Spiritual Amnesia

Deuteronomy 6:10-14 When the LORD your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you—a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build, houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant—then when you eat and are satisfied, be careful that you do not forget the LORD, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. Fear the LORD your God, serve him only and take your oaths in his name. Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you.

In this section of scripture Moses outlines a concept for us I’m going to call spiritual amnesia. This is the amnesia that we get when things are going well and we forget about the One who made our success possible.

In this case, Moses was speaking to the Israelites right before he was going to send them off into the promised land. Moses has also been told by God that he is about to die. He will not be going into the promised land with the Israelites. So in this section of scripture we see the picture of a man who has devoted most of his life to freeing these stubborn ungrateful people from slavery, giving them his last appeal. These are the last words he is going to get to tell them before he dies. It’s like a parent sending their kids off to college, permanently. You want to tell them everything you think they should do so they don’t get into too much trouble.

Moses tells them that God has given them so much blessing. He was about to take them into a land that they did not own. God alone would do the conquering so they could occupy the land. Once complete, the Israelites were promised a land flowing with milk and honey, houses they didn’t build, wells they did not dig, etc. But the warning that follows is what I would like to focus on.

It says be careful that you do not forget the Lord who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. See, we have a tendency to get amnesia. We know that the story of the Children of Israel’s release from slavery is not only a literal historical occurrence; it is also a metaphor for our salvation. God brings us out of slavery to sin through Jesus into a new world, His kingdom. In that kingdom we have access to Gods provision, protection, and care. However, like the Israelites we tend to get amnesia. When things are going wrong we have no problem focusing on God, usually because we’re questioning him, crying out to him, asking for help. But when things are good we tend to forget that it is God who brought us out of slavery and into this new world. Its is God who’s provided all the blessings that we have to lose.

So how do we keep from getting spiritual amnesia? That question is answered in the verses that directly precede the ones above.

Deuteronomy 6:5-9 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

Gods answer to spiritual amnesia is simple. Love God more than anything else. How do we do that? By taking his word and making it part of our every day lives. His word is to be written all around where we can see it. I love that my wife does this. At any given time you will find bible verses written on the walls in our house for our kids to see. We take them in the car. They are on my iPOD. His word is at my work. Everywhere. I am almost never without his word in one form or another. Of course just having it along is not the point. We have to internalize it by reading it and memorizing it.

Now that solution may seem a bit extreme to you, especially if you struggle even reading it a little. But think about it like this. Some people are never without their sports. They listen to it in the car. ESPN is never off the TV when they are home. They get it on their cell phones and on their computers. I have known many people like this. They LOVE sports. You see, we love what we give ourselves to. If you give yourself to sports then you will love sports. If you give yourself to a job, then you will love your job. If we give ourselves to God, then we will love God and whether things are going good or bad, we will not forget where our help comes from.