Faith & Reflection: Voices from the Black Church and Beyond
In our focus on remembering God, we’ve moved from the Torah to the Psalms. Today, we’ll read selected passages in the books of the prophets. Speaking to a people messed up by sin and idolatry, forced into exile and dispersed among the nations, God used the prophets to reveal the simple remedy for their trials—Remember God.
Remember God when sin overwhelms.
The people of Israel and Judah would quickly discover that the idols of the surrounding nations had nothing to offer. There was no satisfaction in sacrifices to gods of silver, wood, and gold. They could not hear, nor could they heal and make them whole. Only the God of Creation, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, could meet their every need.
Isaiah prayed for the people to see God’s zeal for his people. As he alone could consume their enemies, it was the Lord God alone who could bring them real peace.
Lord our God, lords other than you have owned us, but we remember your name alone. (Isaiah 26:13 CSB)
They knew the consequences of being under the ownership of false gods. It was time to remember the name of Yahweh, the One True God. The nation that honored the Lord God would be blessed and have expanded borders.
Isaiah longed for the day when God would show his mighty power to the nations. Not only that, but that his own people would again know his awesome strength. What kept them from seeing the power of God? Their sin.
From ancient times no one has heard, no one has listened to, no eye has seen any God except you who acts on behalf of the one who waits for him. You welcome the one who joyfully does what is right; they remember you in your ways. But we have sinned, and you were angry. How can we be saved if we remain in our sins? (Isaiah 64:4-5)
If only they would remember. Solomon the wise knew of God’s great power, but he also knew that sin can so easily pull us down and cause us to forget.
Remember my affliction and my homelessness, the wormwood and the poison. I continually remember them and have become depressed. Yet I call this to mind, and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s faithful love we do not perish, for his mercies never end. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness! I say, “The Lord is my portion, therefore I will put my hope in him.” (Lamentations 3:19-24)
Remember God when living in dark lands.
For some, the exile reinforced God’s abandonment of his people, and they continued to live in rejection of their God and his commandments. For others, the exile was a reminder that they were the cause of their own predicament. They needed to turn back to the God of their fathers and pray for restoration.
Ezekiel addressed the reminder that God had given them all along—there will be a remnant who remembers God.
“Yet I will leave a remnant when you are scattered among the nations, for throughout the countries there will be some of you who will escape the sword. Then your survivors will remember me among the nations where they are taken captive, how I was crushed by their promiscuous hearts that turned away from me and by their eyes that lusted after their idols. They will loathe themselves because of the evil things they did, their detestable actions of every kind. And they will know that I am the Lord; I did not threaten to bring this disaster on them without a reason. (Ezekiel 6:8-10)
It didn’t matter how bad things looked; God would rescue those who remembered him. Though Jonah had run from his call, God could still hear and respond—even inside a big fish!
I sank to the foundations of the mountains, the earth’s gates shut behind me forever! Then you raised my life from the Pit, Lord my God! As my life was fading away, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to you, to your holy temple. Those who cherish worthless idols abandon their faithful love, but as for me, I will sacrifice to you with a voice of thanksgiving. I will fulfill what I have vowed. Salvation belongs to the Lord. (Jonah 2:6-9)
The final return of God’s people to the Holy City is revealed in the prophecy of Zechariah. Again, what does it require? Remembering God.
I will whistle and gather them because I have redeemed them; they will be as numerous as they once were. Though I sow them among the nations, they will remember me in the distant lands; they and their children will live and return. (Zechariah 10:8-9)
Whether you are struggling under the weight of sin or living among a people stripped of all knowledge and respect for the Lord, there is hope. All you have to do is remember him. Call out in confession and longing for his salvation, and he will restore and return you to his presence and peace.
Grace and Peace
If you missed the last Friday Focus post, click HERE, or start from the Beginning.
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