All throughout the Old Testament God keeps throwing a recurring theme and question at the Israelites. He does this when His people, the Israelites seem to drift away from the sole worship of him and who he is as the Creator God, the Holy One of Israel. The phrase usually is stated something like this, “Remember When I rescued you from Egypt?” or “Do you remember when I, the Lord your God brought you out of captivity?” It’s phrased in many more ways than this, but nonetheless God is saying the same thing each time.
Lets talk a little bit about the context in which this ws happening in. You see at one point all of the Israelites were as a people enslaved to the Egyptians. Until one day when God raised up a leader named Moses to lead them out of Egypt and into the land God promised them they would inhabit. Now this happened in a miraculous way that only God could have made happen. There were the 10 plagues, the signs from God to the Pharaoh such as Moses staff turning into a serpent, not to mention the parting of the Red Sea. Yes, I would say that would be considered a miraculous event for sure! For the Israelites this would be a redeeming, salvation moment in their history as a people. This was actually THE moment that would define the relationship in which God desired to have with his people. It was a redeeming love from God to rescue them from their captivity.
Now, onto why he kept repeating that same question to them over and over again. The Israelites were losing focus of who God was and what he had done for them. As a matter of fact they were constantly moping and complaining about their situation and about their problems, hurts, not too mention their on-going love affair with sin. From time of their redemption as a people and the time when Jesus arrived, there were definitely times of great obedience and true worship by the Israelites, but the were also many periods when they could not have been further from obedience to God. In these times God would ask them or say to them through the prophets, “Do you remember when I rescued you?” He did this so they could get back on course, get back in the game, and focus on the truth of the situation that their all-loving and faithful God cared about them deeply and intimately!
Here’s where this applies to you and me. There are definitely times when you and I lose our focus on God and become just like the Israelites. We start focusing on our problems, hurts, and we can spiral into our own love affair with sin. This is where I believe that God steps in and asks us the same question he has been asking for thousands of years. “Do you remember when I saved you?” Do you remember when I brought you out of captivity?” You see it is so important that we actually go back and reflect on that moment to truly grasp what God has done for us, how he saved us, how he gave us a second chance and a new beginning. In this moment of reflection we can see the goodness of God in a clarity we rarely get to experience.
I leave you with this, when is the last time you truly reflected on the time when God did the miraculous in your life? When is the last time you focused on how good God has been to you? When is the last time you sat down to remember your salvation experience?
