Who Has Been Forgotten?
Remember me, O my God, concerning this, and do not wipe out my good deeds that I have done for the house of my God and for his service. Nehemiah 13:14 ESV
Remember me – And Naomi said, “Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me” (Ruth 1:20 NASB). Naomi feels forgotten by YHVH. She experiences the bitter despair of being alone, abandoned, emotionally desperate and worthless. She is forlorn, hopeless and burdened. Where, then, is the loving and compassionate God?
I know exactly how she feels. Maybe you do too.
Nehemiah cries out, “Remember me.” It’s more than a doctrinal creed confirmation. Just like Naomi, Nehemiah desperately needs God to pay attention to him. “Don’t wipe away the good that I have done because I am now in dire straits. Don’t ignore me because I am weak and fallen. This is when I really need You to remember me for the good that I have accomplished in Your service.” Heschel once wrote that prayer was really our attempt to make ourselves an object of His concern. Nehemiah is asking for that concern. Naomi has already sunk below the ability to ask. “Call me Mara—Bitter—because God has dealt harshly with me.”
You see, I thought that God was the compassionate One, the merciful One, the forgiving One. I thought that means He would soothe my soul, remove my guilt and grant me peace. I thought the Father in heaven would recognize my loneliness, my emptiness, my wretchedness and heal me. That’s what I thought. That’s what I was taught. That’s what I believe—but—perhaps He has forgotten me.
Zeigler comments on Naomi’s state of mind. The collection of Hebrew verbs used to describe Naomi’s return to Bethlehem is unusual. The verbs are essentially bi-polar, displaying both the desire to return and the longing to stay. Despite the agony, there is comfort in the familiar. Change offers hope—and fear. In the end, we can’t stay where we are because it’s killing us—and we can’t leave because it might kill us. We feel abandoned to a prison of indecision. This is the time when we need to remember God. It might appear that He has forgotten us, but can He? Is that really possible? Of course not! The problem is that we have forgotten Him, that our forgetting is self-reflexive. Forgetting God is the disease of spiritual Alzheimer’s. He recognizes us but we no longer remember His name. So we cry out, “Remember me, O Lord,” but the cry is really about our own condition. “Help me remember You, O Lord,” is the real issue.
Nehemiah and Naomi both need to know that God remembers them. The way that YHVH demonstrates that He never forgot them is how He engineers the lives of others to remind them about Who He is. Perhaps the cure for spiritual Alzheimer’s is to look in a different direction.
Topical Index: remember, forget, Nehemiah 13:14, Ruth 1:20
The world lost a good man last week. Elie Wiesel. NPR.org published online the text of a commentary by Elie Wiesel in 2008. He said, “God is God because He remembers.”
Most people seem to spend most of their earthly time
in the state of self-consumption. There’s not much clarity
and assurance in this dark, murky place. I know.
Yet there are those who have been introduced to step into a new direction,
the direction of the spiritual realm where a welcome is extended to become
centered there. It’s a remarkably different living experience and certainly
worthy of being shared with those who have ears to hear.
Skip and others on this blog walk on this path. The Master has invited every
living soul to come follow Him. That’s what happens here. Followers comparing notes
and sharing their experiences along the way.
It’s a good place.
As I walked among a sea of humanity this 4th of July in celebration, I was reminded that His heart is for us and His Love great. And yet in my difficulties , I tend to think that He has forgotten me. Thanks for reminding me that He is always there but it is I who has forgotten.
Hi Skip and others,
I am thinking of your recent reflection discussing the difference between dwelling and sojourning. Naomi appears to have given up any possibility of dwelling, and sojourning was the “pits” because she is now a widow. In that era as I have come to understand, being a widow was far from a summer picnic. Yes, Spiritual Alzheimer’s is an ever lurking condition. The hymn writers who wrote the Be Thou My Visions in music history may present this notion in quite poetic ways. Good teaching today, thanks!
David R
Skip, the issue is help us remember. Interesting closing comment and so true.
We read, meditate, study and pray and when things don’t go my why… God gets the blame and I easily forget that it is His will that will always win in the end. So I hit back and defend my image, knowledge and skills instead of thanking God for the opportunity to invite Him in to take control..
He knows why, I can only take a lucky guess. And best of all I am 100% wrong… Or out of line.
Sometimes we do tend to forget about his love for us,his work said ,”I will never leave you or forget you ,” we are the Apple of his eye, and Skip you kind a open mine a little more with your post tiday, where you said forgetting God is the disease of Spiritual ALZHEIMER’S I can relate with that so much as I do work in that field, and it is very sad! Please (please forgive any typos)
Needed this. Love it. Thanks, Skip!
From Carl Stern’s interview with Abraham Heschel:
” And throughout history, as seen by the Bible, there is one disappointment for God after another. But He’s still waiting, waiting, waiting for mankind which will live by justice and compassion. He’s in search of man.
Now, let me say to you, there are essentially three points. One, “God in search of man”, to me is a homily of all of the Hebrew Bible. Two, it expresses the idea of Judaism about the position of man in the universe. Man is terribly important. If God is so concerned about man, which surprises me again, why shouldn’t God be concerned more about, let us say, cosmic energy, or the astronaut techniques? He’s interested about widows and orphans in Jerusalem. My Lord, if He were to ask me, I would say, it’s beneath your dignity; you, God of the Universe, should be concerned about the poor, about the disadvantaged? Yes, He is. Man is very important to God.
STERN: And the third point?
HESCHEL: The third point would be the nature of religion. The nature of religion is not just a long-ranging feeling of man searching for God. I think that God is more in search of man, than man is in search of God. He gives us no rest.
We have for generations, for decades, for centuries, tried to refute the existence of God, as if He didn’t exist! And in spite of everything, man is still searching. Man is still waiting. Man is still longing. Man has discovered and is discovering, that man without God is like a torso, a body without a head.
“Now, God is invisible, but you can’t live without God. So God created a reminder, an image. What is the meaning of man? To be a reminder of God. God is invisible, and since he couldn’t be everywhere, he created man. You look at man and you’re reminded of God.
What is the mission of man? According to the Jewish view, to be a reminder of God. As God is compassionate, let man be compassionate. As God strives for meaning and justice, let man strive for meaning and justice.”
There was a time when I could not pray. I so relate to Naomi’s bitterness. It destroys one. I am still amazed at times that I came out of that very dark place. It reminds me of a song called, You Never Let Go, sung by Matt Redman. I know for many years i did not feel God’s presence. Thanks for the wonderful TW. I’ve been around for almost a year now and this is one of my favorites. 🙂
Thank you Skip. Bitter ranting in the prison of indecision. Today I will begin my plea for more of Him.
…for help to remember Him. I know how that once felt. He has done that for me, given a few irrefutable markers along the way left, like now, I forget.
…for help to remember Him. I know how that once felt. He has done that for me, given a few irrefutable markers along the way lest, like now, I forget.
“The way that YHVH demonstrates that He never forgot them is how He engineers the lives of others to remind them about Who He is. Perhaps the cure for spiritual Alzheimer’s is to look in a different direction.”
I was a little confused by this last paragraph? Maybe an additional comment. :0