The Only Thing He Forgets is Your Sin

During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.

Exodus 2:23–25

God promises, God remembers, and God acts in salvation. It is who He is and what He does. You probably know the story of Israel’s exodus, but here it is in super-short form: Moses was born in Egypt to Hebrew parents during a time when Pharoah ordered all Jewish baby boys to be tossed into the Nile River to die. Jochebed, his mother, puts him in a basket and floats him down the river to save little Moses. Pharoah’s daughter finds him, and he is raised in the royal household.

One day, he sees an Egyptian beating a Hebrew slave. Moses slays the Egyptian taskmaster and runs off to Midian. Many years pass. The king of Egypt dies, and the people of Israel cry out to Yahweh for help. He reveals Himself to us as a personal God who is not oblivious to our situation or our needs. He does not have ears like us, but God heard them. He heard their pleas. He heard their groaning. He heard their pain. He always does. Just like a dad who sees his son or daughter in the agony and bondage of a drug addiction or suffering through the pain of cancer, God’s heart breaks for His children.

It is in this moment that He remembers . . . He remembers His promises to Abraham recorded in Genesis 15: “And he [God] brought him [Abraham] outside and said, ‘Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be’” (Genesis 15:5) and “‘To your offspring I give this land . . .’” (Genesis 15:18) and the Lord remembered, saying to Abraham, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward, they shall come out with great possessions” (Genesis 15:13-14). Then, in Genesis 17:7, He promises Abraham that He will be “God to you and to your offspring after you.”

This theme of God vowing and committing Himself to them runs throughout the Bible. He is committed to fulfilling the promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He is not a God who forgets. He is a God who remembers. He remembers His promises to Abraham, and they were not conditioned on Abraham’s response. God took the responsibility of keeping the covenant on Himself. He promises land, many descendants, blessings, and redemption.

This redemption finds its ultimate fulfillment many generations later in Abraham’s lineage with Jesus, as recorded in Matthew 1:17,

So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations.

Even when you feel like God has forgotten ___________ (fill in this blank with whatever you feel He has ever forgotten), He hasn’t. You may think He’s forgotten you because He seems so distant. You may feel like He’s forgotten His people because His people have been, and are being, oppressed and persecuted around the world. You may think He’s forgotten the many promises He’s made because you have yet to see them fulfilled. Trust Him anyway.

He has not forgotten. He is a promise-keeping, remembering, laser-focused on you, redeeming, forgiving, salvation-offering God. When you repent and accept the forgiveness and salvation that He provides, the only thing he forgets is your sin. The prophet Jeremiah wrote about this all-encompassing forgiveness,

I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, “Know the LORD,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

Jeremiah 31:33–34

Thank You, Lord, for being trustworthy and faithful to Your promises. I trust that in Your forgiveness, my sin is removed. And I trust that in Your steadfast love, You will always remember. In Your promise-keeping name, Amen.