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Thursday, 1 October 2020
Do you forget?

In Deuteronomy 25:19, the Lord says "When the Lord your God has given you rest from all your enemies around you, in the land ... you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven; you shall not forget." When we enter the land (that is spiritually speaking) when we gain our identity in Yeshua, we will have to continue to fight to grow and to make our identity in Yeshua part of our first nature, not second nature. Even as we continue to fight against our spiritual enemy, there will times of rest that the Lord gives us.

We need those times of rest. However, it is often at those times of rest that we leave ourselves open to various spiritual attacks. Thus, it is often at those times that our most prized spiritual strength becomes our greatest spritual weakness.

The question is how do we take advantage of those times of rest and remain actively vigilant? When I was in Iraq, there times of physical rest in between missions or when we were allowed to take extended liberty to rest. During those times, we were always protected by guards who were set at strategic points. They were not at rest. They remained vigilant; they could warn us if the enemy approached.

In the verse above, the Israelites were to blot out the memory of Amalek. And, as it says not to forget. The question may be asked how can they do both. Commentaries tend to run the spectrum on answering this question---both Christian and Jewish commentaries.

One answer may be that we can look to the memory of what happened as our identity guard. We can remember that in times of spiritual rest, when we may be more likely to be more vulnerable to the enemy. What we remember of our transition from slavery to sin to entering into our identity in Yeshua is part of our testimony. And, by keeping it as part of our testimony---our memory becomes a protector, used to reaffirm Yeshua rather than a divider seeking to glamorize our sin.

Ephesians 6, which tells us that we are fighting a spiritual enemy, reminds us to put on the "whole armor". This armor includes the "good news." Our own testimony becomes part of the good news and moves us away from being vulnerable to those attacks from the enemy---and toward those who need to see and know our testimony or what Yeshua has done for us. In other words, our testimony becomes a reminder to us of why we chose to make Yeshua our Lord in the first.

So as we rest in our identity in Yeshua, we remember what the enemy tried to do to destroy us. And we remain obedient to destroy the enemy that tried to prevent us from obtaining that rest. We have been reminded, more vividly this year than in decades past, that we need repentance and the resultant intercession. This is an obligation of those who claim to have an identity in Yeshua. A major part of that is how we communicate our testimony of Yeshua. So the question is then---do you remember [your identity in Yeshua] or do you forget?

Posted By Daniel and Berelyn, 10:07am Comment Comments: 0