Don’t Forget!
“Take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God…” Deut. 4:23
The technology we have to help us remember our appointments is fantastic. I can enter my appointments into my phone and sink it to my computer and presto, it is in my Outlook calendar. Then, if I set it up to do so my phone buzzes or a reminder pops up on my computer screen to remind me an appointment is coming . But even with all of this I was able to completely forget an appointment last week! Even with all the technology we can still forget.
Forgetting an appointment can be embarrassing but forgetting in the spiritual realm can be devastating. The apostle Peter states, “For he who lacks these things (character traits) is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins” (2 Peter 1:9).
In the Old Testament Law Moses warned the people often about the danger of idolatry. He connected Israel going after false gods to them forgetting their covenantal relationship with the true God. “Take heed...lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God...and make for yourselves a carved image” (Deut. 4:23). Later Moses reminded the people saying, “He (the Lord) will not forget the covenant of your fathers which He swore to them” (Deut. 4:31) The simple summary of Moses’ admonition is: Don’t forget God...He will never forget you.
What is it that God wants us to remember? He wants us to remember the covenant He has made with us. This covenant was first established with blood. God cut an animal in half and walked through the split sacrifice when He made a covenant with Abraham. (See Genesis 15) God shed the blood of an animal and “cut covenant” with His servant. Then Christ came and He was “cut off” from God as He shed His own blood on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins. We enter into covenant with God by trusting in the sacrifice of the Son He sent into our world as the ultimate sacrifice for sin.
When Jesus met with His disciples the night before His crucifixion He said, “For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26:28). He instituted the Lord’s Supper as a reminder to never forget who He is and what He has done for us. By His death and shed blood our sins are forgiven and we enter into a relationship with God. We pass from spiritual death to spiritual life. We receive eternal life, and an abundant life rooted in the character of Christ and overflowing with joy!
The Lord’s Supper is a reminder to stop and consider what is really important. It is a call to rehearse the goodness and blessings of the Lord. “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits” (Psalm 103:2). When we sincerely remember Christ in the elements of communion Christ Himself draws near and in His presence our hearts are warmed and our spirits renewed.
In Deuteronomy 4 Moses gave the people some things to remember. He rehearsed how God had spoken to them from heaven and manifested His glory among them. What other nation can say that? He said, “And because He loved your fathers, He chose their descendants after them and He brought you out of Egypt with His Presence and with His mighty power” (Deut. 4:37). Moses is saying, “Don’t forget the Lord’s presence and power!”
And so it is for us. We need to regularly “count our blessings” and as the hymn says, “It will surprise you what the Lord has done.” Most of all, we remember His provision for forgiveness in the blood of His only Son, Jesus. And in remembering we are blessed.
Don’t forget!
Pastor Dan
