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GOD REMEMBERS – AND
FORGETS
A Talk at
the Monday Club by Joss Apperley
Bible
references are to the Anglicised New International Version (NIV-UK) unless noted
otherwise
No longer will a man teach
his neighbour, or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ because they will all know me, from
the least of them to the greatest. For I will forgive their wickedness and will
remember their sins no more.
Hebrews
8: 11, 12
NOW WHAT DAY IS IT
TODAY? With some embarrassment I confess to
occasional lapses of memory – but as this is the Monday Club, today I have no
excuse. Looking around I see that most of us are in the prime of life, or,
euphemistically, in the ripe maturity and wisdom of advancing years. Isn’t that
right? Of course it is! Past the so-called mid-life crisis and generally settled
and contented in our individual modus operandi, we can smile and shake
our heads at the foolishness of youth and the rash behaviour of some middle-aged
kids.
But don’t let’s be too smug. We seniors
have our failings, and an eight-year old can outsmart us any day on a computer,
a mobile phone, or any of the amazing electronic gadgets that make information
on any topic instantly available. The young even have a grasp of how it all
works, and are nonplussed at the ignorance of grandpa. In our own youth we
painstakingly – and often unwillingly – packed information into our brains by
hours of reading and paying attention to teachers or lecturers, with varied
levels of success.
It’s a different world today, but the
information explosion of recent times does not necessarily indicate an increase
in human intelligence. Had the information been made available many generations
ago, who can doubt that it would have been understood and exploited in just the
same way as today? The phenomenon was forecast in the 6th century BC by the
prophet Daniel, who was instructed to seal the book even to the ‘time of the
end’, when many would run here and there, and knowledge would be increased
(Daniel 12: 4). Are we running here and there? Yes! And it seems that the whole
world of mankind is constantly on the move.
Selective
Memory
Having such vast resources of
information available, do you sometimes ask yourself: ‘Do I really want to know
this or that?’ And how do we retain what is useful and discard the rest?
Consigning unwanted stuff to the cranial rubbish bin may be a somewhat
involuntary reaction, though we do sometimes make a conscious choice to discard
what’s of no use or interest. Can we blot out distressing memories? In extreme
cases that does seem to happen, either deliberately or subconsciously, and that
such selective amnesia is possible may be a built-in safety mechanism provided
by a benign Creator.
On the other hand, learning from our own
mistakes – or sins – requires that we do not entirely forget them. Does
your heart go out to the Apostle Peter, who wept bitterly when he realised he
had disowned his Lord? (Matthew 26: 75.) What greater lesson could teach him,
and us, the frailty of fallen human nature? Peter would never forget, and his
conduct thereafter would be tempered by the memory of his impulsive defection.
And what seems doubly hard for him to bear is that all the world – even
to this day, knows of his sin. Only the events subsequent to his betrayal made
Peter’s life bearable – even exemplary, and his future as a leading Apostle is
undoubted.
Now I’ve as good a forgettery as any
chap, and my mental trash bin is topped up regularly, sometimes with information
I later wish I’d assimilated and stored safely in that filing cabinet we have
between our ears. No doubt we all have stuff we’d rather forget – like Peter
perhaps. Recollections of past wrongdoing, shame at less than Christian conduct,
failure to live worthy of the amazing love of God and Christ – such memories
arise unbidden to chastise us, stored in some cerebral recycle bin until we need
to be reminded, instructed and admonished.
Does God
Forget?
Oh yes! He tells us that He does. But
how can the Almighty forget anything? Are we to understand that He is sometimes
a little absent minded, as we are? By no means! Some Biblical statements are
difficult to grasp, and when God says that He will forget something, He is not
admitting to any weakness of mental capacity, but conveying to the reader His
deliberate choice on the matter under discussion. We do this ourselves of
course – disregarding another’s faults, debts or offences with a forgiving ‘oh
forget it!’
Blotting out the record of our offences,
giving us a clean slate, so to speak, is the act of a merciful God who knows our
weaknesses and has provided a Saviour. When God forgets our sins,
the essential, motivating force behind the action is forgiveness. As
the Scriptures assure us (Isaiah 43: 25):
I, even I, am he who blots out your
transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no
more.
So can
we count on it that our lapses, small and great, are to be overlooked in
advance by an indulgent Heavenly Father? Perish the thought! Our commitment
to Christ is not an easy ride on the ‘gravy train’ to a heavenly reward. Rather,
it’s a lifelong commitment to walk a difficult path, sometimes losing our way,
having to retrace our steps, confessing our wrongdoing, constantly asking the
Lord to wipe our slate clean again.
Remembering
Just as forgetting often focuses
on action, and not merely on mental recall, so remembering has the dual
significance. King David, referred to by the Apostle Paul as a man after God’s
own heart, often had occasion to appeal to the Lord to remember him (Acts
13: 22; Psalm 13: 1, 2):
How
long, O LORD? Will you forget me for ever? How long
will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and
every day have sorrow in my heart?
David’s turbulent personal life and his
painful awareness of his sins sent him often to the Lord in agonies of
repentance, and the centuries-long passing of time does not dim our compassion
when reading his heart-rending plea for forgiveness (Psalm 51:
9-11):
Hide your face from my sins and blot out
all my iniquity. Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit
within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from
me.
The thief crucified alongside Jesus
appealed to be remembered in the Lord’s Kingdom – not in a passing recollection,
but for some hoped-for relief. The childless Hannah asked the Lord to remember,
and not forget her, and in due time she gave birth to Samuel, the son she then
pledged to the Lord’s service. God remembered Hannah in the active,
practical sense of the word (1 Samuel 1: 10, 11, 19, 20). Have you ever been a
beneficiary in somebody’s will? Then you were remembered in the practical
sense!
Our Own Remembering and
Forgetting
It is an act of will, a positive
intention to do the best we can. While we may be rather helpless in our
advancing years to stem the tendency to forget names of people, places, what day
it is, and all manner of annoying trivia, years of practice should have trained
us to remember in the loftier sense of observing the needs of others and
responding in a practical sense. Sometimes I chuckle at the moans of ‘grumpy old
men’ (and women), and agree with them, but there’s a wealth of goodwill and
kindness that seldom hits the headlines – the charity workers, the hospital
volunteers, the good Samaritans – all remembering the needs of others by
their positive actions.
And what about positive forgetting?
Forgiving and forgetting the real or imagined offences of others is a truly
liberating experience. Human conflict began in Eden and scars us all, so
whatever we can do to spread peace and harmony will ease the pain. Let Jesus’
reply to Peter’s question set the standard (Matthew 18: 21,
22):
Then Peter came to Jesus and asked,
‘Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to
seven times?’ Jesus answered, ‘I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-times-seven .’
Now what time was I supposed to finish
this dissertation? Ah! You’ve all had enough! Thanks for putting up with
me.
_______________
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ukbiblestudents.co.uk
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