DOES GOD FORGET?—OR—WHAT DOES GOD REMEMBER?
Dr. Paul Manuel—2003
We generally associate aging with physical maladies, illnesses and conditions that accumulate as we get older. Alas, sometimes they come sooner.
Are we humans the only ones who have this problem? Does God, who is a lot older than we are, have lapses in memory? The Bible seems to suggest that He does. Describing Israel's condition in Egypt, Moses writes...
I have a very poor memory. Linda can recall all sorts of events from our past, even things that happened recently, of which I have no recollection. It is as if my mind erases all but the most immediately relevant information. In computer terms, it is as if I have no hard disk, only RAM (random access memory), which empties whenever I shut down at night. This deficiency becomes most embarrassing with peoples' names and, on more than one occasion, I have simply drawn a blank.
To compensate for a poor memory, I write, because I know that whatever fails to reach paper or drive is gone...trashed...history. I have come to appreciate a line in Sir Francis Bacon's (1561-1626) essay entitled, "Of Studies." He describes the importance of three disciplines for any cultured individual— reading, serious discussion (which he calls "conference"), and writing. Should a person be lacking in any of these, he will only be able to conceal the matter in public if he possesses a superior intellect, which the author calls "cunning."
So as not to cause you undue distress, let me assure you that God does not forget. Unlike us, or me, at least, His memory is not at all faulty. In fact, He challenges Isaiah's audience on this very issue. He says in...
Translating the Hebrew word as "remember" is acceptable only when it applies to us. Even then, as we will see later, it often signifies more than simply recalling to mind. With reference to God, it means that...
Normally in the sermon, I deal with a particular text, not a topic, so we light on one passage and stay there. This morning, we will be looking at several passages to discover, among other things...
I. What does God remember?
The first mention of God's remembering a covenant is in the flood account, when...
The second mention of God's remembering a covenant is in the exodus account, when...
Israel's sojourn in Egypt.
The third mention of God's remembering a covenant is during the exile, when...
Each time God remembers His covenant, He gives grace to His people, even when their sin is good reason for Him to ignore them.
As I was examining those passages, I noticed a subtle difference between the psalmists' prayers and the way Christians sometimes pray. We have a special prayer language, and I do not mean tongues. It is a jargon that is supposed to sound respectful but often comes across as artificial, even stuffy. One of the phrases is: "We remember so-and-so, Lord, in his hour of need." The contemporary phrase, for those who do not pray, is "I'll be thinking of you." ...What sentimental mush? Thank you, but unless you actually plan on doing something about it, I would much prefer and benefit more if you could get God to remember me. That is how the psalmists all pray. They never say, "We remember..." Their petition is always for God to remember, because He will act on their behalf! Likewise, your prayer will be more effective if you phrase your request in a way that directs God's attention and action to the problem.
We have seen that the covenants attract God's attention and motivate His actions. In light of what God remembers...
II. What should we remember?
As we might expect, God wants His people to pay attention to the same things He does. First...
Have you made a commitment to God? ...If so, then you have agreed to serve only Him. We do not have a problem with idolatry today, but we could probably name some contemporary equivalents, activities that draw our attention and devotion away from God. What kinds of things interfere with your commitment? Think about that for a moment.... There should be no competition for your commitment to God, nothing that turns you away from Him.
God's people cannot do for God what He does for them, but they can and should do other things. In fact, the great majority of admonitions to remember advocate one thing: obedience. Along with remembering the commitment of the covenant, that we have an agreement with God...
he says (among other things) in...
Is this a command you have agreed to keep? ...If so, then, apart from coming here on Saturday morning, how do you sanctify the Sabbath? How do you make this day different from other days? More to the point, how do you make this day different for God? The Sabbath is not the day you catch up on what you want, it is the day you give up for what God wants. So, what are your plans for this afternoon? Is God at the center of those plans, or is He only on the periphery?
The Sabbath is only one of the commands God's people should remember, but is it the only one He singles out in this way.8 What especially caught my attention, though, is that more than any other admonition of this sort...
When Joseph was in prison, allegedly for molesting Potiphar's wife, he interpreted a dream for the Pharaoh's cupbearer that predicted the cupbearer's release and restoration to favor in the royal court. With his prediction, Joseph made this request to the cupbearer...
