Throughout Scripture, we are reminded to remember. Much of our sin is the product of forgetfulness. We forget what we have seen and heard. We forget the love of God we have experienced. As soon as it helps us from difficult situations, we have a tendency to put things like grace and forgiveness on a shelf.
We have a hard time with memory. It sometimes plays tricks on us. After all, we don’t do a stellar job at discerning the present, so it is little wonder our view of the past can be a little distorted.
Here in 1 Chronicles we are given one of the many Biblical mandates to remember.
The author here is calling to our attention the wonders and judgments of God. The wonders (or miracles) are some of the ways in which God has revealed Himself. And His judgments are basically a measure to the way each of us respond to this revelation.
God shows Himself in the world (wonder) and discerns what is good (judgment). He tells us who he is (wonder) and holds us accountable to how we respond (judgement).
When we forget these two essential truths,that God is who He is and that we are called to be stewards of that great and glorious truth, we set ourselves on shaky ground. We will try to replace these fundamental realities with something much less true.
We need reminders, today and everyday, of the wonderful, response-inducing realities of The Kingdom of God.