The Great Danger of Forgetting!
Be careful, one of the biggest dangers that threatens the human
race, is forgetting the past!
The book of Ecclesiastes gives the explanation
about why we must not forget the lessons of the past, in chapter 1, verses 9 to
11:
" 9 That which has
been is what will be, that which is done is what will be done, and there is
nothing new under the sun. 10 Is there anything of which it may be
said, “See, this is new”? It has already been in ancient times before us. 11
There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there
be any remembrance of things that are to come by those who will come after. "
The believer must be very careful to
learn from the important events of the past. To act in this way is to
become a knowledgeable person in the future so as not to be caught off
guard against the dramatic things that are at the forefront of
humanity.
The causes at the origin of oblivion.
1. Routine with
a lack of open-mindedness and vigilance.
The first cause of oblivion is
certainly the repetitive nature of everyday’s life as
Ecclesiastes is telling us in chapter 1, verses 3 to 7:
" 3 What profit
has a man from all his labor in which he toils under the sun?
4 One generation passes away, and another generation comes; but the
earth abides forever. 5 The sun also rises, and the sun goes down, and
hastens to the place where it arose. 6 The wind goes toward the
south, and turns around to the north; the wind whirls about continually, and
comes again on its circuit. 7 All the rivers run into the sea, yet
the sea is not full; to the place from which the rivers come, there they return
again."
Human nature loves habits and the
daily repetitive actions. We aspire to become like machines that do not think.
This is why little by little, we could reach a stage
of not thinking anymore and not meditating at all. The texts of the Bible show
that men who were walking with our Father made meditation a practice; here is for
instance the example of Isaac (Genesis 24: 62):
" And Isaac went
out to meditate in the field in the evening; and he lifted his eyes and
looked, and there, the camels were coming."
Today, on the contrary, the mind is usually
busy with repetitive and no time is devoted to meditation. Consequently, we
might face what occured in the time of Eli, the judge
Judge (I Samuel 3: 1):
" Now the boy Samuel
ministered to Yehoah before Eli. And the word of Yehoah was rare in those days; there was no widespread
revelation."
Indeed, Yehoah
spoke less at that time because the Children of Israel had put him more and
more into oblivion by no longer consulting Him and not honoring Him. Samuel is
in the best position to explain this situation, since it is through him that Yehoah will renew a dialogue with His people; let's read
that in I Samuel 12, verses 6 to 10:
" 6 Then Samuel
said to the people, “It is Yehoah who raised up Moses
and Aaron, and who brought your fathers up from the land of Egypt. 7
Now therefore, stand still, that I may reason with you before Yehoah concerning all the righteous acts of Yehoah which He did to you and your fathers: 8
When Jacob had gone into Egypt, and your fathers cried out to Yehoah, then Yehoah sent Moses
and Aaron, who brought your fathers out of Egypt and made them dwell in this
place. 9 And when they forgot Yehoah
their Elohim, He sold them into the hand of Sisera,
commander of the army of Hazor, into the hand of the
Philistines, and into the hand of the king of Moab; and they fought against
them. 10 Then they cried out to Yehoah,
and said, ‘We have sinned, because we have forsaken Yehoah
and served the Baals and Ashtoreths;
but now deliver us from the hand of our enemies, and we will serve You.’ "
Samuel has an entirely different
experience because he is vigilant and open minded to discover and enrich himself. From
his early childhood, he was offered by his mother to Yehoah.
Nobody prepared him to meet with the Lord. This explains his reaction when Yehoah speaks to him for the first time, I Samuel 3, verses
3 to 14:
" 3 and before the lamp of Elohim went out in the tabernacle of Yehoah where the ark of Elohim was, and while Samuel was
lying down, 4 that Yehoah called Samuel.
And he answered, “Here I am!” 5 So he ran to Eli and said, “Here I
am, for you called me.” And he said, “I did not call; lie down again.” And he
went and lay down. 6 Then Yehoah called
yet again, “Samuel!” So Samuel arose and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for
you called me.” He answered, “I did not call, my son; lie down again.” 7 (Now Samuel did not yet know Yehoah,
nor was the word of Yehoah yet revealed to him.)
8 And Yehoah called Samuel again the third
time. So he arose and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you did call me.” Then
Eli perceived that Yehoah had called the boy. 9
Therefore Eli said to Samuel, “Go, lie down; and it shall be, if He calls you,
that you must say, ‘Speak, Yehoah, for Your servant hears.’ ” So Samuel went and lay down in his
place. 10 Now Yehoah came and stood and
called as at other times, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel answered, “Speak, for Your servant hears.”
