Remembering Biblical Identity: Why God Commands the True Hebrews to Remember

In the Bible (from Genesis through Revelation), the God of Israel consistently instructs his people to remember. Who you are. Where you come from. What I have done for you. Repeatedly telling his people to remember is not an accident; nor is it simply a poetic device. Remembering is a central aspect of biblical identity.

Each time God commands his people to remember, he is trying to protect them from something dangerous – forgetfulness. Biblical forgetfulness is not about having poor memories; it is about losing your sense of self when people forget who they are, they often do not know how to live, whom to serve, or what they are supposed to carry. Therefore, Scripture consistently links remembrance to obedience, to survival, and to blessing.

Time and again, God tells Israel that their identity did not begin during their slavery in Egypt. While they were still in bondage in Egypt, God told them to remember Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He tied their identity to a covenant that existed long before their slavery. Why? Oppression rewires our memories. Slavery teaches people to identify themselves as property, not as a promise.

Re-membering interrupts the lie of oppression.

That is why God instituted feasts, memorial days, stones of remembrance, Sabbath Days, and oral tradition. These were not merely empty rituals; they were all identity-anchoring devices. Each one forced the people to stop and remember both who God was to them and who they were to Him.

When God states, "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt," He is providing more than a history lesson; He is reaffirming a relationship. He is declaring, "You are Mine, not Pharaoh's; not Babylon's; not Rome's; not any other system that sought to redefine you."

Memory is a form of spiritual warfare.

As soon as God's people forget, they begin to assimilate into the cultures that surround them. They accept foreign gods, foreign customs, and foreign values. They begin to reflect the cultures that surround them, rather than standing out against them. Forgetting God always leads to confusion, disobedience, and loss. It does not matter whether God is petty; eroding an identity always has serious consequences.

This pattern did not disappear with the completion of the Old Testament.

In the New Testament, Christians are also instructed to remember. Remember Jesus Christ. Remember the Gospel. Remember what was taught from the beginning. The first followers of Christ were exhorted to maintain their grasp on what they had received — to refrain from reshaping their identity to conform to the cultural norms that surrounded them.

For some of us, remembering also requires acknowledging uncomfortable realities regarding race and lineage. Scripture describes a people born in the African/Black environment of the ancient Near East and Africa; shaped by the same environments where being Black was the norm, not the exception. The biblical Israelites were not created in Europe; and their identity did not evolve in modern times. To remember biblically is to affirm that the true Hebrews were a Black people, whose histories have been renamed, displaced, and distorted.

Remembering establishes faith.

For the True Hebrews, this remembrance is particularly urgent. The histories of the True Hebrews have been fragmented, identities reassigned, and biblical images whited-out so much that the original context of the stories has hardly been recognizable. When someone's memory is stolen, they are more easily controlled. People lose context for their sufferings, and clarity for their callings.

That is why reclaiming biblical identity matters.

Remembering is not about pride or superiority. It is about restoration. It is about returning to the story God has always been telling about His people. When we remember, we do not only restore history; we also restore purpose.

God has never asked his people to imagine who they are; He has told them to remember who they have always been.

To remember who God says you are is one of the most significant acts of obedience possible in a world that encourages confusion.