symbols

When you study your Bible you will discover many symbols, especially in the Old Covenant.  The Lord gave these symbols to be memorials, they are things He didn’t want the people to ever forget.  Our past has everything to do with our present.  Some things are better forgotten, and other things must be stored in the thoughts of our life.  Occasionally I think about where I would be without Jesus, but I don’t dwell on it.  Now, I remember the night I asked Jesus to be my Lord and Savior, I will never forget that experience.  It is lodged in my mind as a memorial forever.  Whenever I see a sinner give his life to Jesus the memory of my conversion is refreshed.
 
Joshua 4:7 Then Joshua commanded every tribe leader to pick a stone out of the river Jordan, and place them on the bank.  This would be a memorial forever concerning the day God stopped the Jordan so His people could cross over the other side.
 
As the generations grew, the children would ask the parents about the stones on the bank of the Jordan.  The parents would then testify how God stopped the river from flowing, and Israel crossed over and began to take control of their land.  Some parents teach their children only about the hardships they endured growing up.  My parents would never let me and my siblings forget how they survived the Great Depression.  Wasting food in my house was a mortal sin, we were not allowed to trim the fat off of our bacon, or our pork chop. 
 
Psalm 78:4, 7 We will not hide from our children the wonderful works of our Lord.  That they might set their hope in God, and keep all His commandments.
 
Children are very impressionable, adults can instill hope in them or an expectation of fear.  What are they hearing about God?  As a young Catholic boy I was presented a God that did not much care for me, He would send me to hell if I ate bologna on Friday.  The Catholic leaders gave me many symbols; a rosary, a Saint Christopher medal, a cross with Jesus on it and other things I don’t know how to spell.  They gave me a “scapula” and they told me if I died wearing it God would take me to heaven.  One day the string on my scapula broke and I lost it, I lived a long time in fear of dying without my scapula.
 
Numbers 21:9 Moses made a serpent of brass and put it on a pole and every one who was bit by the serpent lived.
 
Today Christians need but one major symbol, we just need the cross as our primary memorial.  For it was on the cross where Jesus bear our sins and infirmities.  It was the place where we would be redeemed from the curse and the devil would begin to come to an end.  When Jesus rose from the dead He destroyed the works of the devil and His cross became a symbol of our victory over death.  What Jesus accomplished on the cross affects our life before Christ, our life with Christ and our eternity with Christ. 

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