One of the main thrusts of Deuteronomy 26 is the call to continually renew (remember) our vertical relationship to God, a relationship that is, by its nature, deeply rooted in the Judaeo-Christian tradition and the whole history of salvation. We need to remember that we are not simply "now" people, but are, basically, a continuing part of a history that is founded in and rooted in a vertical relationship to God who chose us. Hence, that entire history from Creation on down through the Old and New Testaments and the history of the Church is a part of our "now" story. That whole history looks down upon us, as it were, and we are called to remember it and to be alert to the past from which we were hewn.

An illustration that points to this idea involves Napoleon. He is reputed to have been one of the world’s champion leaders of men. He could, it is said, inspire people as few men have been able to do. By this gift, Napoleon rose from a general in the French Republican Army to Emperor of a vast kingdom. He is attributed with saying, to his tired, worn soldiers whose morale was pitifully low, during his campaign to win Egypt, "From yonder pyramids, forty centuries are looking down on you." And with that, he helped his men gain a sense of the movement of history. He told them that they were a part of the gigantic, momentous movement of history - so on to victory. Countless centuries look down upon contemporary Christians and we are part of that even more gigantic momentous history, the history of salvation and God’s dealings with us.