I’ve been officially in the “senior” demographic for a while now.  (How long depends on who’s defining the age threshold.)  With age, we are told, comes some wisdom.  Pretty sure that’s an overstatement—seniors who are unwise seem about as common as the unwise of any age.  What does come with age is wearing down and wearing out.  It’s part of our mortality.  And decline in memory is famously part of aging.

In my own case, on top of that, I have what’s termed “chemo induced cognitive impairment”, more popularly called “chemo brain”.  Chemotherapy ten years ago had an immediate effect on my memory and cognitive functions, and also seems to be having a chronic eroding effect.  Both aspects are well documented possible side effects of chemotherapy.

But all that is not the point today.  I bring it up just to acknowledge there are well known reasons for memory to fail us…and to say that the memory failures addressed in the Bible are in an entirely different category.  We can’t blame them on age or chemicals.

Possibly the most blatant example of what I’m talking about is right at the start of the Exodus.  Three days after the astounding miracle of the Red Sea crossing, the liberated Israelites were grumbling, and within a month they were moaning, wishing they had died in Egypt!  They had forgotten the miracles, forgotten the deliverance, forgotten the ironclad promises God made through Moses to bring them into a land of their own.  And it just kept up, again and again, through the whole wilderness sojourn. When they are finally about to enter the land, Moses sums it up: “You were unmindful of the Rock that bore you, and you forgot the God who gave you birth.”  (Deuteronomy 32:18)  In the series of addresses recorded in Deuteronomy, Moses adjures the people ten times, “Take care, lest you forget.”

But they forgot.  And were reminded (painfully), and forgot again.  Over and over throughout the history of the nation. 

It’s very easy to look down on the Israelites.  But we need to heed Paul’s exhortation in 1 Corinthians 10:  Israel’s experience in the wilderness is a “type” (foreshadowing) of us.  The admonitions of Moses apply to us.  Because we are not superior to Israel; we are just as prone to forget.  Spiritual memory failure is not an Old Testament problem. It has nothing to do with the era we are born in, just as it has nothing to do with age. 

No commentary from me is needed regarding exhortations like these:

“For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.”  (James 1:23-24) 

“For whoever lacks these qualities [faith, virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection, love] is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.”  (2 Peter 1:9)

“And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?  ‘My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him.’ “  (Hebrews 12:5) 

Our memory failures in these ways can’t be blamed on age or anything else.  They are the product of our deceitful, desperately corrupt hearts.  We need to heed what Paul says about Israel.  What caused the immediate forgetfulness?  Real and immediate problems that seemed to threaten their very lives: nothing to drink, nothing to eat.  Or they got tired of waiting.  Or they wanted leadership positions and what they perceived to be power.  Or the Midianite girls were hot.  Etc.  Bottom line, they looked at the right now, and forgot the promises of a bright future, forgot the evidence of past deliverances.

They are us, Paul says.  Don’t we have those same memory failures?  The right now overshadows everything.  Shouldn’t, but does.

Fortunately, there are remedies for memory failure of this kind.  Why do you think Jesus commanded us, “Do this in remembrance of me”?  Why do we have all those examples of people whose memory failed, and (yes!) other examples of people who succeeded in remembering? 

Memory failure due to age or chemo is frustrating.  Memory failure due to right now thinking is much worse than that.  Israel’s entry into the land was delayed—and a whole generation didn’t survive to enter.  Something to keep in mind.

Love, Paul

 If you have any feedback, please contact me at: paul.zilmer@gmail.com