When God Remembers – a review
The Lord be with you
I have just received the Spring 2016 Concordia Journal (volume 42|number 2). The first article, titled “When God Remembers,” is by Paul R. Raabe (professor of exegetical theology at Concordia Seminary, St Louis). He begins,
Is God forgetful? Does he experience periods of amnesia? Actually, the Bible speaks often of God remembering. The Hebrew verb “to remember” (zakar) occurs 222 times in the Old Testament and one-third of those instances speak of God remembering. …
If we accept the fact that God is all-knowing, what does it mean when it says God remembers? Did he forget? How can that be? Then there are the passages that actually say that God does forget, like Isaiah 43:25.
“I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.”
Clearly what it means for God to remember or forget means something different from us forgetting or remembering. Raabe does a great job in exploring this topic and normally I’d provide a link to the article on line (www.csl.edu) so you can read it, but the current issue has not yet been archived.
If I was to accent only one highlight from the article, I think I’d pick the idea that God’s memory is an act of his will. If he “remembers” he isn’t simply recalling a past event or promise but he is willing to act in an appropriate way based on that even or promise. If he “forgets” it is also an act of his will in which he chooses to overlook something, say our sins. Raabe himself concludes:
About seventy-five texts in the Old Testament speak of God remembering. It is a common theme. These texts depict God as what we might call the “incarnational God” who locates himself with his people in space and time. From that perspective, God remembers the past and promises the future.
God’s remembering is not simply intellectual recall. It is an act of th will. God remembers the past and responds appropriately in the present.
About a third of these texts are prayers for God to remember. It is not that he is forgetful or suffers bouts of amnesia and needs to be reminded. Rather, God wants to be reminded of his promises, his commitments, and what he has said in the past. Faith delights in so reminding God. Moreover, faith praises God for remembering.
Many of the prayers concern the future. In the hymn “O God, Our Help in Ages Past,” we sing “Time, like an ever-rolling stream, Soon bears us all away; We fly forgotten as a dream Dies at the op’ning day” (LSB 733, v. 5). The prayers petition God not to cavalierly dismiss after death one’s faithful labor. Rather, the faithful want their work flowing from faith to bear lasting fruit into the future generations. In that context, a prayer for God to remember is most appropriate.
In short, the language of God remembering occurs frequently and conveys rich theology. It seems that we do not speak this way very often. Yet, we need to use this kind of language much more in our preaching and teaching and in our prayers, both individual prayers and the church’s prayers.
This is a good article.
Blessings in Christ,
Pastor