11 Then Yehoah said to Samuel: “Behold, I
will do something in Israel at which both ears of everyone who hears it will
tingle. 12 In that day I will perform against Eli all that I have
spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end. 13 For I have
told him that I will judge his house forever for the iniquity which he knows,
because his sons made themselves vile, and he did not restrain them. 14
And therefore I have sworn to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli’s house
shall not be atoned for by sacrifice or offering forever.”
This shows how
Samuel since his young age is not enclosed in habits of the day to day
activities and is open for anything that can open his understanding. Even in
the middle of the night, he is listening to what is around him with an open
mind that is never tired of being called and called again.
2. Excess food
and drink.
A second cause behind us forgetting
our Lord is the attribution of excessive importance to food and drink.
Let's see what Jehovah writes in
Deuteronomy 6, verses 10 to 12:
" 10 “So it shall
be, when Yehoah your Elohim brings you into the land
of which He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you
large and beautiful cities which you did not build, 11 houses full
of all good things, which you did not fill, hewn-out wells which you did not
dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant—when you have
eaten and are full— 12 then beware, lest you forget Yehoah who brought you out of the land of Egypt,
from the house of bondage."
Unfortunately, Israel did the
opposite and he forgot Yehoah his Elohim and that is
why he also entered the world of the forgotten as we are told in Deuteronomy
32, verses 7 to 21:
" 7 “Remember the
days of old, consider the years of many generations. Ask your father, and he
will show you; your elders, and they will tell you: 8 When the Most High divided their inheritance to the nations,
when He separated the sons of Adam, He set the boundaries of the peoples according
to the number of the children of Israel. 9 For the Yehoah’s portion is His people; Jacob
is the place of His inheritance. 10 “He found him in a desert land and
in the wasteland, a howling wilderness; He encircled him, He instructed him, He
kept him as the apple of His eye. 11 As an eagle stirs up its nest,
hovers over its young, spreading out its wings, taking them up, carrying them
on its wings, 12 So Yehoah alone led him,
and there was no foreign god with him. 13 “He made him ride in the
heights of the earth, that he might eat the produce of the fields; He made him
draw honey from the rock, and oil from the flinty rock; 14 Curds
from the cattle, and milk of the flock, with fat of lambs; and rams of the
breed of Bashan, and goats, with the choicest wheat; and you drank wine, the
blood of the grapes. 15 “But Jeshurun grew
fat and kicked; you grew fat, you grew thick, you are obese! Then he forsook Elohim
who made him, and scornfully esteemed the Rock of his salvation. 16
They provoked Him to jealousy with foreign gods; with abominations they
provoked Him to anger.
17 They sacrificed to demons, not to Elohim,
to gods they did not know, to new gods, new arrivals that your fathers did not
fear. 18 Of the Rock who begot you, you are unmindful, and have
forgotten the Elohim who fathered you. 19 “And when Yehoah saw it, He spurned them, because of the provocation
of His sons and His daughters. 20 And He said: ‘I will hide My face from them, I will see what their end will be, for
they are a perverse generation, Children in whom is no faith.
21 They have provoked Me to jealousy by what
is not Elohim; They have moved Me to anger by their foolish idols. But I will
provoke them to jealousy by those who are not a nation; I will move them to
anger by a foolish nation."
3.
Attractiveness towards foreign women.
Here again is one of the most
insidious causes at the origin of forgetfulness: the attraction towards foreign
women, a phenomenon that must be associated with
adultery in
the broadest sense of this word!
Indeed, being attracted to a woman
other than hers is a woman who is not in one’s home. Jesus also insists that
this kind of adultery is already consumed when it is only born in our thoughts:
" 27 “You have
heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28
But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already
committed adultery with her in his heart.” (Matthew 5: 27-28)
In a much broader sense, addressing
possibly even to single persons, it is necessary to flee the attraction of
foreign women, adhering or being part of foreign people having beliefs in gods
other than the Lord’s family as they are defined in the Bible. But there are
some famous exceptions to this rule, namely the prostitute of Jericho and Ruth
the Moabite. They are exceptions because they have somehow rejected their
people and their beliefs to believe in the Yehoah.
These women have ceased to be foreigners to become members of the people of our
Elohim.
To avoid this kind of forgetfulness,
there is a very simple and gratuitous way like all that is offered to us by our
Father:
Ask for wisdom!