The exodus is one of the Bible's great examples of deliverance. It demonstrates the extent to which God is willing to go for the benefit of His people. You were not redeemed from slavery in Egypt, but you were redeemed from slavery to sin;10 and the cross is another of the Bible's great examples of deliverance. It, too, demonstrates the extent to which God is willing to go for the benefit of His people. Both events are part of God's plan for His people, and both events are appropriate for us to review.11
You do that each time you read relevant portions of scripture in the service. That should not, of course, be the only time. How can you review what God has done for you?
Postscript: We never got to the original question: Does God forget? ...Yes, He does, but He does not forget the way we do. When the Bible speaks about God's forgetting, the sense is not that something slips His mind, or even that He simply ignores it, but that He deals with the matter in such a way as to remove it from prominence.12 The main thing God says He will forget is what He says through Jeremiah.13
What is important for us to remember? The Bible links memory and faithfulness. God is faithful to His people, in part, because He remembers. Likewise, His people are more likely to be faithful to Him if they remember—if they remember His grace and His faithfulness to them.
Their second child's birth, a daughter, came after a long and difficult labor, but for Mary, it was worth it when their beautiful little girl emerged. Later, in the hospital room, John, her husband looked at the newborn tenderly, with tears in his eyes. Then, as he glanced up at Mary lovingly, she expected him to utter something truly poetic. Instead he asked... "What's her name again?"Age does not always manifest itself physically and does not always wait until we get older. We may experience its affects mentally and sooner than expected.
Are we humans the only ones who have this problem? Does God, who is a lot older than we are, have lapses in memory? The Bible seems to suggest that He does. Describing Israel's condition in Egypt, Moses writes...
Exod 2:23b The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out...to God. 24 God heard their groaning, and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob.Why does the writer say that God remembered? Did God forget? Was He so busy with other matters that He lost track of Israel's situation? ...The author of Ps 77, wondering why God has not answered his prayer for help, asks...
Ps 77:9a Has God forgotten to be merciful?What does it mean for God to remember, and Does God Forget?1
I have a very poor memory. Linda can recall all sorts of events from our past, even things that happened recently, of which I have no recollection. It is as if my mind erases all but the most immediately relevant information. In computer terms, it is as if I have no hard disk, only RAM (random access memory), which empties whenever I shut down at night. This deficiency becomes most embarrassing with peoples' names and, on more than one occasion, I have simply drawn a blank.
To compensate for a poor memory, I write, because I know that whatever fails to reach paper or drive is gone...trashed...history. I have come to appreciate a line in Sir Francis Bacon's (1561-1626) essay entitled, "Of Studies." He describes the importance of three disciplines for any cultured individual— reading, serious discussion (which he calls "conference"), and writing. Should a person be lacking in any of these, he will only be able to conceal the matter in public if he possesses a superior intellect, which the author calls "cunning."
Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man; therefore if a man write little, he had need have a great memory; if he confer little, he had need have a present wit; and if he read little, he had need have much cunning, to seem to know that [which] he doth not.I do not possess "a great memory," therefore, I must write a lot.2 Does God have the same problem with His memory? For example, did He write the Torah so that He would not forget it?
So as not to cause you undue distress, let me assure you that God does not forget. Unlike us, or me, at least, His memory is not at all faulty. In fact, He challenges Isaiah's audience on this very issue. He says in...
Isa 46:9 Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. 10a I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times what is still to come.God does not have a problem with His memory. What, then, does the Bible mean when it says that God remembers something?
Translating the Hebrew word as "remember" is acceptable only when it applies to us. Even then, as we will see later, it often signifies more than simply recalling to mind. With reference to God, it means that...
- He pays attention to something, and
- He takes action on it. For example...
Gen 8:1 ...God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded.These are all illustrations of what happens when God remembers His people.
Gen 19:29 ...when God destroyed the cities of the plain, he remembered Abraham, and he brought Lot out of the catastrophe that overthrew the cities where Lot had lived.
Acts 10:31 [An angel] said, 'Cornelius, God has heard your prayer and remembered your gifts to the poor. 32a Send to Joppa for Simon who is called Peter.
- He paid attention to Noah's need and sent a wind to dissipate the flood waters.
- He paid attention to Abraham's petition and rescued the one righteous family in Sodom.
- He paid attention to Cornelius's almsgiving and brought Peter with the message of the gospel.
Normally in the sermon, I deal with a particular text, not a topic, so we light on one passage and stay there. This morning, we will be looking at several passages to discover, among other things...
I. What does God remember?
The first mention of God's remembering a covenant is in the flood account, when...
A. He remembers the covenant with Noah and withholds retribution (Gen 9:15-16).Turn to Gen 9, which records events immediately following the great deluge, and we will read what God says to Noah after the flood waters recede.
