Forgetting the Lord

"Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments and His ordinances and His statutes which I am commanding you today; otherwise, when you have eaten and are satisfied, and have built good houses and lived in them, and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and gold multiply, and all that you have multiplies, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. “He led you through the great and terrible wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water; He brought water for you out of the rock of flint. “In the wilderness He fed you manna which your fathers did not know that He might humble you and that He might test you, to do good for you in the end. “Otherwise, you may say in your heart, ‘My power and the strength of my hand made me this wealth.’ “But you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who is giving you power to make wealth, that He may confirm His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day. “It shall come about if you ever forget the Lord your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I testify against you today that you will surely perish. “Like the nations that the Lord makes to perish before you, so you shall perish because you would not listen to the voice of the Lord your God.            Deuteronomy 8:11-20

This important passage, written a few weeks before Moses’ death was given as a warning about the dangers of putting one’s trust in man’s ability and circumstances instead of completely trusting God. The middle verse in the Bible is Psalm 118:8 and it is no coincidence that it speaks of this principle: It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man. In Verse 14 above, the consequence of not trusting in the Lord is a proud heart, removing consciousness of the Lord from the forefront of the believer’s mind. It opens the door for intense spiritual warfare as the devil ignites in the flesh covetousness, craving with intensity instead of waiting on God (Psalm 106:13-14).

Hezekiah succumbed to this principle in 2 Chronicles 32:25-26 when he gave no return for the benefit he received because his heart was proud; therefore, wrath came on him and Judah and Jerusalem.

They Quickly Forgot 

This was a consistent problem with Israel throughout Old Testament times, but the Lord did not abandon them for the sake of His name (Psalm 106:7-15). Upon experiencing God’s deliverance, the people believed His words; they sang His praise only for a short season. They quickly forgot His works; they did not wait for His counsel, but craved [coveted] intensely in the wilderness, and tempted God in the desert, and the Lord brought a new trial for the people to bear. As Verse 7 states, they did not remember Your abundant kindnesses. According to Isaiah 17:10-11, 

For you have forgotten the God of your salvation and have not remembered the rock of your refuge. Therefore, you plant delightful plants and set them with vine slips of a strange god. On the day that you plant it you carefully fence it in, and in the morning, you bring your seed to blossom; but the harvest will be a heap in a day of sickliness and incurable pain.

The natural man is looking to establish his own significance through human effort and this process generally results in a competition to achieve something God wishes to give the believer freely. Paul wrote the Church at Corinth and addressed this principle in 1 Corinthians 4:6-7 when he said, Now these things, brethren, I have figuratively applied to myself and Apollos for your sakes, so that in us you may learn not to exceed what is written so that no one of you will become arrogant in behalf of one against the other. For who regards you as superior? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it? 

Drifting Away

The carnal (fleshly) mind is also subject to this phenomenon. In Hebrews 2:1, the writer warns the believer of a “drifting away” from the faith. The Greek word used is pararreoe and it means a slipping away, a gradual and almost unnoticeable movement as a result of a deviation from the truth. The solution to this spiritual warfare is to pay closer attention [prosechoe – to hold the mind in a particular direction] “to what we have heard”. In Deuteronomy 4:9, Moses writes “Only give heed to yourself and keep your soul diligently, so that you do not forget the things which your eyes have seen and they do not depart from your heart all the days of your life, but make them known to your sons and your grandsons”. The spiritual principle being taught is an attention of the heart to divine instruction as the Holy Spirit illuminates truth in the inner man. Without this approach, we are subject to slackness in our relationship with God. This may be the most important theme addressed in the book of Hebrews. 

The successful believer has learned how to wait on the Lord. It means that he has access to supernatural strength so that he does not tire. In Isaiah 40:28-31:

Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable. He gives strength to the weary, and to him who lacks might He increases power. Though youths grow weary and tired, and vigorous young men stumble badly, those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary. 

An Inspiring Story 

There is an inspiring story about an Israeli couple, Shlomo and Shiraz, who had struggled for years with fertility issues. Finally, after six years of disappointment, the couple found out that they were expecting twins! Their prayers had been answered abundantly, and when the time came, two healthy children – one girl and one boy – were born. But the story does not stop there.

Shortly after the birth of the twins, Shlomo and Shiraz discovered that their son had Down syndrome. However, these joy-filled parents explained how they never felt despair from the news — only endless love and gratitude for the gift of their child. Shiraz admits that without the six hard years of longing for a child, she may not have been able to handle the news as gracefully as she did. In fact, studies have shown that approximately one-third of parents who give birth to children with Down syndrome abandon their babies in the hospital. But for Shlomo and Shiraz, their son was a gift that they greatly cherished even if he came in packaging that was different than expected.

As this story illustrates, the difficulties one may face in waiting on the Lord may be a silver lining. The Grateful Dead sing about this in their song Touch of Grey, “every silver lining’s got a touch of grey.” The specific challenges we face in waiting for God to ultimately resolve the challenge may be the very thing we need to keep moving forward in faith. In 1 Corinthians 10:13, No temptation has overtaken you, but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.

Walk by the Spirit

We are talking about the employment of spiritual laws that supersede natural laws which limit man’s ability and can subject him to the sin nature that desires to control him. Galatians 5:16-18 tells us that the solution is to walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. When man is freed from his limitations by relating to God through the Spirit and not the Law of Moses, he finds victory. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law.

Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it; unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman keeps awake in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, to retire late, to eat the bread of painful labors; for He gives to His beloved even in his sleep.            Psalm 127:1-2