Let's read in Proverbs 2, verses 10
to 19:
" 10 When wisdom
enters your heart, and knowledge is pleasant to your soul,
11 Discretion will preserve you; Understanding will keep you, 12
to deliver you from the way of evil, from the man who speaks perverse things, 13
from those who leave the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness; 14
Who rejoice in doing evil, and delight in the perversity of the wicked; 15
Whose ways are crooked, and who are devious in their paths; 16 To
deliver you from the immoral woman, from the seductress who flatters with her
words, 17 Who forsakes the companion of her youth, and forgets the
covenant of her Elohim. 18 For her house leads down to death, and
her paths to the dead; 19 None who go to
her return, nor do they regain the paths of life—"
To forget the words of Yehoah, our Father
is a
serious mistake!
Forgetting what we hear from our
Creator's family is like committing a serious sin because it amounts to
scorning Yehoah who is our Father.
In many places, the Bible is
encouraging us to never forget.
So at every weekend, the Sabbath is coming
as a day during which we are invited to Fight forgetfulness (Exodus 20: 8-11):
" 8 “Remember the
Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all
your work, 10 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of Yehoah your Elohim. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your
female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your
gates. 11 For in six days Yehoah made the
heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh
day. Therefore Yehoah blessed the Sabbath day and
hallowed it.”
The Sabbath day is offered to us
each week to make war on everything that can make us forget the Creation and
their Authors, Jesus and the one who became his Father.
This fourth commandment concerning the
Sabbath rest is a natural remedy for the first of the reasons causing
obliviousness mentioned above:
Thoughtless habits behind our day-to-day’s way of life.
The commandment about the sabbath tells us that we must
actually work the first six days of the week, from Sunday to Friday, and even
that we must do everything we have to do BUT the seventh day, we must
"switch". The word BUT announces a change since our Father is asking
us to stop any work and even to forbid anyone under our responsibility to do
any work in our place. In this way, we can turn all our thoughts to the Lord
and to His present and future creation; we can admire His works and glorify Him
with gratitude. Is this not the best way to remember our Father?
The Bible very often asks us not to
forget our commitments to Him as in Deuteronomy 4, verses 1-2 and 23-24:
" “1Now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the judgments which I
teach you to observe, that you may live, and go in and possess the land which Yehoah Elohim of your fathers is giving you. 2
You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it, that you
may keep the commandments of Yehoah your Elohim which
I command you.....
23 Take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of Yehoah your Elohim which He made with you, and make for
yourselves a carved image in the form of anything which Yehoah
your Elohim has forbidden you. 24 For Yehoah
your Elohim is a consuming fire, a jealous Elohim. "
The Bible, a necessary tool to keep a good memory, the Bible in your
heart implies "the memory in the skin! "
The Bible of Yehoah
continually draws our attention to the usefulness of pondering the events of
the past and retaining important lessons for the future. Let us read as an
example the recommendation of Moses in Deuteronomy 4, verses 32 to 40:
" 32 “For ask now
concerning the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that Elohim
created man on the earth, and ask from one end of heaven to the other, whether
any great thing like this has happened, or anything like it has been heard. 33
Did any people ever hear the voice of Elohim speaking out of the midst of the
fire, as you have heard, and live? 34 Or did Elohim ever try to go
and take for Himself a nation from the midst of another nation, by trials, by
signs, by wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by
great terrors, according to all that the Yehoah your Elohim
did for you in Egypt before your eyes? 35 To you it was shown, that
you might know that the Lord Himself is Elohim; there is none other besides
Him. 36 Out of heaven He let you hear His voice,
that He might instruct you; on earth He showed you His great fire, and
you heard His words out of the midst of the fire. 37 And because He
loved your fathers, therefore He chose their descendants after them; and He
brought you out of Egypt with His Presence, with His mighty power, 38
driving out from before you nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you
in, to give you their land as an inheritance, as it is this day. 39 Therefore
know this day, and consider it in your heart, that Yehoah
Himself is Elohim in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other. 40
You shall therefore keep His statutes and His commandments which I command you
today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that
you may prolong your days in the land which Yehoah
your Elohim is giving you for all time.”
Yehoah, who knows our carnal nature with all its weaknesses, including
our tendency to forget so quickly is providing us with
what is written in the Bible, so that if we read it and meditate it, we have
many opportunities to hear the words of His covenant.
Thus, although the Ten Commandments
were given on Mount Sinai, they are repeated many times throughout the path
that leads to the Kingdom of our Father.
