Forget-Me-Not
“I will punish her for the days of the Baals when she used to offer sacrifices to them and adorn herself with her earrings and jewelry, and follow her lovers, so that she forgot Me,” declares the LORD. Hosea 2:13 NASB
Forgot – What’s a “Forget Me Not”? Do we need a picture to remind us? Well, here it is – the “Forget Me Not” flower.
If a picture is all it takes to understand God’s message from Hosea, we should plant entire fields of “Forget Me Not” flowers. Unfortunately, we would still miss the point. Our cultural view of forgetting is basically cognitive, as if there is some mental image or fact that we no longer remember. If you forget what Forget Me Not flowers look like, this photo will remind you of them. But this is not the Hebraic understanding of “forget.”
The Hebrew verb is shakah (Shin-Kaf-Chet). “Forgetting has the sense of not bringing into conscious thought and thus not allowing something to shape a response.”[1] Notice that forgetting in Hebrew is a deliberate act. It’s not a lapse of memory. It is an intentional exclusion of what should be considered. In other words, God indicts Israel not because Israel didn’t remember Him but because the people refused to allow His presence to influence their actions. The people erased God’s instructions from their minds. They knew what they should have done but they ignored it.
Now Hosea’s words have application today. Have we forgotten YHWH in the Hebraic sense of shakah? In a nation that calls itself Christian, have we erased His instructions? It certainly seems so. Of course, there are many who sincerely bring His ways to mind and act upon them. But when more than eighty percent of the population claims to believe in God and nevertheless behaves as if God is deaf and mute, you have to wonder if shakah doesn’t apply. This is not merely a matter of bad ethical choices. This is deliberate worship of the Ba’als, the false gods of power, money and sex that promise satisfaction but deliver death. Shakah is a sign of idolatry. It is planned disobedience. There is forgiveness for unintentional sins in ignorance. There is punishment for forgetting.
Topical Index: forget, shakah, Hosea 2:13
[1] J. Andrew Dearman, The Book of Hosea, NICOT, p. 119.
Skip – is there a “flip-side” to this coin? Thinking of where the prophet pleads for God to “remember” (Habakkuk 3:2 “in your wrath remember mercy”) and also where the LORD says He will “remember” their sins no more (Jeremiah 31:34). If forgetting is a deliberate or intentional act excluding what should be considered, is “remembering” an intentional act of including what should be considered? If “forgetting” in the Hebrew mindset and language is not a lapse in memory, then would “remembering” equally not be accidental in the sense of “calling something to mind” that I had previously allowed to lapse from memory? Just curious…and also iced in this morning with the midwest storm.
Forgetting and remembering seem to be concepts that we have looked at with a westernized view of Scriptures. From a western point of view, hard to imagine a God Who needs our help in “remembering” his promises.
You are getting ahead of the game. More to come about remembering and forgetting. Great insight.
Awesome! We just read those verses last night- can’t wait to show your study to my husband when he gets home tonight !!!!!
Very well said and timely, Skip! As I have been called to intercession, God has shown me that He is working in His people to separate those who will obey Him from those who name His name but do not. If we respond with repentance as He leads us, He will forgive and heal our backsliding ways. But those who shakah Him are making a deliberate choice to harden their hearts will be disciplined by Him until they choose to love Him in word and deed or turn away to their own ways. I feel this in my spirit as I pray like labor…the Lord longs to show mercy and bring all who will humble themselves under His lordship. I believe that our prayers can make a difference, but there will be some who turn away.
Amen brother Skip! Amein! And yes brother David,- there is (most assuredly) a “flip” side to this coin!- lol!- the best is yet to come! -Lay it on and layer it on brother Skip- my mind is racing and already worked up to a lather in anticipation.
Maybe we should pause here for a station break, lol! Great time for an advertisement for “Today’s Word”. We who have followed this website for some years now have “plowed this ground before.” Remember “alethia?” Surely we haven’t forgotten? Or have we?.. lol! Or what about “zakar?” Remember zakar? . Oh yes, there is something we should remember alright. (-understatement of the year award).
And what about Yeshua (Himself) at the Last Supper- exhorting the Talmudim one last time- “Remember Me.” What do we hear (repetitively) when we partake of this ordinance? (-this and baptism are both commanded). “Remember Me.” Oh, Hallelujah!- and let us not forget our Heavenly Re-Minder- the most Holy Breath of G-d who reminds us all- “Yah said this.” And friends- when G-d speaks- life occurs! Amein!
I do not like to bring this up, but I have just now “remembered” something. A spanking, a chastening I received as a youth. Yes, it was a *ahem* “good one.” Enuf to bring tears to a glass eye.. (I’m kinda tearin’ up just thinkin’ on it..). Why do I remember this event? It was (*ahem*) re-enforced upon my (*ahem*) memory banks. But I may say with David- “it was good for me that I have been afflicted.” (Psalm 119.71). Some things are necessary to jog our memory and our wonderful Abba has promised to provide all our needs- even our need for chastening. Lol! -(if needed!).
So enjoyed this section of the many before and the many that will follow if the Lord tarries. You spoke my hear Sheree with your words from the heart. So true !
I have been discussing over and over with someone and it has come to the point that they actually went into a synagogue and bought a paper of some kind from them to prove his point on what the Jews believe or don’t believe.
This is my question.
Does man HAVE a soul or is man a soul?
Would anyone care to help me out on this and with scripture for this 67 year old lassie.
Thank you so much
Carol Mattice,
Your question, Does man HAVE a soul or is man a soul? Genesis 2:7, then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.(ESV) Some KJV’s have at the end of this verse, and man became a living soul. Man does not have a soul as a seperate identity, somehow attached to him by God. He is by the breath of God, a dynamic, animated, living creature/being. The Hebrew word here is nephesh. Hope this will give you a platform for further study. In His Care.
And if you search for “nephesh” on my home page, you will find a lot more!