Does God Forget?

 

When young and unable to remember someone’s name or what brought me to a room, it was no big deal. However, after ‘too many birthdays’ being unable to remember things is distressing. This is another reason to trust the Lord. Obviously, He is able to REMEMBER everything. Yet He says, in Isaiah 43:25. “I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.” He FORGETS sin!

Years ago, I led a seminar on forgiveness. We tend to think it means “forgive and forget” but when it comes to God, that definition does not work. It doesn’t work well for us either because it is not easy, or the right way to think of what forgiveness means. The Bible word for remembering is: “to keep in mind for attention or consideration.” That makes forgiveness not about forgetting but a decision; when someone sins against us, we choose not to hold it against them. God does not forget; He simply does not give our confessed sin any “mindful attention or consideration.”

I read dozens of verses about God remembering and forgetting with this definition in mind and noted that God’s remembering and ‘forgetting’ is intentional and also followed by action. Here are just a few of many examples:

Genesis 8:1. “But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided.”

Genesis 9:15-16. “I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.”

Genesis 30:22. “Then God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and opened her womb.”

Numbers 10:9. “And when you go to war in your land against the adversary who oppresses you, then you shall sound an alarm with the trumpets, that you may be remembered before the Lord your God, and you shall be saved from your enemies.”

Although there are many other passages that tell us to remember or not forget what God has done, Genesis 41:51 surprised me. It says that Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh because, “God has made me forget all my hardship and all my father’s house.”

Joseph is noted for choosing not to hold against his brothers their ill treatment of him, yet this verse gives credit to God for the ability to forgive in the sense that Joseph did — and as God does.

In Job 39 the Lord further describes His ability to do this. He says, “The wings of the ostrich wave proudly, but are they the pinions and plumage of love? For she leaves her eggs to the earth and lets them be warmed on the ground, forgetting that a foot may crush them and that the wild beast may trample them. She deals cruelly with her young, as if they were not hers; though her labor be in vain, yet she has no fear, because God has made her forget wisdom and given her no share in understanding.”

Sometimes we feel as if God has forgotten us. He isn’t answering our prayers or doing anything we can see. The psalmists expressed that feeling and asked Him to remember them in various distresses. From what I’m reading, I’m reminded of my sister who struggled with memory loss and how she prayed to remember where she put her scissors or her glasses. She laughed that God always heard her plea and gave her what she needed.

GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. Perhaps the losses of getting older, whether it is memory or physical abilities, or other things, are part of our spiritual growth toward total dependence on the Lord Jesus Christ for everything. In pride and sinful selfishness, I want to “do it myself” but God is there for me and God is glorified when I rely on Him instead of my own resources. That does not mean that I forget to ask His help, or to praise Him for His answers. He reassures me that even though I often forget Him or neglect to call upon Him, He does not forget me:

Psalm 9:11–12. “Sing praises to the Lord, who sits enthroned in Zion! Tell among the peoples his deeds! For he who avenges blood is mindful of them; he does not forget the cry of the afflicted.”

Isaiah 49:15–16. “Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands . . . .”

Hebrews 13:5. “Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’ ”