Now, have you noticed the many holidays and remembrance days we went through these past few weeks? Beginning with the eight days of Passover, three weeks ago, three days after it finished, it was followed by Yom HaShoah, the Holocaust Remembrance Day. A week later it was Yom HaZicharon, Remembrance Day for the fallen soldiers of the wars of Israel and victims of terrorism. Then a day later, on April 30th, just last Thursday, it was Yom Ha Atzma’ut, Israel’s National Day commemorating the Declaration of Independence. And it is not finished, for next week, on May 16th, there is another remembrance day called Lag BaOmer which is on the 33rd day of the counting of the Omer. Then we have Yom Yerushalayim, Jerusalem day, on May 25th which is a national holiday that commemorates the “reunification” of East and West Jerusalem following the Six-Day War of 1967. Then, on June 1st, we will celebrate Shavuot, Pentecost.
It’s a very full calendar, so far, seven holidays in total within a two-month period, and notably each of these dates serves as a reminder of Israel’s historical events, reflecting the Jewish people’s strong tradition of remembering. This strong heritage is also reflected in the books Jewish people read these days. We can always understand societies by the books they read. Let me just mention a few of today’s best sellers for Jewish people: “The Exile and the Jews”, “America and the Holocaust”, “The Road to October 7: Hamas, the Holocaust and the Eternal War against the Jews” and “Who Are the Jews and Who Can We Become?”
But there is something important in all this because remembering is actually rooted in the Scriptures and there is something for all of us to learn. God repeatedly instructed Israel never to forget the past, knowing that history tends to repeat itself as the human heart seldom changes for the better. To mention a couple of examples, we read in Deuteronomy 25: 17 where God told the Israelites, “Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you were coming out of Egypt”. Then some 400 years later, He again reminded them through Samuel and said, “I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, how he set himself against him on the way while he was coming up from Egypt”. 1 Samuel 15:2
Along with the Amalekites, we also learn that the Ammonites and the Moabites attacked Israel which brought God to say in Deut. 23:3, “No Ammonite or Moabite shall enter the assembly of the Lord; none of their descendants, even to the tenth generation, shall ever enter the assembly of the Lord. Then, some 750 years later, God reminded Israel to remember this event and said, “O My people, remember now what Balak king of Moab counseled”…Micah 6:5.
And speaking of these people, the Amalekites, Ammonites and the Moabites, God’s warnings has not ended for them and for the many others who are mentioned in end times prophecies, just preceding the Second Coming, one we will find for instance in Psalm 83. This spirit of hate has not gone away and this is what the Bible reminds the reader.
Even the New Testament frequently draws us back to ancient events as a way of remembering the lessons from the past. Yeshua Himself, in His final words to the churches in Revelation 2–3, refers to figures like Balaam and Jezebel as if they were still there. But this is as well the message of biblical prophecies. Time and again, we encounter the ancient names of nations and territories that appear remarkably unchanged over thousands of years.
This is a crucial point to grasp as we move into this portion of Zephaniah’s prophecies, which will reference events, peoples, and places that seem almost frozen in time, and so we are called to dig deeper and see how these people, nations, territories are still speaking to us today.