No forgetting

DEVOTION

PSALM

NO FORGETTING

Ps 106:12-23

12 Then they believed his promises and sang his praise.

13 But they soon forgot what he had done and did not wait for his counsel. 14 In the desert they gave in to their craving; in the wasteland they put God to the test. 15 So he gave them what they asked for, but sent a wasting disease upon them.

16 In the camp they grew envious of Moses and of Aaron, who was consecrated to the LORD. 17 The earth opened up and swallowed Dathan; it buried the company of Abiram. 18 Fire blazed among their followers; a flame consumed the wicked.

19 At Horeb they made a calf and worshiped an idol cast from metal. 20 They exchanged their Glory for an image of a bull, which eats grass. 21 They forgot the God who saved them, who had done great things in Egypt, 22 miracles in the land of Ham and awesome deeds by the Red Sea. 23 So he said he would destroy them — had not Moses, his chosen one, stood in the breach before him to keep his wrath from destroying them.

NIV

Verse 12 most likely should have been included with the first eleven, but we chose to start this next few stanzas with it. In quick review the children of Israel were very upset at Moses, at God because of leaving Egypt just to be trapped between the Red Sea and the army of Pharaoh. Then God opened the sea and they crossed on a dry desert sea bottom and then he drown all the army of Pharaoh when they tried to cross chasing the Israelites. Then they believed his promises and sang his praise, but. There is that holy but. One day singing his praises the next day forgetting what he had done. The rest of this next stanza is all about how they forget and what they did instead of continuing to believe his promises and sing his praise. The details of their desires and their sin is not as important as the reason for them, forgetting what God had done and forgetting to believe and sing his praises. We know the whole story of their discontentment and the golden calf event. There is another truth in this portion, but we will save that for later. Now we should consider if we ever slide into this same type of forgetting his promises and wanting what we want and wanting it now, so we go about trying to get it for ourselves. We get distracted from his promises and begin to make a life for ourselves that we desire, almost to the point of worshipping something other than God. That is back to the divided heart issue again. The children of Israel didn’t even have a divided heart, they simple rejected God for the golden calf, which we could see as being all their wealth. The calf was made from a collection of all the gold they took out of Egypt, which God may have intended for them to use as currency in the new world he was taking them to. Instead they worshipped their wealth, the golden calf. God’s anger was fierce regarding this and he would have destroyed them on the spot if it were not for Moses. But let us get back to this idea of forgetting his promises for a little while. Do we forget? Do we try to make our own way? What are his promises that we should remember and live by them? He promised them he would take them to a land of milk and honey, the Promised Land. He promised they were his chosen people and he would take care of them, lead them, watch over them, and give them victory. As far as all the promises he made to them and to us we would have to include all the New Testament and all that he promised to those who believed. Just thinking about the promise of Jesus, the Spirit who dwells within us and the fruit and gifts he brings to bear in our life, sends chills down our spine. Just thinking about God is leading us into a Promised Land in which we will spend eternity with him should give us enough to sing his praises all day long, each and every day. But do we forget and get so involved with our daily life, striving for that which we want in this world? Sure we have to work, we just can’t sit back and believe God will drop everything we need into our laps, or can we? No, we are commanded to work for our sustenance, but at the same time we are supposed to believe God will supply all our needs. So our work is to be as to onto the Lord.

Col 3:22-25

22 Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to win their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord. 23 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, 24 since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. 25 Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for his wrong, and there is no favoritism.

NIV

Transpose slaves and masters to employees and employers and we have this truth in our modern era to live by. We must work, but our work is not for men, but for God. Everything we do should be about God, not about men, not about winning their praise, but winning the praise of God. Our whole life is about our relationship with God. We should not every forget his promises and always be about singing his praise. He has already done so much for us, and he continues to do even more, and will do immensely more in the days to come. Just as Moses stood in the gap and kept God from destroying the children of Israel, we have Jesus standing in the gap. Jesus stands before the Father interceding for us all the time. Though we try to be good, and remember all the time, we fail from time to time. We get distracted by life, we mess up and fall prey to some temptation, and we are not perfect as we now stand. So Jesus stands for us, stands up for us, intercedes on our behalf, and God the Father relents and we are not destroyed because of our failures. God remembers that Jesus took our sin and now we have been saved, and we will continue to be saved and kept by God, unless we completely turn our back on him and walk away. That is not going to happen, we will continue to believe, all the days of our life. We will not forget.