Do not be afraid but remember well

 Do not be afraid but remember well

 

 

“If you should say in your heart, 'These nations are greater than I; how can I dispossess them?'  you shall not be afraid of them; you shall well remember what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt: the great trials which your eyes saw and the signs and the wonders and the mighty hand and the outstretched arm by which the LORD your God brought you out. So shall the LORD your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid” (Deuteronomy 7:17-19).

 

 

When we experience great difficulties and hardships in our lives, we tend to worry, be in anxiety, be in fear and discouraged.  And so many times we don’t even know what to do.  At this very moment, God speaks to our hearts.  God speaks to us through His Word when we are in a great crisis.  What is that voice of God?  It is 'Do not be afraid but remember well'.

 

In Deuteronomy 7:17, when God speaks to the people of Israel through Moses, God knew what they were thinking in their minds.  Their thought was that the Canaanites were more than the Israelites, so they were concerned about how they could cast them out.  The reason why they were so concerned was that the Israelites heard the complaints from the ten spies (Num. 13:32; 14:36) and wailed all night long and blamed Moses and Aaron (14:1).  The reason for their resentment was that the peoples in the land of Canaan were greater and mightier than the Israelites (Deut. 7:1) and their cities were great, fortified to heaven (vv. 1-2).  Therefore, the Israelites were in distress and despair, worrying about how they could dispossess the Canaanites (7:17).  God, who knew it, told them not to be afraid of the Canaanites, but to remember well (v. 17).  What did God say to remember?

 

First, God told the Israelites to remember well what God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt.

 

Look Deuteronomy 7:18-19: “you shall not be afraid of them; you shall well remember what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt: the great trials which your eyes saw and the signs and the wonders and the mighty hand and the outstretched arm by which the LORD your God brought you out. So shall the LORD your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid.”  God told the Israelites to remember what God had done to Pharaoh and all Egypt (v.18).  God told to them remember the signs and the wonders and the mighty hand and the outstretched arm (v. 19).  God told the Israelites to remember the amazing power of God which God showed them in the past when they were in Egypt and delivered them.  Why?  This was because God would do the same to the Canaanites whom the Israelites were afraid of (v. 19).  Therefore, God told the Israelites not to fear the Canaanites (vv. 18, 21).  The reason was because the great and awesome God was among them (v.21).

 

The great and awesome God is with us.  Therefore, we must fear God rather than fear the great difficulties and adversities we face.  And we must remember according to the Word of God.  We must remember God’s deliverance and guidance in our past lives in great difficulty and adversity.  And we must believe that God, who had delivered us and guided us in the past, will deliver and guide us in the great difficulties and hardships we face today.

 

Second, God told the Israelites to remember all the way which God had led them in the wilderness for 40 years.

Look at Deuteronomy 8:2-4: “You shall remember all the way which the LORD your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.  He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD.  Your clothing did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years.”  God told the Israelites who were in despair thinking about how to dispossess the Canaanites (7:17) to remember well what God had done for them in Egypt and how He had led them and protected them for 40 years in the wilderness.  For 40 years in the wilderness, God didn’t let the Israelites’ clothes to wear out on them and their foot to swell (v. 4).  Also God humbled them and let them be hungry and fed them with manna (v. 3).  What was the reason?  The reason was to teach the Israelites that man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of God (v. 3).

 

We are the people of God who live by all the words that come out of God's mouth.  We are the children of God who live day by day through the bread of life which Father God has given us from heaven (Jn. 6:32, 35).  Therefore, we must remember.  We must remember the God of Ebenezer.  We must remember that God has helped us up to this point (1 Sam 7:12) and is still helping us (Ps. 121).  And we must believe that the Immanuel God who is with us (Mt. 1:23) is walking with us (Exod. 34:9).

 

Third, God told the Israelites not to forget how they provoked God.

 

Look at Deuteronomy 9:7 – “Remember, do not forget how you provoked the LORD your God to wrath in the wilderness; from the day that you left the land of Egypt until you arrived at this place, you have been rebellious against the LORD.”  Since the day the Israelites came out of Egypt, they were always disobeyed God (v. 7).  They even provoked God in Mount Horeb (v. 8).  Also they provoked God by quickly turning aside from the way which God commanded them and by making a molten image for themselves (v. 12).  They had done evil in the sight of God to provoke Him to anger (v.18).  The Israelites made God very angry (v.19).  And when God sent them from Kadesh-barnea, saying, “God up and possess the land which I have given you” but they rebelled against the God’s command; they neither believed Him nor listened to His voice (v. 23).  This was what Moses said to the Israelites: “"You have been rebellious against the LORD from the day I knew you” (v. 24).  To these Israelites who had been rebelled against God, God told them to remember how they provoked Him (v. 7).  Why did God tell the Israelites who were concerned about how to dispossess the Canaanites (v. 4) and who were in despair to remember how they provoked God in the wilderness? (v. 7)  The reason was that God didn’t want them to commit a great sin against God again.  Rather, God wanted the Israelites to go up to the land of Canaan, which God promised to give, by believing and relying on the Word of God, without provoking God anymore.

 

We must no longer provoke our God.  We must no longer disobey the Word of God in our complaints and resentments because we have no faith in God.  Our God is faithful God (7:9).  God is a faithful God who fulfills His promises to us.  Therefore, we must believe in the faithful God.  We must believe in the promises God has made to us.  And we must follow the Lord faithfully.  We must obey the Word of God.  Therefore, we must please God.

 

Forth and last, God told the Israelites not to forget Him, but to remember Him well.

 

Look at Deuteronomy 8:11 – “"Beware that you do not forget the LORD your God by not keeping His commandments and His ordinances and His statutes which I am commanding you today.”  God was worried that when the Israelites entered the promised land of Canaan and had eaten and were satisfied and had built good houses and lived in them (V. 12), and when their herds and their flocks multiplied and their silver and gold multiplied and all that they had multiplied (v. 13), then their heart would become proud and they would forget God (v. 14).  God was worried that when their heart became proud, they would say in their heart “My power and the strength of my hand made me this wealth” (v. 17).  That was why God said to the Israelites, “But you shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who is giving you power to make wealth, that He may confirm His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day” (v. 18).  The Israelites shouldn’t have forgotten but remember that God gave them power to make wealth.  And by remembering God, they should have kept His commandments, His ordinances and His statutes which God commanded (v. 11).  The reason was that if they forgot God and worshiped other gods, the Israelites would surely perish (v. 19).

 

We must not forget but remember God.  Our God has chosen us to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth (7:6).  God chose us, not because we were more in number than any of the peoples (v. 7) but because He loved us and wanted to keep the oath which He swore to our forefathers (v. 8).  Our God is the God who loves us and bless us and multiplies us (v. 13).  And because our God is faithful (v. 9), He will fulfill what He promised us.  Even now, God is faithfully leading us into the Promised Land.  Therefore, we must listen to the voice of the Lord, the Shepherd who guides us, and obey and follow Him.

 

We must not forget but remember God well.  We must well remember the grace God that was given to us in our past lives.  At the same time, we must remember that we sinned against God.  And we must not forget that God, who saved us in the past in an awful situation and adversity, is the God of salvation who can save us now too.  So let us not be afraid but let us remember our God.  And let us move forward by faith toward Heaven, the true Promised Land.