Isn’t it amazing what we are capable of remembering? Memory – that ability to restore and retrieve detailed events from our distant pasts – is what makes us truly human and separates us from the creatures. It is equally amazing what we are capable of forgetting. Our memories can be “selective” at times.
The Lord knew this only too well when he charged Moses with the task of preparing a new generation of Israelites as they waited to enter the Promised Land. We have been reading through this book; one of its key themes is that of “remembering”. The constant refrain, DO NOT FORGET THE LORD YOUR GOD echoes throughout its chapters.
“Take heed lest you forget the things your eyes have seen (4:9); lest you forget the covenant the Lord your God has made with you (4:23); lest you forget that once you were slaves (5:15); lest you forget how the Lord brought you up out of Egypt and bondage (6:12); be careful that you do not to forget the Lord your God, failing to observe his commands (8:10).”
Be careful! Remember! Do not forget – especially now that your circumstances are about to be radically changed; especially now that you are moving into a land of abundance; into a land where bread is not scarce and where all of your material needs will be met. Do not forget the Lord your God. And remember that when you do drink the water from wells you did not dig yourself and enjoy the shade and produce of vines you did not plant; and when you live in houses you did not sweat to build – then remember the Lord your God – for (Dt. 8:17-18) for it is He who provides and gives you the ability to produce wealth.
The vast and dreadful desert had perils all its own. In that place the people of God had little option – really – but to trust and obey the Lord – to collect the strange bread from heaven which sustained them, morning-by-morning throughout the journey. They did not have all they wanted. God gave them what was needed, their daily bread.
The Promised Land would bring its own particular dangers.
Two things I ask of you, LORD; do not refuse me before I die: 8 Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. 9 Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, ‘Who is the LORD?’ Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God. (Prov. 30) The writer of the Proverbs well knew the perils of plenty!
With a change of circumstances in store the people would have to exercise care; they would have to take God with them when they crossed the Jordan. They would have to remember the word of God – that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. (The very words of Jesus) They would have to remember the lessons of their history and bring to mind the days when they knew hunger. They would need more than simple bread for their journey as a people of God.
You know it was no small thing for God to call the rich man (in Jesus’ Parable) a “fool”. The word, fool was more than a casual term of abuse. In Israelite culture it referred to a life lived without reference to God. He is pictured failing to seek justice and compassion; he is pictured ignoring the path to true life; he is seen as being unwise or really rather “thick” as we might put it. Jesus paints a picture of a man who is not successful for all his wealth. The world would probably regard him as a great success. We bring up children with aspirations just like his. We live in a society which, like the fool, has largely forgotten the Lord their God!
The problem with wealth (whether we are wealthy or not) is self. The problem is me. The problem is “I”. The problem is “myself”. Read the parable and see how often the man speaks of himself!
The rich man is a fool because he allowed the means by which he lived to outdistance the ends for which he lived. He could not separate the within from the without – he saw them as one.
The rich man is a fool because he had forgotten that his wealth was completely dependent on others. He did not plant the seed himself – neither would he be able to build the bigger barns to store that grain without the help of others.
He is a fool because he has forgotten his utter dependence upon God. The fool says precisely what Moses warned the people not to do:”…my power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me…”
God calls him a fool because, in his change of circumstances, he has forgotten what is really important. He looks as though he is living the “GOOD LIFE” but (quite simply) he has forgotten God. He is eating, drinking and making merry but he is living no kind of life at all. The things he treasures are like food that will perish…
You see, the great danger is not money (by itself) but forgetfulness. We don’t know if the parable was about a real person or not but he could be any number of people we know. He could be us to some extent. Leaving God out of our lives is a great danger.
The danger is that we become less fearful of God, less worshipful, less thankful – perhaps slowly (unconsciously) at first. Martin Luther King’s 1967 sermon spoke to this problem of forgetting in the America of his day:-
“…And so many people become so involved in their big bank accounts and in their beautiful expensive automobiles that they unconsciously forget God. So many people become so involved in looking at the man-made lights of the city that they forget to think about that great cosmic light that gets up early in the morning in the eastern horizon and moves with a kind of symphony of motion like a masterly queen strolling across a mansion and paints its Technicolor across the blue as it moves—a light that man could never make. Some people have become so involved in looking at the sky scraping buildings of the cities that they’ve forgotten to think about the gigantic mountains, kissing the skies, as if to bathe their peaks in the lofty blue—something that man could never make. So many people have become so involved in televisions and radar that they’ve forgotten to think about the beautiful stars that bedeck the heavens like swinging lanterns of eternity, standing there like shining silvery pins sticking in the magnificent blue pincushion—something that man could never make. So many people have come to feel that on their own efforts they can bring in a new world, but they’ve forgotten to think about the fact that the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof. And so they end up going over and over again without God…”
Perhaps this forgetting begins when we start taking the simple things for granted. Jesus warned his hearers, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life (his food) does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”
Forgetting God will lead to pride and soon that will replace praise. Once dependent, trusting people will turn away from God and become self-made men and women – people who don’t believe they need God. There’s the subtle danger of wealth. What happens to the lottery winner?
Forgetting God (and we all do it!) will mean that possessions and property will eventually replace God in the affections of his people. They become idolaters. That’s why 8th chapter of Deuteronomy ends with the stark warning: 19 If you ever forget the LORD your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed. 20 Like the nations the LORD destroyed before you, so you will be destroyed for not obeying the LORD your God.
In all the changing hues of life – DO NOT FORGET THE LORD YOUR GOD! It’s foolish to forget that once we were dead in a sins and trespasses. Once we were without God and Hope in the world…
Remember with the Psalmist that he is the One:
… 3 who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, 4 who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, 5 who satisfies your desires with good things...
10 he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. 11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; 12 as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us 13 As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him…
EVEN IF YOU FORGET HIM HE WILL NOT FORGET YOU!
15 “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! 16 See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me. (Isaiah 49)
We thank the Lord in prayer – that He is a teacher to be heard; a giver to be thanked; a king to be honoured; a Father to be obeyed; He is a deliverer to be remembered… Amen!