The Act of Not Forgetting
“Can a woman forget her nursing child and have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, but I will not forget you.” Isaiah 49:15
Forget – Have you forgotten your eighth-grade geography lessons? Do you still remember high school civics? Or kindergarten games? The chances are pretty good that those memories have faded into the past. If you once knew the capitals of every state, you probably would have a hard time reciting them all today. This loss of memory is usually what we think about when we read the word “forget”. But this is not what God has in mind, and it’s not the context of the Hebrew word shachach either.
Shachach is a word that implies much more than a mental lapse. It is a word that carries the nuance of not taking an appropriate action that should be taken. It is not a failure of the mind but rather a failure of the will. I might perfectly well know what I should do, but I forget about doing it. In other words, I make a choice not to act on my knowledge. It’s like our off-hand remark, “Just forget about it.” That does not mean it slipped our minds. It means that we are going to ignore what we remember.
Why is this distinction important? Because it is clearly never the case that something slips God’s mind. God just doesn’t suffer from Alzheimer’s in spite of His age. So, God’s claim not to forget is not a claim that He will keep you in mind. It is a claim that He will not overlook the appropriate action He should take on your behalf. God says, “I will do what I should do, and I will not ignore it.”
We hardly ever complain that God has mentally forgotten us. That is not what matters. What we want is that God should not ignore us. The Psalms are filled with pleas on precisely this subject (Psalm 10:12, Psalm 74:19, Psalm 42:9). There are times in life when we really feel as though God is not doing what He should be doing on our behalf. The Psalmist was quite open about this, and so should we be. There is no fear in coming before God and saying, “Lord, please don’t ignore me. Don’t forget to do what only You can do for me.” But there is also a line on the ground, a line that we must be careful not to cross. This verse in Isaiah reminds us of the line. God’s purposes are not our purposes. God’s timing is not our timing. God’s thoughts are not our thoughts. So, after we have raised our complaint, we must exercise the faith of the obedient slave. God will hold Himself accountable to perform what should be done. Therefore, after our complaint, we are to rest assured that He will act when He chooses to do so.
God is more faithful than a woman breast-feeding a new child. God never fails to perform His duty. Knowing that, we are comforted, even when things don’t happen according to our agendas. The day will come when the curtain will be pulled back and we will see how intricately all of it was accomplished. Until then, God wills not to forget.
