Title: What does this ceremony mean? / 2004.8.15
what do you mean by content
Exodus 12:23-27
Today is the 59th anniversary of liberation. The word liberation means the restoration of light. We lost our country due to the Japanese occupation and have been living a life that has lost its light for 36 years. Although it has suffered many hardships in the history of the nation for 5,000 years, it was the first time that a country had actually lost its country and was completely ruled by another country. At that time, we lost a lot of things. Wealth of the country was deprived, honor deprived, and countless lives were sacrificed. But the biggest thing we lost was the loss of our country's pride. Moreover, due to the traces of that history, our country has been divided and continues to fight useless attrition. If we were united now, we would have achieved a much more developed, more wonderful, and more beautiful country than it is now.
These days, our neighboring countries are expanding their power again. As China recovered its economic power, it began to promote the Chinese ideology again. So, they are interpreting all the history around them around them. The distortion of Goguryeo history can also be seen as the beginning of such a Chinese thought. Japan is rearming itself at a rapid pace. If China rises, naturally, Japan will too. The country the United States is most wary of is China. China is likely to be the country that the US will fight for supremacy in the future. If that happens, there is a possibility that our country will be very embarrassed between the United States as an ally and China, the closest country. We are also most affected by economic problems from China and the United States. But it is precisely between those two countries that we are caught.
When I say this, many people already think like this, rather than immigrating to this country, this country is a bad country, a country without hope. Everyone, immigration is something you should go when your country is prosperous, you live well, and you have strength. When the country is in turmoil, the country is shaken, and the country is in danger, do you know where you are most worried? It is the immigrant compatriots who want to go to the most difficult and difficult. This is because even if you immigrate, you can live while shouting only if your country is strong.
Please don't worry too much. The history of our country has never been easy. But it's always worked out well. Koreans are very smart and smart people. Japan has achieved industrialization over 200 years, despite the loud noises. That's what we've been following for 30 years. There are still a lot of things we haven't caught up with in the basics. Because we started late. But there are many things that we started with, such as computers and IT systems, that we are far ahead of.
No other country in the world is becoming democratized so quickly and economically successful so quickly. They are experiencing some economic and political difficulties right now, but I think they will settle down well soon. And for that to happen, we should pray and have hope. Our children seem to be spoiled and just like to play, but they are all smart children. I will do everything in front of me. We care for our children as our parents cared for us, but I believe they will do their part in the end. Therefore, I hope that our people, especially our members, will have eyes of faith that look to the future with hope and patience rather than despair and discouragement.
Today's text describes the process of liberating the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. When the last plague of the ten plagues, the death of the firstborn, fell upon Egypt, God prepared the people of Israel for salvation. It was to slaughter sheep, eat meat, and put blood on doorposts and lintels.
Applying blood to the door of a house is not common sense. Common sense originally refers to the general opinion held by ordinary people at that time. Therefore, common sense cannot become the truth, and common sense cannot fulfill the Word of God. It is no different than it used to be. You will never be able to keep your faith by imitating the common-sense people of our day.
In order to follow the Word of God, who spoke of acts that could not be understood with common sense, it truly required faith. And God saw that faith and decided to be saved. And in commemoration of this day, he commanded us to keep it after this. And he gave me a special order.
Later when your children ask you what do you mean?
You shall say, This is the LORD's Passover sacrifice.
When the LORD struck the Egyptians, he passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt.
Say you have saved our house. Exodus 12:26-27
What does this mean? This is a message to explain the background of the Passover to your children. In today's terms, it means to teach history. So even now, when the Jews keep this Passover, they say that they remember and keep three things according to the Bible.
Unleavened bread--Eat unleavened bread. When the Israelites escaped from Egypt, they had no choice but to come out urgently. The bread was inflated and I did not have time to bake it well. Remembering that God was with you in that dire situation and eating unleavened hard bread.
Bitter herbs--God told us to eat bitter herbs together with lamb at the time of the Exodus. Why did He tell us to eat bitter herbs? It must mean that we should not forget the bitter times we lived without a country, and the bitter and painful times we lived in despised terms.
Recitation of the Word--They re-enact that time by memorizing the Bible verses that contain the Exodus event, having children memorize them, or role-playing them.
All of these things are to teach their children the history of their salvation, or the history of pain, as God had told them. This tradition continues today.
