When God Remembers

“then I will remember my covenant with Jacob” Leviticus 26:42

When God Remembers

Remember – What triggers God’s memory?  Oh, you might want to say, “But God never forgets anything.  He knows it all.”  Not so fast.  God Himself tells us that He no longer remembers our sins.  They have been forgotten and cast from us.  And in this verse, God tells us something just as important.  He remembers His promise of lovingkindness to us.  But there is a condition.  In order to see why God remembers, we need to understand the context of this verse, the only place in Leviticus where the name “Jacob” is mentioned.

Zakar is the Hebrew word used in this verse.  However, it covers a great deal more than just remembering.  It is also used for mentioning, thinking about, acknowledging and making known.  The nuance that fits best must be determined by the context.  What is that context?  It is the circumstances when God’s people confess their sins, humble themselves and make amends (Leviticus 26:40).  God promises to acknowledge His covenant, to remember its obligations and to make it known to the world when His people demonstrate through word and deed that He is their sovereign Lord.

The history of Israel is tied up in these few verses.  God constantly reminds His people that He is willing to be faithful.  He mentions over and over that His promises are reliable.  And He asks for His people to live under His authority.  But again and again, they fail.  They choose to live under the banner of other gods; gods of power, of accumulation, of time, of work, of success and of pleasure.  In the greatest irony of all history, they forget that God is anxious to remember.

You and I hold the key to God’s remembering.  He hasn’t forgotten us but as long as we live as though He has nothing to say to us, His promises will not be made known to us.  He will not acknowledge the covenant with Jacob.  Don’t fool yourself by thinking that God will jump to the rescue in days of trouble if you have lived your days of peace without Him.  Don’t pretend that God will bless those who do not acknowledge His rightful authority over all of life.  God remembers that His promise requires obedience.  Confession.  Humility.  Amends.  It’s up to us.  God is willing.  Are we?