God Cannot Forget His Children

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Recently, a rising political star was caught in an interview with her talking points written in the palm of her hand. In the heat and stress of a televised interview, she did not want to forget the three issues from which her campaign was borne. Pundits decried her cheat notes as being like a 7th grader cheating on a math test.

Perhaps, any public figures, politicos, pundits or preaches, at some time fears forgetting the words they most intently want to say. But, on a more personal level, a greater fear would be that we ourselves are forgotten entirely, or that we have been forsaken for another.

God’s people of Israel feared they had been forgotten and forsaken. Recall Isaiah’s testimony of Israel’s fears as his prophecy teaches them that the Holy One is a light to the Gentile nations as well as to Israel. Recall Isaiah’s inspired illustration, reminding Israel that God cannot forget His children; “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne” Isaiah 49:15?

Such intimate words course like blood throughout the message of Isaiah 49. Isaiah himself was “formed…in the womb to be His servant” Isaiah 49:5, and from his “birth [God] has made mention of [Isaiah’s] name” Isaiah 49:1. The words further speak of “children born during your bereavement” Isaiah 49:20, and of far more children being born than when Israel “was bereaved and barren” Isaiah 49: 21. Truly, God did not forget His first children just because He also chose to adopt every child from every nation.

With words akin to the intimacy of Solomon’s Song, what illustration could better described the impossibility of God forgetting His children than the recollection of a babe suckled at its mother’s breast? No loving mother ever forgets the bond borne through such intimate nurturing.

Perhaps, as His children who hunger for righteousness, we first perceive the baby’s longing for life from the breast. But, recognize that there are two sides to this kinship of mother and child. The mother longs for her child as intently as the babe hungers for her breast. A nursing mother, long without her child, hurts for the child; her breast is pained if the child is lost. Neither the mother’s heart nor her breast can forget the child. Neither can God forget His children.

Noteworthy among the words, “Can a mother…have no compassion on the child,” is the word for compassion – racham (pronounced raw-kham’). It continues to paint an intimate portrait of the kinship between mother and child. Its earliest usage meant to fondle and to love by showing deep, kindly mercy for a suffering child. God, with such compassion cannot forget His children.

Isaiah mirrors the maternal illustration with one of the Father, with imagery just as intimate as a Father’s tender hand. When you read, “See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands” Isaiah 49:16; hear the pride of the Father in those words. He is saying, “See the proof! I cannot forget you with your names engraved in My hand!”

Consider carefully the inspired use of the word “engraved” or “inscribed.” This is more than a quickly-inked, cheat sheet scrawled across and hidden in His palm. This is as permanent as words cut into stone. Deriving from the Hebrew word chaqaq (pronounced khaw-kak’), the primitive meaning of inscribe or engrave was to hack; as used for cutting a tomb out of solid rock, in Isaiah 22:16. Chaqaq is also used as describing the work carving names into tablets of stone, just “as a jeweler engraves the signet” Exodus 28:11. And, just as nothing would change regarding Daniel because of the seal of the king’s signet, in Daniel 6:17, nothing will change about God remembering His children.

See the implications of our names being engraved into His hand. Would not the pain of hacking or carving our names into His hand be akin to bearing the pain of hammered nails? And, should we dare to imagine that by extension of the Isaiah’s illustration, the name of each one who becomes His child, still today has his name engraved in our Father’s hand. God cannot forget His children.

But, let us see the real issue of mankind’s kinship with God. It is not God who tends to forget. It is man who forgets. God did not forget Israel, but so often, Israel forgot God. And, His children today are prone to be no better. However, to those who seek Him, God has promised the means to remember Him. Jeremiah prophesied to the Jews and the Hebrews writer repeats to Christians this promise of God. "But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days," declares the LORD, " I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people” Jeremiah 31:33; Hebrews 8:10.

Whether or not we forget God depends upon how we answer two questions “Do we yearn for God, His nurture and His sustenance as strongly as a child yearns for the breast?” “Do we remember God as intimately as His name being engraved into our hands?” If your answer to those questions is “Yes,” you will be able to correctly answer the following questions.

Will we forget? Or, when all those around us chatter about and glorify sports or shopping, movie stars or cars, will we remember to glorify God?

When the world around us smirks, calling God a silly myth, will we make a defense for the true hope which lies within us?

When someone says the Bible can’t be true, are we prepared to prove that it is true?

When some brethren claim God’s narrow way is too narrow, will we convince them that the narrow way is also the sure and only way.

