Sabbath: Remember, Do Not Forget
Image © Pacific Press
Sabbath Afternoon
Read for This Week’s Study: Genesis 9:8-17; Deuteronomy 4:32-39; Revelation 14:12; Deuteronomy 4:9, Deuteronomy 4:23; Deuteronomy 6:7; Deuteronomy 8:7-18; Ephesians 2:8-13.
Memory Text: “Remember! Do not forget how you provoked the LORD your God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day that you departed from the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the LORD” (Deuteronomy 9:7).
Two words appear all through the Bible: remember and forget. Both refer to something human, something that happens in our minds. Both are verbs, and they are opposites: to remember is not to forget, and to forget is not to remember.
God often tells His people to remember all the things that He has done for them; to remember His grace for them and His goodness toward them. So much of the Old Testament consisted of the prophets’ telling the people, the Hebrew people, not to forget what the Lord had done for them. But also, most important, they were not to forget what their calling in Him was and what kind of people they were to be in response to that calling. “I will remember the works of the LORD; surely I will remember Your wonders of old” (Psalm 77:11).
Is it any different for us today, both at a corporate level and, even more so, at a personal one? How easy it is to forget what God has done for us.
This week, as expressed in Deuteronomy, we’ll look at this important principle, that of remembering and not forgetting God’s interaction in our lives.
Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, December 4.
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When I first started in computers there was not much in the way of connectedness. A computer was plugged into the power socket on the wall. And that was about as connected as you got. And if something went wrong and the power stopped flowing into the computer, it forgot everything that you taught it. Those were the days where if you wanted to do anything with the computer at all, you first of all had to write a program to do it.
Nowadays our computers are all connected to one another. We have this huge IPv6/v8 system that gives each of our computers and devices an address. We do not need to use wires to connect them, Wifi and cell-phone technology mean that for most of us, we are connected 24/7. One advantage of this is that storage of the things we want to remember has gone into the clouds and we can get to them from just about anywhere. In fact, as some of us have found, sometimes it is difficult to remove some of the things that we would like to forget.
Memories are important, and one of the ways we remember is through our connectedness with one another. Human society is not like our old computers, disconnected pieces of tech ology, working separately. We are like our modern computers, all connected together. We need to remember the importance of that connectedness in our spiritual lives. We place a lot of emphasis on the importance of the relationship between God and us when it comes to salvation, but what happens together in our community of believers is also important, It is the shared experiences together where we can see God's leading and find opportunities for helping one another to remember.
Much of Deuteronomy is about the collective, the nation, the society that God wanted the Children of Israel to realise. It is essentially about their connectedness.
Why is remembering important?
Whether you are aware of it or not, everything that you do is the result of activity of your mind. In every situation, you will react or respond according to what your mind recalls/remembers in relation to particular 'cues' (personally-relevant triggers). This process will either result in a reaction/response that is physically, mentally, socially and spiritually healthy and beneficial to you and others, or not.
I have previously mentioned about the dominant role that our subconscious 'zone' of our mind exerts as our 'default tendency'. Thus, for better or worse, in every situation you will have a 'habitual impulse' that is most easily and typically activated (eg Romans 7:19,20). It is true that "practice (repetition) makes perfect" - for better or worse. The responses we activate most frequently are the ones most likely to be activated. Our neurobiology is set up to do this.
Under our fallen condition (Psalm 51:5), unfortunately our subconscious is very vulnerable to being guided by impulsive self-seeking. This is because, unless you have trained it to do otherwise, the default tendency of the subconscious is to only looking at the immediate in-the-moment benefits to you of a particular option whilst also ignoring the costs. In the case of 'comfort eating', your subconscious only looks at how nice that chocolate biscuit will taste the moment you put it into your mouth. That is why impulses tend to come with regret later on - and why New Year's resolutions typically don't last very long.
Remembering (as opposed to reminiscing) is an act of the conscious - hence it is a conscious and intentional activity. Healthy and constructive remembering is about stopping and 'bringing to mind' the full range of information about an option - both the seeming or actual benefits and the actual or potential costs. This then allows our brain to 'weigh up' our options more carefully and make a wiser decision.
Hopefully you can see that replacing a bad habit (impulse) with a good one (choice) involves practicing remembering both the costs and the benefits of our 'choice-options'. This is what Moses was trying to help the Israelites do by recalling the good and the bad of their past history - and then advising them to practice remembering by doing whatever it takes to prompt their remembering (Deuteronomy 11:18-21).
While it would be nice if God would 'magically cause' us to always remember to make the wisest choice in how we respond in any given situation, it would not help us grow and develop in the ways we need to. So, while we ask God to give us the strength, we then need to put that strength to work and practice remembering whatever is needed to help us make a wiser response in a situation. And we need to repeat this practicing for as long as it takes to keep that choice fresh and sharp in our minds. I suspect the whole process will be easier in heaven for a range of reasons - but for now there is a bit of effort that will be involved as we work side-by-side with God to renovate our characters (Philippians 2:12,13 principle). Remembering wisely is an unavoidable and therefore vitally necessary part of this. This is why there is so much emphasis across scripture upon remembering wisely (eg, Ecclesiastes 12:1).
Phil van der Klift, something that occured to me that may be an additional reason God admonishes us to remember so often, also goes to the neurobiology that you mentioned. By remembering what God has said, or done keeps my focus on him. The mind is also very neuroplastic in that the neural pathways can be remolded. So while the old pathways still exist, new pathways will be created by changing my focus on to God and what he has done, is doing and will do. I will start to gravitate toward what I spend my time and energy focusing or or thinking about. I think that is what we would call sanctification. Or pressing toward the mark of the high calling in Christ Jesus. Because of our sinful nature, we have to "remember" to counteract our sinful tendency.
Thank you for your contribution Myron. I agree with your further unpacking of the details of what is involved in being transformed by the renewing of our mind (Romans 12:2) as we fix our eyes on Jesus (and what He has done, is doing and will do - as you said), the founder and perfector of our faith (Hebrews 12:2).
Always GREAT to remember the past, but don’t be a captive to it!
Remember, not only remember, but do not forget, not only how displeased the Lord was with your out right, and blatant sins against the Living God, but how He was angry with you to the point of wanting to oblertate you, were it not for Moses as an intercessor for you.
Out of love for us, this type of remembering is to solidify our turning to Him. To strengthen our surrender to God with all our heart as we studied last week and the week before, a change of heart toward God, not away. I believe that remembering, and not forgetting is like putting the Strength behind the Shield. 2Samuel 22:3. Psalms 18:7. Psalms 28:7.
Remember last week I brought up how easy it is to be almost saved but not saved. Let me out of love refresh your memory.
There are some who seem to be always seeking for the heavenly pearl. But they do not make an entire surrender of their wrong habits. They do not die to self that Christ may live in them. Therefore they do not find the precious pearl. They have not overcome unholy ambition and their love for worldly attractions. They do not take up the cross and follow Christ in the path of self-denial and sacrifice. Almost Christians, yet not fully Christians, they seem near the kingdom of heaven, but they cannot enter there. Almost but not wholly saved, means to be not almost but wholly lost. COL 118.1
Another reason to remember is to know and ponder in your heart that the Lord Himself is God of heaven above, and earth beneath, there is no other God. Deuteronomy 4:39.