The phrase “never forget” is applied to the most solemn of circumstances. I have a book on the top shelf behind my desk that bears the phrase. It is an anthology of personal experiences from the 9/11 terrorist attack. Sometimes I’ll see a “never forget” graphic on the back window of a vehicle along with someone’s name and, presumably, a date of death. As phrases go, “never forget” carries a considerable amount of gravitas.
While He doesn’t use the same words, God applies the same sentiment (with equal seriousness) to an event in the Old Testament. What’s curious though, is that it was not connected to a traumatic event or death, it was associated with a festival. It was tied to the Feast of Tabernacles (also known as the Feast of Booths).
And you shall take on the first day the fruit of splendid trees, branches of palm trees and boughs of leafy trees and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God seven days. You shall celebrate it as a feast to the LORD for seven days in the year. It is a statute forever throughout your generations; you shall celebrate it in the seventh month. You shall dwell in booths for seven days. All native Israelites shall dwell in booths, that your generations may know that I made the people of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.” (Lev. 23:40–43)
Why did the celebration of this feast become “a statute forever throughout your generations”? What’s with the mandate to spend a week in a room made from the branches of trees? Well, like many places in the Bible, it simultaneously recalls the past while pointing to its better version in the future.
Leviticus outlines seven feasts that Israel was to observe, such as Passover, the Day of Atonement and Pentecost. It culminates, however, in the Feast of Booths. The seventh and final “never forget” feast required people to live in temporary structures (or tabernacles) like they did when they were traveling through the wilderness.
Those days in the wilderness was a unique time in Israel’s history. They were there because God had freed them from slavery and miraculously saved them from a pursuing army. He supernaturally provided water from a rock, manna from heaven and quail on the ground. He led them by a cloud in the day and a fire at night and, most importantly, met with them in a special way in a tabernacle along the route.
Participating in the Feast of Booths reminded God’s people how He provided for them in the most dire of circumstances. He cared for them in extraordinary ways in the past, which should also bring to mind the assurance that they were sustained during their everyday, non-wilderness, routine life. The tabernacles (booths) were a simultaneous reminder of the temporary nature of their present situation.
In addition to sustaining them in the past and present, He was also assuring them of His future provision, one that would be fulfilled in Christ.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (Jn. 1:14)
The word “dwelt” can also be translated as “tabernacled,” so Jesus was the completion of what the Feast of Booths represented. Therefore, the command to celebrate the Feast of Booths has passed, but the requirement to “never forget” has not.
You live on the other side of the fulfillment of the Feast of Booths, so how well do you do on the “never forget” scale? Do you remember that He was faithful when you were in your most dire of circumstances? Do you remember that the concerns of this life are temporary? Do you remember that is an eternal weight of glory in your future? Never Forget!
For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” (1 Cor. 11:23–25)