Memory, Part 1

I would request that you read Deuteronomy 8 before you begin reading this meditation. That will set the stage for my comments.

I have been rereading a fascinating book entitled More Than Meets the Eyes by Richard A. Swenson, M.D. In chapter four Dr. Swenson deals with the brain and the nervous system. Our understanding of the brain is very limited. But even that limited understanding leaves us agreeing with the Psalmist when he wrote: “I am fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14). Author Lyall Watson had this to say about the brain: “If the brain were so simple that we could understand it, we would be so simple that we couldn’t understand it.” Amen! Now just think about that quote for awhile and the profoundness of it will sink in.

One of the marvels of the human brain is its capacity for memory. Although we often lament our failure to remember things, if we would stop and consider it, we would be amazed at how much we actually do remember. Just give yourself fifteen minutes. Sit back and try to think of nothing but different things from your past that you have learned or experienced. Try to think of as many different things as you can. You will realize that in that fifteen minutes you have barely skimmed the surface of all that you actually do remember. For example, consider your memory of words. Dr. Swenson pointed out, “The average adult has an active or use vocabulary of 10,000 words and a passive or recognition vocabulary of 30,000 to 40,000 words.” You could not count how many different words you know, if you tried. You remember so many words that you cannot remember how many words you know. Or maybe you think you can remember how many words you know. Okay, go ahead and start listing them. Let me know when you have finished. And if you know more than one language, you do have your work cut out for you! Just realize that you have an amazing capacity for memory.

Memory is the capacity to retain what we have learned. It is not enough just to get information. That information has to be retained, if we are going to benefit from it. The retention of information is the function of memory. So the challenge we face is to get information, and getting it, to retain it. To remember something is the opposite of forgetting it. The word forget is made up of the prefix for combined with the verb get. The prefix for means to miss or forfeit something through what is expressed by the verb. Therefore, forget means to miss getting. If you forget something, you miss getting it. Notice how Solomon contrasts getting with forgetting in this passage:

Proverbs 4:5 Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not; neither decline from the words of my mouth.

If you forget wisdom, then you haven’t got it! It’s that simple.

Now God, Who created us to be able to remember, requires us to use this ability in our relationship with Him. This brings us to the passage that I asked you to read. Notice how much the subject of memory is brought up in Deuteronomy 8.

DEU 8:2 And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no.

DEU 8 11 Beware that thou forget not the LORD thy God, in not keeping his commandments, and his judgments, and his statutes, which I command thee this day:
12 Lest when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein;
13 And when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied;
14 Then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the LORD thy God, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage;

DEU 8:18 But thou shalt remember the LORD thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day.
19 And it shall be, if thou do at all forget the LORD thy God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day that ye shall surely perish.

Observe that Israel was told once to remember all the way God had led them in the wilderness. They were told once to remember the Lord their God and three times they were warned not to forget Him. Verse 11 teaches us that we forget God “in not keeping His commandments.” If we forget to do what God commands us to do, it is because we have forgotten Him. Then verses 11-14 specifically warn us against the danger of letting the accumulation of material wealth cause us to forget our God. Someone has wisely observed that the more things you own, the more things own you. With so much to keep up with, it is a constant danger that keeping up with those things will crowd the Lord out of your memory. You run here and there doing this and that and give your God scarcely a thought. That is forgetting the Lord thy God! Oh, yes, you may spend a couple of hours in church hearing about God, that is, if nothing else interferes; but what about the rest of the week? Is the time you spend in church about all the remembrance your God gets? And how much of that time is spent with your mind on other business rather than on Him?

Consider the following passages that show the importance of memory in our relationship with God.

Ecclesiastes 12:1 Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them;

We should begin early in life to train our memories to include God.

Psalms 103:2 Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:

Psalms 105:5 Remember his marvellous works that he hath done; his wonders, and the judgments of his mouth;

How about starting to list God’s benefits, His marvellous works, His wonders, and His judgments (commandments) and see how many of them you can remember. Just try it when you are driving along in the car. Do that instead of listening to the news or the music stations. It will be an exercise in memory that will do you a great deal of good. It will set your mind to thinking more wholesome thoughts.

I have more to say about this subject of memory, but I will let this suffice for today. In the meantime, let these solemn words sink down into your memory: “Thou shalt remember the Lord thy God.” Remember! Don’t forget Him!

Warnings and Rewards

This morning as I was praying and giving thanks to God, I was thinking over my life. I was thinking about the man I am and what I could have become had it not been for the grace of God. I thanked God for the Scriptures, and for the difference their influence has made in my life. As I thought on this, this verse came to mind:

Psalms 19:11 Moreover by them is thy servant warned: and in keeping of them there is great reward.

This verse is dealing with the Scriptures, which are variously named the law of the LORD, the testimony of the LORD, the statutes of the LORD, the commandment of the Lord, and the judgments of the LORD in Psalm 19.

As I thought about the influence the Scriptures have had on my life, I realized that I have avoided many pitfalls because of the warnings of Scripture. “By them is thy servant warned.” I have been presented with many temptations, but the warnings of Scripture have frightened me away from yielding. Now Satan will suggest to the mind: “Oh, go ahead, nobody will ever find out.” But then I recall warnings like these:

Numbers 32:23 …be sure your sin will find you out.