When some say that God’s plan for marriage or His design for our worship no longer matters, will we convince them that it matters to God?

When so many distractions and responsibilities clutter our days, will we remember a greater priority, the Great Commission?

If we are still prone to forget God, perhaps, it will help to remember the words which we sing, based upon Isaiah 49:15. “I will not forget thee or leave thee; in my arms I’ll hold thee; in my arms I’ll fold thee. I will not forget thee or leave thee; I am thy redeemer, I will care for thee.”

God cannot forget His children. So, if all else fails, let us write it on our hands, but never let us forget to talk about God.

What Can God Do With You?

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God can do with you, perhaps, more than you believe. God “is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within” you (Eph.3:20). The real question is, “what will you ASK God to do with you?”

God is able “to build you up and give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified” (Acts 20:32). Will you ask Him to give you that inheritance?

God is able to, because of your faith, to do all he has promised, and by your faith credit it to you as righteousness (Rom. 4:19-22). Will you by faith ask Him to fulfill his promises and count you as righteous?

God is able to help you “overwhelmingly conquer” all things, in order that nothing will separate you from His love (Rom. 9:37-39). Will you ask Him to help you be a conqueror, and to hold you in His love?

God is able by His kindness, though you may at some time reject Him, to graft you in again to His tree (Rom. 11:20-25). Will you ask Him to be so kind to you?

God is able, in spite of those who may unfairly judge you, to help you stand if you are standing with Him (Rom. 14: 1-4). Will you ask Him to help you stand?

God is able to fill you with joy and peace so that you may abound in hope (Rom.15:13). Will you ask him to fill you with joy and peace, producing an abundance of hope within you?

God is able to keep you from sin because “He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able to bear… so that you will be able to endure it (I Cor. 10:13). Will you ask Him to keep you from sin by helping you endure?

God is able to comfort you, and then to make you a comfort to others (II Cor. 1:4). Will you ask to both comfort you and to help you be a comforter to others?

God “is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have abundance for every good deed” (Rom. 9:8). Will you ask Him for the grace to accomplish every good deed?

God is able to “grant you the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God” (Eph. 3:16-19).

Thus, we have come to where we began, perhaps, seeing God can do far more with each one of us than we think. And, the real question remains the same; “What will we ASK God to do?

Boldly Surrendered!

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We recall from old war movies, perhaps, of America’s Revolutionary War, the battles fought at close range; close enough to see the eyes of the enemy. Remember the scenes as rank after rank of soldiers, dressed in their splendid and proud colors, would step forward and fire against the other. As some men fell another rank stepped forward and fired, as still more men fell in battle. Then, amid the smoke and the carnage, when one side could fight no longer, either by the lack of standing men or perceiving the insurmountable odds against them, there would be raised a trembling white flag, frantically declaring the surrender of the defeated.

To the victors went the spoils of war. To the victor’s went the cause for celebration for their cause had proven itself worthy of the fight. But, for the defeated, the ragged few yet standing on the battlefield littered with the dead and the dying, there is only shame, the shame of having surrendered. Once so sure of the rightness of their cause, they are defeated, and worse still they must endure the shame of surrender.

However, let us consider a different view of surrender. Let us consider that surrendering can be the boldest and by far the wisest decision; knowing when the evidence and the odds are so clearly set against us, it is time to wave the white flag of surrender. There is a time to wave the flag, not in shame, but in bold surrender.

What can possibly be bold or wise about giving up the fight which you believe so strongly is right. When you are certain you are right, how can surrendering not be shameful?
Studying at Acts 4, consider the wisdom of boldly surrendering our will to the greater will and power of God arrayed against us. Consider the attitudes of the high priests who, when the evidence of God’s power was so clearly before them, would not surrender. The evidence before them was convincing them, but not converting them.

From the examples of great spiritual soldiers like Peter and John we learn the worth of surrender. The boldly-surrendered hearts of godly men caused them to speak the word of God with great boldness (4:31). The results of that bold surrender came with its rewards, for it resulted in “great power… and abundant grace upon them all” (4:33). Through spiritual soldiers like Peter and John we, indeed, can see that when we have boldly surrendered our lives to God, there is no cause for shame, for God blesses us with power and abundant grace when we have boldly surrendered our lives to Christ. The white flag of spiritual surrender then becomes the boldest banner of victory.