Moses insists on our duty to listen
to them, to learn them and put them into practice, like for instance in
Deuteronomy 5:
" 1And Moses called
all Israel, and said to them: “Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments which
I speak in your hearing today, that you may learn them and be careful to
observe them. 2 Yehoah our Elohim made a
covenant with us in Horeb. 3 Yehoah did not make this covenant with our fathers, but
with us, those who are here today, all of us who are alive. 4 Yehoah talked with you face to face on the mountain from
the midst of the fire. 5 I stood between Yehoah
and you at that time, to declare to you the word of Yehoah;
for you were afraid because of the fire, and you did not go up the mountain. He
said:
6 ‘I am Yehoah your Elohim who brought you
out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
7 ‘You shall have no other gods before Me.
8 ‘You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of
anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is
in the water under the earth; 9 you shall not bow down to them nor
serve them. For I, Yehoah your Elohim, am a jealous
Elohim, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and
fourth generations of those who hate Me, 10
but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
11 ‘You shall not take the name of Yehoah
your Elohim in vain, for Yehoah will not hold him
guiltless who takes His name in vain.
12 ‘Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as Yehoah
your Elohim commanded you. 13 Six days you shall labor and do all
your work, 14 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of Yehoah your Elohim. In it you shall do no work: you, nor
your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant,
nor your ox, nor your donkey, nor any of your cattle, nor your stranger who is
within your gates, that your male servant and your
female servant may rest as well as you. 15 And remember that you
were a slave in the land of Egypt, and Yehoah your
Elohim brought you out from there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm;
therefore Yehoah your Elohim commanded you to keep
the Sabbath day.
16 ‘Honor your father and your mother, as Yehoah
your Elohim has commanded you, that your days may be long, and that it may be
well with you in the land which Yehoah your Elohim is
giving you.
17 ‘You shall not murder.
18 ‘You shall not commit adultery.
19 ‘You shall not steal.
20 ‘You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
21 ‘You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife; and you shall not
desire your neighbor’s house, his field, his male servant, his female servant,
his ox, his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.’
22 “These words Yehoah spoke to all your
assembly, in the mountain from the midst of the fire, the cloud, and the thick
darkness, with a loud voice; and He added no more. And He wrote them on two
tablets of stone and gave them to me.
23 “So it was, when you heard the voice from the midst of the
darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire, that you came near to me,
all the heads of your tribes and your elders. 24 And you said: ‘Surely Yehoah our Elohim has shown
us His glory and His greatness, and we have heard His voice from the midst of
the fire. We have seen this day that Elohim speaks with man; yet he still
lives. 25 Now therefore, why should we die? For this great fire will
consume us; if we hear the voice of Yehoah our Elohim
anymore, then we shall die. 26 For who is there of all flesh who has
heard the voice of the living Elohim speaking from the midst of the fire, as we
have, and lived? 27 You go near and hear all that Yehoah our Elohim may say, and tell us all that Yehoah our Elohim says to you, and we will hear and do it.’
28 “Then Yehoah heard the voice of your
words when you spoke to me, and Yehoah said to me: ‘I
have heard the voice of the words of this people which they have spoken to you.
They are right in all that they have spoken. 29 Oh, that they had
such a heart in them that they would fear Me and
always keep all My commandments, that it might be well with them and with
their children forever! 30 Go and say to them, “Return to your
tents.” 31 But as for you, stand here by Me,
and I will speak to you all the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments
which you shall teach them, that they may observe them in the land which I am
giving them to possess.’
32 “Therefore you shall be careful to do as Yehoah
your Elohim has commanded you; you shall not turn aside to the right hand or to
the left. 33 You shall walk in all the ways which Yehoah your Elohim has commanded you, that you may live and
that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which
you shall possess."
If Moses is taking time to repeat
these commandments many times, it is because he knows the danger of their being
forgotten that threatens us.
In chapter 6 of the book of
Deuteronomy, Moses continues with the duty of believers to teach these
commandments to future generations. It's another way to fight obliviousness!
" 1Now this is the
commandment, and these are the statutes and judgments which Yehoah
your Elohim has commanded to teach you, that you may observe them
in the land which you are crossing over to possess, 2 that you may
fear Yehoah your Elohim, to keep all His statutes
and His commandments which I command you, you and your son and your grandson,
all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged. 3
Therefore hear, O Israel, and be careful to observe it, that it may be well
with you, and that you may multiply greatly as Yehoah
Elohim of your fathers has promised you—‘a land flowing with milk and honey.’
