The war is over . . .

 

While this word has been part of this year’s devotional focus, it seems appropriate to look at REMEMBER again today. The novels I’m reading are set during the first world war, making vivid the need to remember men and women who sacrificed their lives for our freedom. While the Bible does not focus on those who fought and died in battle, it does tell me that God knows each person, all those on both sides of the conflict. He remembers.

The OT makes much of the fact that God remembers His covenants. A rainbow is His reminder to us that He will never again destroy the world with a flood. He remembered His promises to Abraham, to the barren women who prayed for children, and the promises made to His people groaning in bondage in Egypt.

He told His people if they humbled themselves and were obedient, He would “remember my covenant with Jacob, and I will remember my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land.” In other words, God does not forget any promise He has made. He remembers and keeps His word. Other examples are found in the Psalms:

Psalm 74:2–3. “Remember your congregation, which you have purchased of old, which you have redeemed to be the tribe of your heritage! Remember Mount Zion, where you have dwelt. Direct your steps to the perpetual ruins; the enemy has destroyed everything in the sanctuary!”

When I am in trouble, God remembers the promises He has made to protect me, guide me, even use all things that happen to me for my good. He also remembers that I am dust, and does not expect me to be perfect until that day when I leave this place and see Jesus face to face.

Sometimes God’s memory is negative in that He remembers and punishes sin. Even entire nations suffer because of God’s just and holy memory. But He also is merciful. While nothing drops out of His mind (like me when I forget someone’s name or where I put my phone), He does choose to not dwell upon or remember the sin of those who put their trust in His Son. The following OT promise is repeated in the NT because all those who have faith like Abraham are considered part of the “house of Israel” so God’s promises apply to Christians too:

Hebrews 8:10–12. “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.”

GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. Today is set aside to remember those who went to war and sacrificed their lives so we can live in peace. These warriors should be honored often for what they have done, and God be thanked for them. Yet every day I must remember and offer thankful praise to God who has chosen not to remember my sins, and to give me peace with Him and eternal life — all because of the sacrifice of one man who died in my place and ended the conflict — my Redeemer and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

God chooses what to forget and what to remember . . .

 

When someone sins against me and God helps me forgive them, I need to be careful that I don’t drag it up in my mind and become hurt and angry all over again. When reading verses about God REMEMBERING sin, I also must remind myself that He is not angry all over again, but that He can remember forgiven sin yet choose not to hold it against the sinner.

Forgiving like God forgives is a challenge. I know that His memory is not wiped out yet at the same time, His response to forgiven sin is just as if it never happened.

That said, God’s memory is not like mine. I forget where I put my glasses, or forget someone’s name, or forget a birthday, but God remembers everything — particularly His promises. For instance, the OT says that He even uses reminders, not for His sake but so we know He has not forgotten:

Genesis 9:13–16. I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, 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.”

Moses knew about God’s memory. He pleaded with Him in Deuteronomy 9:27 to, “Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Do not regard the stubbornness of this people, or their wickedness or their sin, lest the land from which you brought us say, ‘Because the Lord was not able to bring them into the land that he promised them, and because he hated them, he has brought them out to put them to death in the wilderness.’ For they are your people and your heritage, whom you brought out by your great power and by your outstretched arm.”

Hannah pleads with God to remember her (1 Samuel 1:11) and vowed a vow and said, “O Lord of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your servant and remember me and not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a son, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and no razor shall touch his head.”

Psalm 74:2 asks God to “Remember your congregation, which you have purchased of old, which you have redeemed to be the tribe of your heritage! Remember Mount Zion, where you have dwelt” and the prophet also asked Him (Lamentations 5:1; 20-22), “Remember, O Lord, what has befallen us; look, and see our disgrace!  . . . Why do you forget us forever, why do you forsake us for so many days? Restore us to yourself, O Lord, that we may be restored! Renew our days as of old— unless you have utterly rejected us, and you remain exceedingly angry with us.”

God’s memory can be negative. His prophets warned “He will now remember their wickedness and punish them for their sins.” Yet the Lord also remembers our weaknesses and does not expect perfection from us. Psalm 103:13–14 says, “As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.”

GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. Because of God’s mercy, the NT speaks of His memory in terms of His covenant. Human failure to obey Him resulted in the coming of Jesus whose sacrifice means our sin is put on Him, forgiven and buried as “far as the east is from the west.”

Luke 1:68–72. “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us; to show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant,

For this, the thief of the cross beside Jesus could ask, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom” and those who call on Jesus for salvation can experience the joy of knowing this:

Hebrews 8:10–12. “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.”