As we enter a new year, I have had my thoughts on a word that kept popping up during my pastor’s sermon series on the book of Deuteronomy. REMEMBER. I realized that it was important for Moses to use this word, as he would soon be leaving the people of Israel in the capable hands of Joshua. They would be crossing the Jordan to take possession of the land promised to them by God since the time of their father, Abraham.
After four hundred years of slavery in Egypt and forty more in the wilderness, those entering the land would have little actual memory of the wonders God performed on their behalf to get them out of Egypt and to sustain them in the wilderness years. The rebellious generation had died off. Thankfully, Moses left them with the written Torah that would be their history book and instruction manual. Still, they couldn’t each have a personal copy. The stories had to be shared verbally from household to household, from parents to children, from priests to tribal leaders.
All this was to grow their collective memory. Memory of the God they served, who had created them and all the earth, who had chosen them from among the nations, and who had given them a special call to be a blessing to the nations. This was the God of Covenant. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Remembering him and his commands was crucial for their success in this new land. It would enable them to gain victory and take full possession of the land. To forget had consequences.
It is from this initial focus that I chose to look through the entirety of Scripture to see how remembering is used. Throughout this study on Fridays, I pray you’ll see three main areas of the importance in remembering:
- Remembering grows our faith.
- Remembering solidifies our faith.
- Remembering passes on our faith.
When we remember the faithfulness of God, our faith grows. We are encouraged to stand fast, stay strong, and rest assured in him and his promises. As we remember, we share what we know about God and our experiences with him with others. We pass down our love for God and faith in him to our children and grandchildren; to those who have yet to come to know the God of Creation. Passing on and sharing our faith helps us to remember even more. A lesson shared is a lesson learned.
However, we’ll see in our study that it’s not only about remembering, but forgetting. Sometimes it’s about what God chooses to forget, and at others, it’s about what his people forgot. We forget and remember—it’s one in hand with the other.
Like my study on Lessons from the Old Testament, I obviously cannot list every occurrence of the words remember or forget in Scripture. I’ll try to take those that will impact us the most on the topic. We’re going to start by looking at God’s relationship with these two acts of memory and then we’ll turn it to mankind’s instructions.
It is my prayer that as we look at how Scripture deals with this concept of memory, you’ll be encouraged to dig deeper into the Word, to memorize more Scripture as a practical act of remembering, and ultimately to remember who created you, chose you, loves and guides you. Remember the One who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
Grace and Peace
If you missed the last Friday Focus post, click HERE.