Not that God would actually forget something, per se, but there are a number of passages in Scripture that talk about His remembering as well as his forgetting. When you take a closer look at them and realize what that means, it is enough to make a person pause for a long hard think.
It seems that there are about four categories that can be applied to God’s remembering. The first is a group of verses where one person, for example-King David, is praying that The LORD will remember them in their troubles and do something about it. In these verses, God has not actually forgotten them, but it seems that way to the one praying. How many times has it felt that the Lord was not paying attention and I have thought that I needed to remind him?! “Lord, remember me? I’m still here, waiting for a Little Help, if you wouldn’t mind!” Our time frame is seldom the same as His.
Secondly, there are a number of verses where someone else feels the need to “remind” God of his covenant with his people, or God himself “remembers” his covenant. God, who is Omniscient, does not truly have the capacity to forget, as we forget. These verses are merely his way of saying to us, “Yes, I remember my promises. I remember them even when you have not held up your end of the bargain. I will remember them forever.”
Now comes the interesting part. The last two categories are those of God’s remembering iniquity (Jer. 14:10) and remembering to forget iniquity (Heb. 8:12). What a terrible thing for the Almighty to remember my sin! The pain that I have caused him surely deserves all of the punishment that his perfect justice could wield! But, Oh, the sweet relief at His promise to remember it no more! The delight that fills my soul at the thought of the Eternal God putting my iniquity an infinite distance from me (Psalm 103:12) and then taking me to Himself!
What an incentive for me to “pursue holiness” (Heb. 12:14): knowing first that the judgment of God is perfectly deserved and perfectly meted out. Everyone who receives punishment from the Almighty receives it justly and with no excuses. I would not want to be in the place of one like the false prophetess Noadiah in Nehemiah 6 when the Lord “remembered” her! “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. (Heb. 10:31)”
The flip side of the incentive comes in understanding that “…He Himself knows our frames; He remembers that we are but dust (Psalm 103:14).” He is aware of our fallibility and “if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (I John 1:9)”!!
May we pray with Habbakuk, “…in wrath, remember mercy”!
*Originally posted Feb 9th, 2006
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