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Prescription for an Ancient Disorder

by Travis Tamerius

Reprinted from Grace Notes, April 1999.

There is a sign that scares me. It is usually posted in the restrooms of fast-food joints, and it reads, "Employees Must Wash Hands Before Returning to Work." I see it and I am baffled. Is management posting this sign for me? Am I supposed to see this notice and gain assurance that the restaurant is committed to hygiene and bacteria-free all-beef patties? Or is management posting this sign for its employees? Is the sign seriously intended to remind the employees of their duty to suds up?

I prefer to think that this is a marketing ploy by the company to gain my confidence. I say to myself, "These folks are really committed to quality control and they want me to know it." It is much better to follow this line of thought than conclude that the labor force is glutted with adult cooks who need such daily reminders. That conclusion would make me doubt the educational effectiveness of the vigilantes of sanitation - those mothers, schoolteachers, clinic nurses and surgeons general who tirelessly campaign for cleanliness.

But perhaps there is need for such a sign. Maybe it is a big-hearted accommodation to the antiseptically challenged. Maybe it is meant to quell a conspiracy among unsterile rebel workers. Or perhaps . . . perhaps it could be that people are prone to forget even the most basic issues of life.

That was the situation years ago with God's people. They had trouble remembering things. Basic things. They forgot Who made them and saved them. They forgot Who dropped quail out of heaven and dressed the ground each morning with holy manna. They forgot their oppressors and the conditions of their oppression. They forgot even major news items like the time the waters of the Red Sea were walled up and the evening when every first-born son of Egypt was killed by the destroying angel. They couldn't remember who their ancient relatives were. Or the times they got into trouble. Or the story about Miriam's humiliation rash (Numbers 12:10). Or the generous Benefactor Who loaded their cloaks with wealth.

God's people had all the ancient symptoms of a modern-day diagnosis. They were amnesiacs. Their sin-diseased lives corrupted their memory of God. The tyranny of the immediate blocked off all recollection of the past. So God's people were given a number of signs to jog their memory: feasts to celebrate, commemorative rock shrines, bleating animals, rich red blood on door posts and altar sites, jeweled garments testifying to twelve tribes. And Divine words.

Fifteen times in Deuteronomy the people are instructed to remember. Remember the day you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb (Dt. 4:10). Remember that you were a slave in Egypt and the Lord your God brought you out of there by a mighty hand (Dt. 5:15). Remember what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all of Egypt (Dt. 7:18). Remember the Lord your God, for it is He Who is giving you power to make wealth (Dt. 9:7). Remember, do not forget how you provoked the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness (Dt. 9:7). Remember Thy servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Dt. 9:27). Remember, remember, remember.

Fellow saints: this side of Jesus we have even more to bring to mind - salvation on the cross, an empty tomb, holy baptism, heavenly citizenship, a Church of many nations, the Spirit's empowering presence, the coming Bride, future judgement, present assurance, living hope and divine acceptance. We are prone to forget, but He is faithful to remind!