Look, Remember and Do

The more God's people consider the awesome attributes of our God, it blows our minds away.  Though God has created us in His own image and given us minds able to understand, reason and remember, God is not like us.  He knows all things, and because He is outside time sees what is past, present and future all at once.  Though He cannot forget, God chooses what He will and will not remember.  Jeremiah 31:34 speaks of the new covenant God would bring and how He will forgive repentant sinners:  "No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more."  Blessed is the one whose sin is forgiven and God remembers it no more!

God does not need reminders like we do (because we forget), but God takes specific action to remember and do all He has said.  For instance, after God preserved Noah, his family and countless animals from death during the flood, God placed a token of His covenant in the cloud--a glorious rainbow that resembled a bow hung in the sky after a battle.  God said in Genesis 9:14-16, "It shall be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud; ¹⁵ and I will remember My covenant which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. ¹⁶ The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth."  Since God is intentional to remember what He has said, it follows we too can benefit from remembering what Him and His promises--and have reminders in our lives so we will do all the good we have said.

After God gave the Hebrews the Law, a man was found gathering sticks on the Sabbath day, a violation of the 4th commandment.  He was arrested and Moses inquired of the LORD to see what ought to be done.  The man was judged by God to be worthy of death, for he transgressed God's command.  Following the man's death by stoning, Numbers 15:37-41 tells us:  "Again the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, ³⁸ "Speak to the children of Israel: tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and to put a blue thread in the tassels of the corners. ³⁹ And you shall have the tassel, that you may look upon it and remember all the commandments of the LORD and do them, and that you may not follow the harlotry to which your own heart and your own eyes are inclined, ⁴⁰ and that you may remember and do all My commandments, and be holy for your God. ⁴¹ I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: I am the LORD your God."

God commanded the Hebrews to affix tassels of blue on the corners or hem of their garments where they were visable.  Whenever they looked down and saw the blue threads--the next time they put on their clothes, shawl or went out of their tents on the Sabbath day--they would remember all God's commands to do them.  As they looked down to gather wood or as they walked along the road, the blue tassels jogged their memory to do as God had said, to be holy for their God.  The command to put blue tassels was directly in response to the man who sinned by gathering sticks with the desire forgetful people would remember to obey God rather than to follow the harlotry of the heart and eyes as they were naturally inclinded.  They were to continually remember what God said and obey Him.  There is no power in blue threads to keep a person from sinning, but they served to help God's people remember Him so they might do as He has commanded.

I have observed Christians wearing crosses, and many do this to identify themselves as a follower of Jesus.  It would be good to take this a step further:  better than wearing a cross as a sign to others that it be a reminder to us of our Saviour Jesus and all He has said so we might obey His commands and walk in His steps.  The New Testament is full of "one another" commands Christians are called to observe as we serve the LORD and seek to do His will.  People might identify Orthodox Jews because of blue tassels seen on the corners of their garments, but that is not why the Jews wear them:  it is to remind them of God and to do all He has said.  In the same way, wearing a cross does not identify us as Christians, for people will know we are Christians by our love--by walking in submission and obedience to Jesus.