Two men, both criminals, were led with Jesus to their crucifixion on Calvary. One was placed on Jesus' right, the other on His left. At first they both joined the crowd in mocking the Lord. But after a while one of them grew silent.
He had heard the Savior's words of forgiving love and a change had begun to work in him. He began to see in Jesus the Messiah prophesied of old. He saw innocence and purity. He saw the One who would soon pass through death into His heavenly Kingdom. He saw God. Such a sight led him to take a good look at himself and to make a shocking comparison with Christ.
In himself the criminal saw a poor, wretched sinner, guilty of the crimes for which he was suffering. But in Jesus he saw the righteousness of God. He saw one who was not deserving of the mockery and the punishment He was getting. Rebuking his fellow criminal for their earlier mockery, he said, “Don't you fear God? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong. Then, turning in sorrowful repentance to Jesus, he prayed, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.”
Remember me. Just one thought, one merciful remembrance on the part of the Savior – that would be enough for him for time and eternity - just one thought. And so he prayed, “Lord, remember me.” In that faith he received much more than he asked. He received Paradise.
One thought, one merciful remembrance on the part of the Savior, it is more than enough for us. What is it that makes one cry out to God for such remembrance? Why do we want Him to remember us? May the Holy Spirit graciously guide us in the study of our text and lead us to a stronger faith that is quick to cry with the penitent thief and Job: O God, Remember Me. That cry raises two questions that we'll seek to answer on the basis of our text: I. Can God forget us? II. Will God help us?
I. Can God forget us?
If one should be led to cry, Remember Me , what does that tell us about how that person feels? Doesn't it tell us that he feels forgotten – out of sight, out of mind? If you forget someone or something, you've lost it from your mind. Maybe the memory is still there somewhere, but, for whatever reason, you can't recall what you once knew. Most of the time, it seems to happen to us unintentionally. It's not that we want to forget something; it's not that we set out to forget something; we just forget.
Perhaps whatever it is we forgot happened a while ago and other things came in-between to block the memory from our view. Perhaps we were somewhat careless at the time the thing took place and didn't give enough attention to it so that it never really took root in our memory banks. How many times haven't you forgotten an address because you were a little careless and didn't write it down? Or how many times haven't you forgotten a person's name because you really didn't listen very well when it was told to you? Or how many times when you were younger did you forget to tell your parents that you would be late for dinner because other things got in the way and you just didn't do what you should have done? Most of the time such acts of forgetfulness come about unintentionally, and usually through carelessness. It happens even among the most intelligent of people.
On the other hand, sometimes we forget things because we want to forget them; it's an intentional thing. If you have had some unpleasant, disappointing, or painful experience that causes you grief, you try to forget it. Why? - because you don't want to have to live that pain over and over again. You try to erase unpleasant things from your memory – intentionally. The problem is you may wish that would take place, but those experiences are hardly the ones that we ever seem to successfully forget. The point is in our human weakness we forget things, intentionally or unintentionally.
Does God forget? Can He forget who we are ? Can He get so involved in other things that we are blocked from His view? Can He drop us from His memory banks? After all, with all the billions of people, not to mention all the rest of creation that occupy His time, it seems reasonable that He could overlook us – unintentionally, of course.
But maybe it's not so unintentional. Maybe He wants to forget us because we have done something unpleasant or disappointing to Him that has caused Him such grief or pain so that He simply wants to erase it and us from His memory.
That's the way Job felt in our text – forgotten by God. Why? –
because everything seemed to be going against him as though God had forgotten to watch out for him. Indeed, God had even allowed the devil to get in there and wreak havoc in Job's life. Here's the account of what had taken place earlier to bring this about: 1:13-20a; 2:7-9.
Job had been “the greatest man among all the people of the east.” But in the span of a few weeks, he lost it all – his property, his children, his own health. Worse yet his wife turned against him, and his friends condemned him. The pain ran deep, deep into his soul. You can hear it in the words of our text: “Does not man have hard service (military term = warfare, or time spent in a situation beyond one's control) on earth? Are not his days like those of a hired man – like a slave longing for the evening shadows?”