On the other hand, our people seem to have little interest in history. Our holidays are made up of things about time that have little to do with history. New Year's Day is a celebration of the first day of the new year, Chuseok, the biggest national holiday, is a festival to give thanks for the autumn harvest, and there seems to be no other clear festival. Moreover, there are no festivals related to history. Liberation Day is hard to find any meaningful event other than the commemoration of control ceremonies and a special feature on TV. The Samil Movement has not become a national anniversary either. I think this shows that the sense of history is not clear nationally or nationally.
We do not know how the future we will live in will unfold. Nor can you experiment with the future. Time is just an unknown time. But history is an experiment into the future. History is a simulation of the future. It is ironic, but the history of the past is the eye to the future. Why is history an experiment or a simulation of the future? Because human nature is the same. It means that human reactions and behavior patterns in response to certain events and environments are the same. Therefore, if you know what happened in history and how events unfolded at that time, you become a telescope of time that allows you to see the future. Although tomorrow cannot be known, ironically, history becomes the finger pointing to tomorrow.
In that sense, a nation that does not know history becomes a nation that does not know the future. A nation that ignores history has no future. A country that does not remember its history will lose its direction in the future.
Israel is a nation that has suffered all kinds of persecution throughout history. The biggest ordeal was when Nazi Germany conquered Europe. Thousands of Jews were killed innocently. Scenes and memorabilia from that time were collected to create a memorial to the Holocaust-genocide of the Jews. At the entrance to the memorial hall, I saw this significant inscription carved on a large copper plate. I wrote it down on purpose.
Forgetfulness Leads to Exiles,
While Remembrance is the Secret of Redemption.
Forgetting leads to destruction, but the secret of salvation lies in remembrance.
What is 'remembering'? History. Knowing history is memory.
How interesting is history to us today? We are outraged when China claims Goguryeo as its history, just as Japan claims Dokdo as its own. But how much do we ourselves know about Goguryeo, which we know as our history? Is there any basis for claiming that something we do not know is ours?
It is said that the study of history has disappeared in today's schools. It does not appear in the entrance exam, nor in the civil service examination. I only work hard in English and math. These days, I teach almost expert-level math in high school without even going into science and engineering. It makes you wonder if it is necessary to teach children such difficult math. I think it would be enough to teach them the math and logic necessary for life. Rather, an education that makes people read a lot of novels, read a lot of philosophy books, read a lot of history books, and write a lot of their own opinions about them is the real education. It is to raise children who do not lose their pride no matter where in the world they put them out. How can this be a living education if you have no choice but to deliberately ask difficult questions for the entrance exam or to improve your discrimination?
Occasionally, when I watch TV programs looking for parents and siblings, I see overseas adoptees coming out to find their biological parents. Most of them are all successful and living well in that society. Nevertheless, I wonder why they are looking for their parents who abandoned them. It's probably due to an identity problem. Who am I? where am i from What is my identity? If these problems are not resolved, it may be because the strength to sustain one's life is lost.
When God brought the Israelites out of Egypt, He told them to teach the meaning of this history to their descendants. It is to let them know that their identity lies with God. It is to let them know that their roots are in their faith.
Unlike usual, when we eat hard bread and bitter herbs on the Passover, our children ask, 'What does it mean? I don't like to eat bitter herbs. Do I have to eat this hard rice cake?' When you ask this question, tell us how your ancestors lived in Egypt, how they escaped, and how God freed us. It is a message to teach the history of God.
People act recklessly, commit irregularities, and do evil because they have no sense of history. I think that if you hide today, no one will know tomorrow. If you get through today safely, you will be fine tomorrow, so you act like you don't care. But today will be the history of the future. The actions of ordinary people like us are not recorded in history books. But it will be written in books before God. And one day you will stand before God. Therefore, we Christians must know how to live in the world with a sense of history. Instead of living in a rush for today, we must have eyes that can see today with the eyes of ten years ahead. When I stand before the Lord, I have to think and act on how I will look today.
Today is the 59th anniversary of liberation. I hope that it will be a season not only to commemorate the liberation of the past, but to think about what history means to us, and what kind of tomorrow we will make today just as the past made today. I hope to make today by thinking of who I will be in 10 years. And especially, I pray that you will become saints who stand on the word and run with faith in this difficult and difficult time, especially thinking about how you will be evaluated before God.
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