by Jerry King
Synopsis: Sacred Scripture repeatedly calls upon men to remember God’s marvelous deeds, His will and word, along with their respective duties. Are we mindful or forgetful of such things?
The ability to remember is remarkable and essential to both animal and human life. Can you imagine a world where an ability to remember did not exist? What if your dog attacked you every time you came home because he did not recognize you? What if you had to learn everything all over again every day? What if every person in your life was utterly unknown to you? What if you could not remember that fire is hot? Memory brings order to our existence, helps us grow and improve, and binds us into lasting relationships. Without memory, life would not just be lonely and dangerous; it would be impossible.
Canadian psychologist Endel Tulving is noted for his division of long-term memory into three types: (1) Procedural memory involves the motor skills necessary to do things such as tie your shoes (which one supposedly never forgets). This type of memory is automatically received from the brain and requires no conscious thought. (2) Semantic memory involves the retention of facts about the world around us (the route to Chick-fil-A). This type of memory requires conscious thought. (3) Episodic memory involves the memory of personal experiences (the birth of a child). This type of memory also requires conscious thought.
We need all three types of memory for life to function with any kind of order. Perhaps your dream vacation is to bike ride through Paris, France, with your beloved one. To do that, you must use procedural memory (how to ride a bike), semantic memory (Paris exists, and it is in France), and episodic memory (I have a beloved one). If even one of these memory types is missing, the experience would be impossible.
What is true of secular life is also true of spiritual life. God intends for His people to remember the facts, processes, and motivations without which the joyful function of religious life would be impossible. Can you imagine worship where no one remembered how to sing or why they would even want to? Can you imagine worship where no one remembered who Jesus was or why He matters? Memory is our gift from God to help make religious life possible.
Yet, here is the problem: While procedural memory may be more permanent, time tends to make semantic and episodic memories fade. We tend to forget things that are not constantly before us. We see that in ancient Israel: they continually forgot God and the things of God. Psalm 106 is an ode to Israel’s history of forgetting God—they forgot His mercies (v. 7), His works (v. 13), and His salvation (v. 21). Hosea also emphasizes Israel’s forgetfulness—they forgot God’s law (4:6), and they forgot God Himself, which led them into idolatry (2:13; 13:6).
New Testament Christians are not immune from forgetting either. The Thessalonians had been troubled by thoughts that “the day of Christ” had come, and they had missed it. Paul encouraged them not to be deceived by false reports and told them that a “falling away” would come before that day. He asked them, “Do you not remember that when I was still with you, I told you these things?” (2 Thess. 2:5). Time had dulled their semantic (factual) memories. The Hebrew writer chided some who had “forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as sons” (Heb. 12:5) and encouraged all to “not forget to do good and share” (Heb. 13:16). Time had dulled their episodic (relationship) memories.
How easy it is for God’s people to forget! The Lord knows this, and so He gives His people three ways to remember the things that are important to their religious lives:
He gave Israel the prophets and their writings to remind them of Moses’s teaching. The prophets of each generation sought to encourage repentance through a rehearsal of who God is, who they were, and what their responsibility to God was. The Psalms over and again rehearse historical facts about all God had done for His people. An excellent example is Psalm 105:5, which encourages the reader, “Remember His marvelous works which He has done,” and then spends the chapter rehearsing all the wonderful things God had done for His people. In Deuteronomy 11:18, Moses commanded the Israelites to lay up the words of the law into their hearts and souls.
God has given the inspired writings of the New Testament to remind us of Jesus and His apostles’s teaching. When faced with sensual, divisive teachers, Jude instructed his readers, “Remember the words which were spoken to you before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ” (v. 17). The apostles had given the facts about these false teachers years before, but the Christians had just forgotten. They needed to recall the facts that they had received. We, too, can remember the facts of Christianity by recalling (studying) the New Testament writings.
Moses gave Israel this instruction about the Mosaic Law: “You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in the house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates” (Deut. 11:19-20). That is repetitive instruction. A one-time rehearsal of God’s law was not enough, because memory fades. So, Israelite families were to keep God’s instructions continually before them—on their bodies (v. 18), on their lips (v. 19), and on their houses (v. 20).
Likewise, worship was to be repetitive. Zechariah 8:21 instructs, “Let us continue to go and pray before the Lord.” Why continual worship? Asaph answers that in Psalm 73. He had forgotten essential truths about God’s goodness (vv. 1-16). Yet, when he went into the sanctuary of God (worship), then he remembered why it was good to trust in God (vv. 17-28).
No wonder the New Testament places such importance on repetitive instruction and worship! In 1 Timothy 5:16, Paul instructed young Timothy to “take heed” to himself and the doctrine and “continue” in them. Paul said that Timothy needed this repetitive instruction from God’s word in order to save himself and his hearers. Hebrews 13:5 echoes Zechariah 8:21 when it says, “Let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God.” Repetitive instruction reminds us of the facts of Christianity; repetitive worship reminds us of why the facts matter.
God wanted Israel to remember the cost of their salvation from Egyptian captivity (Exod. 12:12-13), and so He gave them the yearly feast of Passover. “So this day shall be a memorial; and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generations” (Exod. 12:14).
Similarly, God has given Christians a weekly memorial feast to help us never forget the cost of our salvation from sin. The Corinthian church had turned the Lord’s Supper into a common meal, forgetting the significance of the feast (1 Cor. 11:27-32). To jog their memories, Paul rehearsed to them the facts of the feast (1 Cor. 11:24-25). The bread represented Jesus’s body, broken for them. The cup represented His blood, shed for them. They were to eat the bread and drink the cup “in remembrance” of Jesus’s death on the cross. Semantic (factual) remembrance of Jesus’s death is important (He died), but so is episodic (emotional) remembrance (He died for me!) The Lord’s Supper, properly observed, accomplishes both.
Do you want to remember God? Study often, worship continually and do not neglect the proper partaking of the Lord’s Supper. Do those things, and you will never forget Him.
Jerry King
Jerry has worked with the West Allen church in Allen, TX for thirteen years. He and his wife, Amy, live nearby in McKinney. They have three children and four grandchildren scattered across Texas. The church website is westallenchurch.org. He can be reached at jerryking1956@sbcglobal.net.
