Lest We Forget

Thomas Spurgeon.

Deuteronomy 4:9

Only take heed to yourself, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things which your eyes have seen…

How good a gift is memory! Of all the gracious benefits conferred on mortal men by God there is none more useful, none more precious. By memory we are enabled to lay by a store of precious thoughts and gracious reminiscences against the days to come. By memory we can stud our minds with promises and precepts from the Word of God, as the midnight heavens are studded with the twinkling of stars. But alas! memory has fallen with the rest of our powers. Do you not know from sad experience how readily evil is retained? When you would fain erase it from the page, the dark letters still appear. Things that we thought we had with a tenacious grip are torn away from us, or slip from our grasp, and the place that knew them knows them no more. Our memories have failed us. By a good memory I mean a memory that lets slip that which is not worth holding, and holds as with a death grip that which is most worth preserving.

I. Notice first, that GOD GRACIOUSLY GIVES WARNING OF THE DANGER. Is not this right good of Him?

1. He knows us thoroughly — better, far better, than we know ourselves. The people of His choice were prone to forget Him, therefore did He constantly sound this warning note. To them, I suppose, it seemed impossible, certainly improbable, that they would forget the things that their eyes had seen. Forget Egypt, the furnace of iron? You would have thought that these experiences had been burned into them by the very fire of the furnace through which they passed. Forget their redemption and deliverance, the night of the Passover, and the passage of the Red Sea? Forget God, who had delivered them times out of number, who had spoken to them out of the midst of the fire? This same sad principle holds good today. We used to think that the experiences of our early Christian life would linger with us and influence us for good through all our days. As one who says "I will remember," and makes a knot in his handkerchief in order to assist his memory, and then forgets why he made the knot, so our efforts to remember God and the things of God have proved fruitless. Are you not aware — let it be a matter for sorrowful confession if so — that you have sometimes forgotten that you have been purged from your old sins? You have been indulging in them again. That looks as if you had forgotten the cleansing from them. The peril still exists, but to be forewarned is to he forearmed. Moreover, God knows just when and where this peril is likely to be greatest. If you will turn to Deuteronomy 6:12 you will understand my meaning better. There is much meaning in the "then." You must read what precedes it in ver. 10. There is no season so perilous, in this particular, as the season of prosperity. The fear is that when all things are crowding into us, God should be crowded out. You will find it comparatively easy to remember God and to recollect His dealings with you in the past when laid upon a bed of sickness, or when bereaved or troubled. Sometimes God permits these dispensations to give us a pause in the rush of life, and opportunity to call to remembrance.

II. HE SUPPLIES VALUABLE INSTRUCTION. He does not content Himself with waving a red flag before us; He stops the train, and gives instructions to the driver and the guard. "Take heed to thyself." It means literally, "Be watchful." This is just where we fail, as a rule; the watchtower is deserted. Strengthen the guard rather than reduce it, and see to it that everything that would enter the mind is challenged as it approaches, and that all that would go out that should remain within the walls is prevented from passing through the portals. "Keep thy soul diligently." It is the same idea as we have already mentioned. As one might call to another whom he saw to be in danger, "Look out, — look out!" Here is a further instruction, "Teach them thy sons, and thy sons' sons." "For whose benefit, think you, is this instruction given? for that of the sons and of the grandsons? Yea, verily; but do they reap all the benefit? I tell you, sirs, one of the best ways to remember things that are most worth remembering is to pass them on to others.

III. I have this further to say, that HE PROVIDES WELCOME AIDS TO MEMORY. He remembers our frame, He knows that we are but dust; therefore does He come to our assistance. He calls us like little children to His kindergarten school, and makes the learning easy. There are ways of schooling the mind and training the memory; there are certain aids and helps. The law of association serves a good purpose in this respect, and object lessons lend always a pleasing succour. Certainly it is so in the things of God. To Israel God gave the Passover, constantly repeating it to remind them of that wondrous night when He brought them out of the house of bondage with a high hand and an outstretched arm. To Israel He gave the varied ritual of the Mosaic dispensation, that they might never forget the doctrines of sin and of salvation, and that without the shedding of blood there is no remission. To Israel He gave the ark, in which was the pot of manna, Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables of stone. All these were aids to memory. After just this fashion God deals with His spiritual Israel, providing aids to memory, lest we forget. Heavenly influences are with us constantly, angel ministries work for our help and succour; holy exercises, if we do but engage in them in the right spirit, tend in the same direction. Prayer brings us to the mercy seat, and sends us full-handed home. Praise puts a harp into our hands, and causes us to sing our thankfulness to God. The ordinances of worship and opportunities for service all help to keep us in touch with heaven, and to keep our hearts aglow with godliness. The Word is one of God's aids to memory. You can hide the Word of the Lord in your heart, lest you forget. I would have you remember, too, that the ordinances that the Saviour has established are for this same purpose. Think of believers' baptism. The Lord's Supper is instituted for this same purpose; it is a reminder of all that has passed in connection with our spiritual experience. "This do," said He, "in remembrance of Me." How often we pray the prayer of the dying thief, "Lord, remember me." It is a right good prayer. Mothers may forget their children rather than that Jesus should have us out of His mind, but I tell what is possible — that you and I should forget Him.

(Thomas Spurgeon.)