Have you ever started a conversation with “Remember when…”? Shared memories help to bond us together, but they also provide important context to how we interpret what is happening in the present.
For instance, my sons don’t remember a time before the Internet. To them, information has always been available from a web search. The idea of having to think about where to find an answer, retrieve the right book, paper, or microfiche, and then look up what had been written about a topic, well, that is pretty much foreign to them. (They may have had to do a little bit of that in school, but I kind of doubt it.)
To them, if I say, “Remember when we had to use a card catalog to find something in a library?”, it doesn’t resonate with them like it would with others who needed to find things in a library decades ago. That’s not a fault on my sons’ part (after all, no one expects them to have experienced things from before they were born). However, it does mean that they don’t appreciate the benefits of today’s modern conveniences from the standpoint of having experienced life before them.
In preparing this lesson, I had access to commentaries and content that span hundreds of years of Christian study. Somewhere in my basement, there might be a concordance, but there’s no need to use it anymore when I can type in a few words online and find all of the places that they appear in the Bible, even searching multiple translations at the same time!
This allows me to bring in references from the Bible (as well as archaeology, history, etc.) so much faster than before, and hopefully deliver a better lesson for you. That’s great, but I wouldn’t necessarily appreciate it as much if I hadn’t researched things the “old way” in the past.
Let’s see what the book of Jeremiah says, in the start of the second chapter.
The word of the LORD came to me: “Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem:
“This is what the LORD says:
“ ‘I remember the devotion of your youth,
how as a bride you loved me
and followed me through the wilderness,
through a land not sown.
Israel was holy to the LORD,
the firstfruits of his harvest;
all who devoured her were held guilty,
and disaster overtook them,’ ”
declares the LORD.Jeremiah 2:1-3 NIV
https://bible.com/bible/111/jer.2.1-3.NIV
In these verses, God remembers what the Israelites used to be. They used to be committed to Him, passionate for God like a bride in love with her husband.
When the memory of having been freed from slavery in Egypt was still fresh in their minds, the Israelites originally followed the pillar of fire and cloud in the wilderness as God led them. (Yes, they made mistakes and wandered, but God was pretty much all that they had in the wilderness, and it was clear that going off without Him wasn’t effective.) A commentator [Willis] likens this to the honeymoon after a wedding.
God provided blessings for the Israelites in the wilderness as well. They were holy to Him (set apart), and nations that tried to prey on God’s people discovered that this was a losing proposition. While there is more to this chapter, God remembers those times (at least metaphorically – I believe that He sees all of time at once), as a contrast to what is going on in the days of Jeremiah the prophet.
Have you recently observed the passion of someone who is new to faith in Jesus Christ? Think about the excitement of being made new and finding not only freedom from the eternal consequences of sins, but a new purpose and a fresh relationship with your Creator and Savior. What a great time to tell all of your friends about Jesus!
Similarly, if you’ve been following Jesus Christ for a while, whether you have memories of your life before meeting Him, or memories of a time when you were more committed to following Him than you are now, these memories can help guide us back to Him. Hopefully, our memories of our walk with God provide a benchmark of faithfulness that we – with God’s help – can strive to return to, rather than wanting to return to a time in our lives before we chose to follow Him.
And, if you haven’t yet accepted Jesus as your Savior and Lord, I encourage you to give Him a chance. You won’t forget meeting Him.
From Sunday School lesson prepared for June 11, 2023
References:
- The Lookout, June 11, 2023, © 2023 Christian Standard Media.
- Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
- The College Press NIV Commentary – Jeremiah-Lamentations, by Timothy M. Willis. © 2002 College Press Publishing Co.
Those Who Sin Differently 