1 Timothy 5:24 Some men's sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment; and some men they follow after.
25 Likewise also the good works of some are manifest beforehand; and they that are otherwise cannot be hid.

King David thought he had covered his adultery with Bathsheba, when he ordered her husband Uriah to the front lines to be killed. But his deed ended up written in the Bible for the whole world to read. Let that example warn you when you are tempted to think that you can get away with secret sin. Thank God for the warnings! And thank God for the work of His grace in my heart so that I have respect unto those warnings. How many shameful things I have been spared from because I respect the warnings of Scripture and take them very seriously!

Psalms 119:6 Then shall I not be ashamed, when I have respect unto all thy commandments.

God’s commandments will not have much influence in your life if you have no respect for them.

But my life has also been greatly influenced by the fact that “in keeping of them there is great reward.” Keeping God’s commandments always pays off in the long run. Many have been the rewards in my life for following the Bible. And these rewards only reinforce my desire to obey God’s commandments. Every Sunday that God blesses me to be in church brings a reward with it which makes me want to keep coming back, as I am sure others of you will attest.

So by means of warnings and rewards the Scriptures keep me straight. By warnings they keep me running from the whip and by rewards they keep me chasing a carrot.

I have written this meditation in the first person. I was thinking this morning of what the Scriptures have done for me personally. And so I decided to write my thoughts as I thought them. Please do not think I am praising myself. It grieves me that I find so much evil in me to be warned against. And were it not for God’s grace choosing me, redeeming me by the blood of His Son, and regenerating me by His Spirit, I would have neither desire nor respect for the Holy Scriptures. And that same grace of God has likewise affected you, my brethren. Otherwise, we would not have a Christian fellowship together in righteousness.

So I join with the apostle Paul in affirming: “By the grace of God I am what I am” (1CO 15:10). May the warnings and rewards of God’s word continue to be a prevailing influence in my life so that I may answer the call of 1TI 5:22: “Keep thyself pure.” And may God likewise bless you. I am your servant only by the grace of God.

Scorner

Thank God we have made it through another Christmas holiday season. I am so glad it is over!

Have you ever noticed that some people who claim to be seekers of truth will not inquire of the person who can show them the truth they claim to seek? Have you ever wondered why that is? There are two reasons as to why a seeker of truth will not go to one who can show him the truth.
First, it may be owing to ignorance. He may not know that that person has the truth he is seeking. Or it may be owing to a flaw in his character. Proverbs has a verse that sheds some light on this.

Proverbs 15:12 A scorner loveth not one that reproveth him: neither will he go unto the wise.

Obviously, a scorner is one who scorns. So let’s define what it means to scorn.

Scorn – To treat with ridicule, to show extreme contempt for, to mock, to deride. To hold in disdain, to contemn, to despise.

Now our text sets forth two characteristics of a scorner. First, he loveth not one that reproveth him. That is, he despises anyone who shows him he is wrong. Secondly, he will not go unto the wise. He will not seek out people who can teach him what he does not know or that can show him that he is wrong. He may profess to be seeking truth, but in reality he is seeking that which will make him feel comfortable in what he has already decided he wants to believe or do. Therefore, even though he claims to be seeking wisdom, he will never find it because he avoids the sources that can give it to him. Therefore, Proverbs 14:6 hits the nail on the head:

Proverbs 14:6 A scorner seeketh wisdom, and findeth it not:

If a scorner senses that a man is wise and can answer his questions, then he will not go to him with his questions. He knows that if he cannot gainsay the wise man’s answers, then he will have to consider that perhaps that wise man is indeed telling him the truth. And if he is being told the truth, then he will be morally bound to submit to that truth. But if the cost of submitting to that truth is a price the scorner is unwilling to pay, then he would rather not know that truth. The scorner does not know because he does not want to know. He is afraid to find out. This is willful ignorance and reminds us of the scoffers (scorners) that shall be in the last days.

2 Peter 3:5 For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:

With respect to a wise man, who is telling the truth, the scorner might think or say things like this: “Oh, he just thinks he’s right and everybody else is wrong.” “Aw, I already know what he’ll say and I just don’t believe it.” “Yeah, yeah, I know those verses say that, but I just feel that…..” Observe the contempt that is being expressed in these statements for the wise man and the truth that he speaks. That is why a person who says things like this is called a scorner, no matter how nice he might otherwise be. And, to be sure, he will not go unto wise. All his talk about seeking truth is just that, talk, nothing more than cheap talk. If he really wanted to know the truth, he could find out. But a scorner will not go unto the wise.

Now if you fear God, you do not want to be a scorner. The future of the scorner is not bright.

Proverbs 3:34 Surely he (God) scorneth the scorners: but he giveth grace unto the lowly.

Proverbs 19:29 Judgments are prepared for scorners, and stripes for the back of fools.

Do you want to know the truth? Do you want to find the true doctrine? Then go to someone whom you think might be able to answer your questions. And do not despise that person if he shows you that what you have thought and felt is wrong. I close with the call of wisdom sounded in beginning of the book of Proverbs:

Proverbs 1:22 How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?
23 Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you.

If you really want to know truth, God is telling you that you can!