The Who, When, and Why of Judgment

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When we become followers of our Lord Jesus, by God’s love and mercy, we receive many blessings and benefits. Among them, we are forgiven (Col. 2:13), and made alive with Christ (Eph. 2:4-5). We are loved (I John 4:10), and we are new creations (II Corinthians 5:17). As Christians, we are also entrusted with the secrets of God (I Cor. 4:1). From this entrusting of God’s secrets, we begin to see that God’s blessings come with corresponding responsibilities. Our handling of those responsibilities determines how we ultimately will be judged.

Considering 1st Corinthians 4:1-5, we learn about three aspects concerning judgment. The who, the when, and the why of our judgment are found within verse five. “Do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes who will bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men’s hearts; and then each man’s praise will come from God” (NASB).

Perhaps, we too quickly and defensively run to the words about passing judgment, assuming that the main point of this passage is declaring God is who will judge or that man must not judge. Of course, God is the One who judges, but that is not the primary teaching. Then we see when the judgment occurs; at a time for which we must wait, that time when the Lord comes again. That is true, but neither is it the primary teaching.

While understanding who and when is vital, we must understand why; that is, the basis for which we will be judged. The central teaching of this passage concerns what we do with the True Word of God, “learning not to exceed what is written” (v.7); and the reward for that. The passages which precede and follow 1st Corinthians 4:1-5, address our responsibility to the Word and that our handing of it will be revealed in the Last Day. 1st Corinthians 3: 10-20 addresses the arrogant foolishness of men who deceive men with their craftiness, with the promise that their error will be revealed. Beginning in 1st Corinthians 4:15, Paul exhorts the brethren to imitate him in the manner which he was a tutor of the Word to them, not becoming arrogant.

The why we will be judged favorably or not is based upon 1st Corinthians 4:1-2. Paul, speaking of himself and Timothy says, “Let a man regard (reckon, conclude, or judge; cf. 1st Cor. 13:11; 2nd Cor. 11:5; 12:6) us in this manner, as servants of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. In this case, moreover, it is required of stewards that one be found trustworthy.” To highlight the implications of this passage, consider this translation; a combination of the ASV and the NIV. “Let a man so account of us, as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the mysteries God has revealed. Now it is required that those who have been given a trust that man must be found faithful” (italics added).

The word trust (or, similarly the word confidence) is used in scripture roughly 200 times. In the Old Testament, trust, trusts, or trusting is predominantly used as a verb. In the New Testament, trust is almost always used as a noun. Trust is spoken of in the context of those who have put their trust into another, either God, or foolishly into self, riches or idols. In 1st Corinthians 4, God has put His trust into His apostles, entrusting His Word to their stewardship.
We can understand this trust in a legal or financial sense. A Trust is legal title to a property being held by one party for the benefit of another. The one who puts his trust into the other does so with the confidence that it will be administered for the profit of the beneficiary. To be certain, the trust of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, in Daniel 3, was not passive or without the expectation of benefit. They with purposeful intent invested their confidence into God as their Trustee, whose obligation to their trust was for their benefit by delivering them from the fiery furnace.

The opposite is apparent in Isaiah 30, where Judah is rebuked for having made an alliance with Egypt. Having put their trust in Egypt leads to their fall, for Egypt was not a Trustee who worked for Judah’s benefit. “Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel, ‘Since you have rejected this word and have put your trust in oppression and guile, and have relied on them; therefore this iniquity will be to you like a breach about to fall, a bulge in a high wall, whose collapse comes suddenly in an instant, whose collapse is like the smashing of a potter's jar’” (Isaiah 30: 12-14).

Understand that such a fate, by God’s judgment of our stewardship of His Word, will also be ours if we arrogantly exceed what has been written. We will have broken our trusting (verb) in Him, and the trust (noun) which we first invested into His stewardship for our promised reward.
Understand that the true nature of both Paul’s apostleship and of our Christianity is to be faithful to the revealed Word of God, not to exceed in any way what is written. Understand that we are given a trust, entrusted with the management of that trust for the benefit of Christ’s kingdom.

Understand why those who are not proven trustworthy, those who exceed what is written, will be judged harshly when their motives are revealed? It will be because they have not been faithful trustees of the Trust given to them. They were not faithful stewards of the Word entrusted to them. Therefore, the Word, as they misused it, was not profitable for the benefit of God’s plan.

Who will judge? Christ will judge, according to the Word which has been revealed.

When will He judge? He will judge when he comes to reveal the motives and the stewardship of His trustees.

Why will He judge? He will judge to reveal those who have worked for the benefit of His kingdom. May we, indeed, be “regard[ed] as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God,” both for the benefit of His kingdom and the promised reward of His servants when “each man’s praise will come from God.”