Gen 9:15 I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. 16 Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.When God remembers, He is not simply recalling to mind. He is focusing His attention and taking appropriate action. In this case, God will withhold the retribution of another flood. We could argue that, at this point, God is not really doing anything, that He is essentially passive. I suspect, however, that there are several times in history when, were it not for God's gracious restraint, He would have been happy to start over again.3 Withholding judgment is as much an act of grace as saving sinners.4
The second mention of God's remembering a covenant is in the exodus account, when...
B. He remembers the covenant with Abraham and initiates relocation (Exod 2:24-25).The passage I read earlier, from Exod 2, records events during the latter part of
Israel's sojourn in Egypt.
Exod 2:24 God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. 25 So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.Here again, when God remembers, He is not simply calling to mind. His attention to the covenant culminates when He initiates the relocation of Israel from slavery in Egypt.
The third mention of God's remembering a covenant is during the exile, when...
C. He remembers the covenant with Moses and promises restoration (Ezek 16:59-60; 37:26).Turn to Ezek 16, which contains a graphic description of Israel's unfaithfulness, a condition God likens to prostitution.
Ezek 16:59 This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I will deal with you as you deserve [That is a scary thought!], because you have despised my oath by breaking the covenant. 60 Yet I will remember the covenant I made with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you.The covenant Israel broke is the one God made through Moses at Sinai, just after the exodus, and it was the Israelites' breaking of that covenant that led to their present exile in Babylon. God is punishing the people for their unfaithfulness, but He will still pay attention to that covenant. As a result, He promises to renew that covenant in a more durable version than the original.5 Turn ahead to...
Ezek 37:26 I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant. I will establish them and increase their numbers, and I will put my sanctuary among them forever.Despite Israel's past indiscretions, God promises the restoration of His people in the land.
Each time God remembers His covenant, He gives grace to His people, even when their sin is good reason for Him to ignore them.
- He remembers the covenant with Noah and withholds the retribution of another flood.
- He remembers the covenant with Abraham and initiates the relocation of Israel from Egypt.
- He remembers the covenant with Moses and promises the restoration of His people, including a new covenant with them.
As I was examining those passages, I noticed a subtle difference between the psalmists' prayers and the way Christians sometimes pray. We have a special prayer language, and I do not mean tongues. It is a jargon that is supposed to sound respectful but often comes across as artificial, even stuffy. One of the phrases is: "We remember so-and-so, Lord, in his hour of need." The contemporary phrase, for those who do not pray, is "I'll be thinking of you." ...What sentimental mush? Thank you, but unless you actually plan on doing something about it, I would much prefer and benefit more if you could get God to remember me. That is how the psalmists all pray. They never say, "We remember..." Their petition is always for God to remember, because He will act on their behalf! Likewise, your prayer will be more effective if you phrase your request in a way that directs God's attention and action to the problem.
We have seen that the covenants attract God's attention and motivate His actions. In light of what God remembers...
II. What should we remember?
As we might expect, God wants His people to pay attention to the same things He does. First...
A. We, as part of God's people, should remember the commitment to the covenant by rejecting pagan imagery (Deut 4:23).They have made an agreement with God and must adhere to it. Turn to Deut 4, where Moses addresses a new generation of Israelites about to enter the land and warns them:
Deut 4:23 Be careful not to forget the covenant of the LORD your God that he made with you; do not make for yourselves an idol in the form of anything the LORD your God has forbidden.Again, remembering (or, not forgetting) does not simply mean recalling. God does not intend for us to remember the covenants the way we remember what color socks we are wearing. Remembering should result in some action; here, it is by rejecting the pagan imagery of idols.
Have you made a commitment to God? ...If so, then you have agreed to serve only Him. We do not have a problem with idolatry today, but we could probably name some contemporary equivalents, activities that draw our attention and devotion away from God. What kinds of things interfere with your commitment? Think about that for a moment.... There should be no competition for your commitment to God, nothing that turns you away from Him.
God's people cannot do for God what He does for them, but they can and should do other things. In fact, the great majority of admonitions to remember advocate one thing: obedience. Along with remembering the commitment of the covenant, that we have an agreement with God...
B. We, as part of God's people, should remember the commands of the covenant by retaining Sabbath sanctity (Exod 20:8).In Exod 20, where Moses gives the Decalogue to those who came out of Egypt,
he says (among other things) in...