4 “Hear, O Israel: Yehoah our
Elohim, Yehoah is one! 5 You shall love
Yehoah your Elohim with all your heart, with all
your soul, and with all your strength.
6 “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart.
7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall
talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie
down, and when you rise up. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on
your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You
shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
10 “So it shall be, when Yehoah your Elohim
brings you into the land of which He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob, to give you large and beautiful cities which you did not build, 11
houses full of all good things, which you did not fill, hewn-out wells which
you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant—when you
have eaten and are full— 12 then beware, lest you forget Yehoah who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from
the house of bondage. 13 You shall fear Yehoah
your Elohim and serve Him, and shall take oaths in His name. 14 You
shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are all around you 15
(for Yehoah your Elohim is a jealous Elohim among
you), lest the anger of Yehoah your Elohim be aroused
against you and destroy you from the face of the earth.
16 “You shall not tempt Yehoah your Elohim
as you tempted Him in Massah. 17 You shall
diligently keep the commandments of Yehoah your
Elohim, His testimonies, and His statutes which He has commanded you. 18
And you shall do what is right and good in the sight of Yehoah,
that it may be well with you, and that you may go in and possess the good land
of which Yehoah swore to your fathers, 19
to cast out all your enemies from before you, as Yehoah
has spoken.
20 “When your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What is the
meaning of the testimonies, the statutes, and the judgments which Yehoah our Elohim has commanded you?’ 21 then
you shall say to your son: ‘We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, and Yehoah brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand; 22
and Yehoah showed signs and wonders before our eyes,
great and severe, against Egypt, Pharaoh, and all his household. 23
Then He brought us out from there, that He might bring
us in, to give us the land of which He swore to our fathers. 24 And Yehoah commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear Yehoah our Elohim, for our good always, that He might
preserve us alive, as it is this day. 25 Then it will be
righteousness for us, if we are careful to observe all these commandments
before Yehoah our Elohim, as He has commanded us.’ "
An infallible cure against
forgetting the commandments is offered to parents when they are encouraged to
teach the words of our Creator every day to their children.
So how can you forget these things?
Examine you well in the mirror!
If we are forgetful of our Father
and his Son, it is as if we become voluntarily amnesic. Indeed, to forget how
our Creator is to forget how we should be since we were made in His image. Just
like Jesus, we are His imprint (Genesis 1: 26):
" Then Elohim said, “Let Us
make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over
the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all
the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
James gives us the same message but
with a different approach, in chapter 1 of his epistle, verses 22-25:
" 22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving
yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer,
he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; 24 for
he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he
was. 25 But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues
in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be
blessed in what he does. "
So let's follow the good advice that
James gives us a little bit earlier in this same chapter, verses 16 to 21:
" 16 Do not be deceived, my beloved
brethren. 17 Every good gift and every perfect gift
is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there
is no variation or shadow of turning. 18 Of His own
will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a
kind of firstfruits of His creatures.
19 So then, my beloved brethren, let
every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; 20 for
the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of Elohim.
21 Therefore lay aside all
filthiness and [d]overflow of wickedness, and receive
with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
"
Fight with energy against obliviousness!
You'll then remember how you were yesterday and
you're
getting ready to become creators for tomorrow !
If we progress every day in this way
that is traced in front of us, we will examine ourselves attentively in the
mirror of the new covenant of our Father. We will be able to observe the
changes we achieved since we will not have forgotten how we were yesterday and
the day before yesterday!
We will become the opposite of the
mechanical and repetitive man that our carnal nature impels us to become. On
the contrary, we will become creators like our Father insofar as we will first
be able to change ourselves. Every good change in us will bring us more and
more out of the darkness in which the world is now (Isaiah 9: 1-6):
" 1Nevertheless
the gloom will not be upon her who is distressed, as when at first He lightly
esteemed the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, and afterward more
heavily oppressed her, by the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, in Galilee of
the Gentiles. 2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great
light; those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light has shined.
3 You have
multiplied the nation and increased its joy; they rejoice before You according to the joy of harvest, as men rejoice when
they divide the spoil.
4 For You have broken the yoke of his burden and the staff of his
shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian. 5 For
every warrior’s sandal from the noisy battle, and garments rolled in blood, will
be used for burning and fuel of fire.
6 For unto us a
Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His
shoulder. and His name will be called Wonderful,
Counselor, Mighty Elohim, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."