How’s Your Memory?
Maybe it’s because I just turned 50, but I forget stuff easily. I have a hard time remembering where I’ve parked my car; I once spent at least 45 minutes—probably more—looking for my car in a hospital parking garage, and Tammy jokes that she may one day send me to Walmart and never see me again because I can’t find my car. Yes, I will walk into a room to get something and forget what I’ve come to fetch. And I’m bad to neglect returning voicemails, texts, and emails—not because I’m unwilling, but because I forget.
The Israelites had a memory problem, too. They weren’t forgetting simple, run-of-the-mill things like where they had parked or why they had walked into another room or whom they needed to call. They had forgotten God: “Can a virgin forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? Yet my people have forgotten me days without number” (Jer 2:31).
The context in which Yahweh spoke to Jeremiah was the people’s idolatry. Instead of honoring the God who had made heaven and earth and brought their ancestors up from Egypt, the people of Judah bowed down in homage to things which weren’t gods at all. They had forgotten the living God.
Most people around us don’t bow down to pagan images, but they have certainly forgotten God. They live how they choose without regard to what God has commanded. They believe they provide for their families. They trust only in skilled physicians. They view current events through a lens of fear, rather than a lens of triumph because they know God’s ultimate victory.
But Yahweh didn’t speak to the pagan nations around him; he spoke through Jeremiah about his own people who had forgotten him. Are we, as the people of God, forgetting the Lord? Do we pray for blessings, and then neglect to offer thanksgiving? Do we ignore worship when we’re on vacation—does the fact that we’re in a different environment cause us to think we can miss the gathering of the saints? Do we condone—and, perhaps, even applaud—the decisions some of our loved ones make, although those decisions are far from God? When we face trouble, do we wonder how we’ll ever make it, or do we turn to God in prayer and faith?
Simply because we don’t bow down to graven images doesn’t mean we’re immune from forgetting God. Acknowledge God. Walk with him. Remember him.
This article was originally written by Dr. Justin Imel, Sr., for the weekly newsletter at Church of Christ Deer Park in Deer Park, Texas.