Exod 20:8 Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.Here, too, remembering is not just a mental exercise.6 God's people remember the commands of the covenant, in this case, by making the seventh day different from other days. That is the reason we worship on the Sabbath, because it is a way of retaining the sanctity of the day God declared to be holy.7
Is this a command you have agreed to keep? ...If so, then, apart from coming here on Saturday morning, how do you sanctify the Sabbath? How do you make this day different from other days? More to the point, how do you make this day different for God? The Sabbath is not the day you catch up on what you want, it is the day you give up for what God wants. So, what are your plans for this afternoon? Is God at the center of those plans, or is He only on the periphery?
The Sabbath is only one of the commands God's people should remember, but is it the only one He singles out in this way.8 What especially caught my attention, though, is that more than any other admonition of this sort...
C. We, as part of God's people, should remember the circumstances of the covenant by reviewing divine activity (Deut 5:15).We should remember the events surrounding its ratification. Deuteronomy contains more commands to remember (10) than any other biblical book, and most of those commands concern events related to the exodus. In...
Deut 5:15a Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the LORD your God brought you out of there...9Here the meaning is closest to the way we generally use the term. We remember the circumstances of the covenant by recalling what God has done for His people. Yet the word in these passages may include another nuance as well.
When Joseph was in prison, allegedly for molesting Potiphar's wife, he interpreted a dream for the Pharaoh's cupbearer that predicted the cupbearer's release and restoration to favor in the royal court. With his prediction, Joseph made this request to the cupbearer...
Gen 40:14a [W]hen all goes well with you, remember me...Did Joseph simply want the cupbearer to think about him, recalling fondly their time together in prison, their extended discussions on theology and winery? No, he wanted the cupbearer to put in a good word with Pharaoh, and he says as much in the rest of the verse...
Gen 40:14b ...mention me to Pharaoh and get me out of this prison. ...23 The chief cupbearer, however, did not remember Joseph; he forgot him.Another meaning of 'remember' is not merely to recall but to recount... to tell. God's people remember the circumstances of their deliverance, reviewing divine activity, by recalling and recounting what God has done (e.g., Passover seder).
The exodus is one of the Bible's great examples of deliverance. It demonstrates the extent to which God is willing to go for the benefit of His people. You were not redeemed from slavery in Egypt, but you were redeemed from slavery to sin;10 and the cross is another of the Bible's great examples of deliverance. It, too, demonstrates the extent to which God is willing to go for the benefit of His people. Both events are part of God's plan for His people, and both events are appropriate for us to review.11
You do that each time you read relevant portions of scripture in the service. That should not, of course, be the only time. How can you review what God has done for you?
- Privately, in moments of quiet reflection, recall the circumstances of your journey with God. Whence have you come? Whither are you going? How has He been involved along the way? That kind of personal inventory can put life in perspective and remind you of what is truly important. Recall the circumstances of your journey with God.
- Publicly, when you are with family and friends, recount the circumstances of your journey with God. How has He guided you, blessed you, comforted you, protected you, helped you? That kind of personal testimony can bring glory to Him and encourage others to trust Him. Recount the circumstances of your journey with God.
- You should remember the commitment of the covenant by rejecting anything that turns you away from God.
- You should remember the commands of the covenant, for example, by retaining the sanctity of the Sabbath and making that day different for God.
- You should remember the circumstances of the covenant by reviewing God's activity, recalling and recounting what He has done for His people, including you.
Postscript: We never got to the original question: Does God forget? ...Yes, He does, but He does not forget the way we do. When the Bible speaks about God's forgetting, the sense is not that something slips His mind, or even that He simply ignores it, but that He deals with the matter in such a way as to remove it from prominence.12 The main thing God says He will forget is what He says through Jeremiah.13
Jer 31:34b ...I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.What action does God take that allows Him to forget the sins of His people, to remove their iniquity from prominence,14 so that when He looks at His people He sees something else? ... It is the atonement He provides through the sacrifice of Jesus, God's permanent solution to man's most pressing problem, a remedy that has occupied the mind of God since "the creation of the world."15 That is what God remembers.
What is important for us to remember? The Bible links memory and faithfulness. God is faithful to His people, in part, because He remembers. Likewise, His people are more likely to be faithful to Him if they remember—if they remember His grace and His faithfulness to them.
For a pdf including Bibliography and Endnotes see here.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Relevant and civil comments are welcome. Whether there will be any response depends on whether Dr. Manuel notices them and has the time and inclination to respond or, if not, whether I feel competent to do so.
Jim Skaggs