up to commemorate a momentous occasion, and as a reminder to future generations of it. Whether it was to commemorate God’s provision and protection (Noah), God’s appearing and promises (Abram, Isaac, & Jacob), God’s covenanting together with His people (Moses & Israel), God’s miraculous provision and deliverance (Joshua & Israel), or as a reminder of God’s faithfulness and help (tribes of Reuben, Gad, & Manasseh & Samuel), these altars were important reminders to those who built them, and to subsequent generations of their relationship to Jehovah! But that was in the O.T. Where are the N.T. memorials? There is just one of which I am aware, Luke 22:14-20.

8. Now, aside from the history lesson, what does all of this mean? Given the significance of all of those O.T. memorials, and several more that could have been included, and the singularity of this one N.T. memorial… How significant should it be to us? By God commanding only one such memorial of Christians, shouldn’t we realize how important it is to remember? 1Cor.11:23-26 Failures to do so result in spiritual weakness, sickness, and death, 1Cor.11:27-30. This doesn’t mean we have to dim the lights, gather in a special room, or hum or chant or anything like that- but it does mean that we have to remember… Which, after all, is the real purpose of a memorial sacrifice, is it not?