MY PEOPLE HAVE FORGOTTEN ME

 MY PEOPLE HAVE FORGOTTEN ME

“O generation, see ye the word of the Lord. Have I been a wilderness unto Israel? A land of darkness? Wherefore sat my people, We are lords; we will come no more unto thee? Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? Yet my people have forgotten me days without number.” Jeremiah 2:31-32. The young prophet, Jeremiah, had been seen to a people that had forgotten God. They had become arrogant, and no longer felt that they needed God. But, God had not forgotten them. “Moreover the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the Lord; I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown.” Jeremiah 2:1-2. There was a time when these people knew God and were blessed because of this relationship. But now, “Thus saith the Lord, What iniquity have your fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain?” Jeremiah 2:5. Those who know God can forget him and those who walk in holiness can choose to become defiled. Just as God can be remembered, so God can be forgotten. Judah had decided that they no longer needed God and would no longer come unto him. Unlike the maid that cannot forget her ornaments and the bride that cannot forget her wedding attire, Judah had forgotten God even unto days that could not be numbered. The psalmist had spoken of God’s people in like fashion. “They forgot God their saviour, which had done great things in Egypt; wondrous works in the land of Ham, and terrible things by the Red Sea.” Psalm 106:21-22. Regardless of the blessings that God might bestow upon us as he had done to the captives of Egypt, we can forget God. We can forget to hear him and walk in the way of righteousness. We can choose to embrace iniquity, and travel in the land of darkness. “They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in his law; and forgat his works, and his wonders that he had shown them.” Psalm 78:10-11. Another of God’s great prophets that sought the return to God of this people accused them, “For Israel hath forgotten his Maker, and buildeth temples; and Judah hath multiplied fenced cities: but I will send a fire upon his cities, and it shall devour the palaces thereof.” Hosea 8:14. Terrible indeed is the fate of those who turn from God and forget him.