Haven't you had rough days when you felt like a slave to your job? You couldn't wait till darkness intervened to disrupt your day of frustration and futility and you could crawl into bed. That's how Job felt with all this adversity flooding his life. But he couldn't escape the pain. “When I lie down,” he said, “I think, ‘How long before I get up.' The night drags on, and I toss till dawn….My eyes will never see happiness again.” By day Job longed for the night to revive and refresh him. At night he hoped the dawn would bring him relief.
But even more serious than Job's physical and emotional deterioration was the effect these trials were having on his faith. He was “coming to an end without hope.”
If a person is without hope, it reflects a feeling that he is without God. The Bible says, “The Lord will be the hope of His people” (Jl.3:16 KJV). And again the Psalmist writes (71:5), “You have been my hope, O Sovereign Lord.” So, if one is “without hope,” Paul writes, then he is “without God in the world” (Ep.2:12). That feeling of hopelessness is what led Job to cry out O God, Remember Me. Have You forgotten me?
Can God forget us dear friends, either unintentionally or intentionally? Well now, how could that be possible if He knows all things, if He is faithful in all things, if He is just, and righteous, and holy, not to mention merciful?
The Bible compares His inability to forget us to that of a new mother who can hardly forget that she just had a child. God told Isaiah (49:15), “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne….I will not forget you.” Again the Bible attributes God's inability to forget us to His inability to forget anything He has made, even the tiniest and most abundant of creatures. Jesus assured us, “Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows” (Lk.12:6).
Can God forget us? Unequivocally the Bible answers, “No, He can't forget you!” We can “forget” Him, as we show sometimes in our lives by going apart from Him or failing to thank Him for all that He does for us or neglecting our worship to Him. In sin we seem to forget Him, but He cannot forget us. He cannot, He will not forget those for whom He gave His Son. But, will He help us?
II. Will God help us?
Job believed that God would help him. Job had all kinds of questions and doubts. But He still believed that God would help him. How do we know that? The rest of the book bears that out. But even in our text there is a hint of that confidence when he says, “Remember, O God, that my life is but a breath.”
You see, dear friends, Job wasn't asking God to remember him because he was so good. He wasn't bargaining with God saying “God you've got to help me because I've done such and such for you.” No! Not for a moment did Job imagine that his life's record was good enough to stand up under God's scrutiny. But he was asking God to help him while looking upon him in mercy.
Will God help us , dear friends, when we are in trouble? The Bible replies, “He does not forget the cry of the humble” (Ps.9:12 KJV).
It's the humble, those who lower themselves in repentance before Him that God will not forget - the thief on the cross who made a shocking comparison of himself with Christ; the tax collector in the temple who would not lift up his eyes to heaven but smote on his breast saying, “God be merciful to me, a sinner”; and Job who recognized that before God his life was but a breath, quickly vanishing in the wind. In His mercy God will help those who humble themselves in this way. Why? Because He Remembers Us and who we are.
The Psalmist writes (103:13), “As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him; for He knows how we are formed, He remembers that we are dust.” When God created Adam, how did He do it? He took some ground and shaped it like a man. Then God breathed into him and God made him live. It was all God's doing with some very humble things. Adam's body wasn't made out of some heavenly stuff – and neither are we. So, when we do something wrong or when we need help, which is always, God remembers that we are dust – or, as Job said, “Our lives are but a breath.”
And like a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him and helps them in their weakness.
You, dear friends, know how He felt sorry for us in our greatest need and helped us by sending His Son to die for us and save us. You, dear friends, know how He assures that if He did not spare His own Son but freely gave Him up for us all, how will He not also along with the Savior graciously give us all the things that we need (Ro.8:32). And you, dear friends, know how He promises that in all things, even the things that Job was going through, it will work out for the good of those who love Him. All of that and more convinces us that He cannot forget us and that He will help us for He is the God of free and faithful grace – our Savior.
It is that truth that makes our lives so meaningful in Him. It is that truth that drove Paul in the Epistle Lesson today to do all that he could for the sake of the Gospel.
With all of that in mind Job could rise above the struggle within his heart and soul and pray, “ Remember Me, O God , for my life is but a breath.” It is with that in mind that the thief on the cross turned to the Lord in the last hour of his life and prayed, “ Lord, Remember Me when You come into Your kingdom.” And they both received much more than they had asked, for now they dwell in Paradise. God grant us the same hope and the same reward in faith for Jesus' sake. Amen.