Virgil, the ancient poet, describes the river Lethe as flowing through a
tranquil landscape, and on its banks wandered a countless multitude who
drank of its waters which washed away all memory of the past. This
would seem to be an ideal situation for sinful creatures like we are, for we
are constantly blundering and falling short of the glory of God. If we
could just drink from the Lethe River and forget the passed, we could
begin life fresh with every drink instead of living with the guilt and regrets
of our former failures.
It is a known fact that it is the burdens of the past that cause so much
anxiety and frustration in life. The inability to forget can lead some people
to become nervous wrecks. Most of us have this problem to some degree,
and we look back and worry about why we said this, or why we did that.
We wish we had done things different. We go over every detail and let our
memory of the past rob the present of its peace. At times like this a drink
from Lethe would be welcome, for we know we cannot change what was,
and there is no sense to fret about it. As the proverb says, there is no use
crying over spilt milk. An unknown poet wrote,
There's many a trouble would break like a bubble,
And into the waters of Lethe depart,
Did we not rehearse it, and tenderly nurse it,
And give it a permanent place in our heart.
There's many a sorrow would vanish tomorrow,
Were we not unwilling to furnish it wings;
So sadly intruding, and quietly brooding,
It hatches all sorts of horrible things.
There is no doubt about it, a real river of Lethe could come in handy.
The only problem is that it would soon be discovered to be a curse, for
although the past can hold much to burden our life, it also holds much to
bless life. If in order to forget the evil we must also sacrifice the memory
of the good, the cost is too great. For every believer, the foundation has
already been laid in the past, and there is none other that can be laid. That
is why Jesus instituted the Lord's Supper and said, "Do this in
remembrance of me." If we ever forget the past and what Jesus did for us
on the cross, then we have no future. All that we build in the present and
hope for in the future is based on the work of Christ in the past. What is
true on this highest level is true on the lesser levels as well.
To build well in this life we must remember the past instructions and
warnings. Memory is a must to men of maturity, for he who forgets is as
bad off as he who never knew. Solomon is aware of all this, and so he
begins in chapter 3 with a plea to his son not to forget. All that has gone
before is for nothing if he does not remember it, and Solomon certainly
knew enough about the history of his people to know their tendency to
forget. The Old Testament is filled with examples of blessings turned to
curses because of forgetfulness. In Deut. 32:18 Moses rebuked the people
for going after other gods, and he said, "You were unmindful of the Rock
that begot you, and you forgot the God who gave you birth." It sounds
unbelievable, but the whole history of Israel is a record of God's battle to
keep His chosen people in remembrance of Him. They were urged to
diligently teach their children, and to observe great holidays like the
Passover in order that the past might never be forgotten. The mighty acts
of God in the past were to be the foundation for their future. They were to
look back to their deliverance out of Egypt for the same reason we are to
constantly look back to our deliverance on the cross.
Warnings are everywhere telling the people not to forget. Duet. 6:12
says, "Then take heed less you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the
land of Egypt." Again in 8:11 we read, "Take heed lest you forget the Lord
your God by not keeping His commandments and His ordinances and His
statutes, which I command you this day." In 8:19 he gives this solemn
warning, "And if you forget the Lord your God and go after other gods
and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you this day that you
shall surely perish." After all this we look ahead to see what happens. In
Judges 3:7 we read, "And the people of Israel did what was evil in the
sight of the Lord, forgetting the Lord their God." Imagine people
forgetting their God. A poor memory is common to many, but who can
forget their God? It is inconceivable, and yet it is recorded over and over
again.
I Sam. 12:9, "But they forgot the Lord their God."
Psa. 106:21, "They forgot God, their Savior, who had done great things in
Egypt."
Isa. 17:10, "For you have forgotten the God of your salvation."
Jer. 2:32, God complains, "My people have forgotten me days without
number."
This same thing is going on today, and many nations are forgetting
their Christian heritage, and many professing Christians are forgetting
that the foundation of the church is Jesus. There are men of God today
who are experiencing that which Isaiah, Jeremiah and other prophets
experienced in their ministry to the chosen people. They preached to deaf
ears and blinded eyes, and confessed that they preached to a people who
have forgotten their God. It has happened before and it can happen again
and bring the judgment of God. All of this background is just to point out
the significance of the way Solomon addresses his son when he writes, "My
son forget not my law."
If people can forget their God, they can certainly forget any
knowledge and wisdom they have received. In fact, they are experts at it.
The average person has the capacity to forget 80% of what he has learned
in 48 hours. If we could remember all we hear and read we would all be
brilliant. A youth brought up to the teen years through Sunday school
would be a biblical scholar. There's hardly any doubt about it that we
would never go wrong if we could always remember our biblical teaching.
This may seem like an unrealistic ideal, as fictitious as the Lethe River, but
it must be our goal. Solomon urged his son not to forget because memory
of what is learned is absolutely essential. A good memory is a necessity in
getting good grades, and in being an obedient child, and also in being an
effective servant of Christ. You can't go wrong by improving your
memory. Forgetfulness is the father to much folly. The little boy who eats so
much ice cream until he gets sick forgets the sickness he has suffered and
has to endure it all over again the next time he gets to eat ice cream. The
drinker so soon forgets the misery of the hangover and so foolishly
continues to seek happiness in a bottle. The student so soon forgets the
frustration of letting school work pile up to the last minute, and so they
repeat the same thing over and over, and each time saying, "I'll never do
this again."
If you remember what we have studied in the first two chapters you
would be well on your way to a life of real joy for the glory of God. The
more I think of it the more I realize the biggest waste in the world is the
amount of truth that is proclaimed from God's Word that never stays in
the memory long enough to effect a change in the life. This leads me to
even stronger convictions on the value of taking notes on all you hear and
read. The very reason Solomon put his teaching in writing, and the reason
God inspired all the biblical authors to write is that they might be,
"Profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in
righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished
unto all good works."
If we could remember it all, we would be perfect and thoroughly
furnished unto all good works. You would never go wrong if you could
only remember, and so this plea of Solomon to his son is not just an
opening verse of transition, which is of little consequence. Unless we take
it seriously and recognize it as fundamental we will be poor stewards of
what we gain. Remembrance is the key to successful Christian living just
as it was the key to godly living in the Old Testament.
Solomon is speaking to his son whom he has already taught. It is
obvious that you cannot forget what you never knew. The first thing is to
gain the knowledge and be taught, but then it must not be forgotten if it is
to be of value. The more a person forgets the more it is evident there is a
lack of commitment. We habitually forget what we are not interested in
and committed to. A poor memory of God's will and teaching is a sign of a
bad heart rather than merely a bad head. Solomon says, "But keep my
commands in your heart." In other words, this is the opposite of
forgetting. If the commandments are in the heart, they will not be
forgotten. What the heart holds controls the life, and when godly
principles and truth control one's life the result will be as Solomon says in
verse 2, "For they will prolong your life many years and bring you
prosperity." It is obvious that Solomon had no such superstition about
people dying because their number was up. This fatalism is not biblical.
The wisdom of God and obedience to it can make a great difference in the
length of one's life, and the quality of it as well as the quantity of it.
Almost everyone agrees that a long life is a blessing, and Solomon says
that remembering plays a role in the length of life. This is repeated several
times in Proverbs. In verse 16 he says, "Long life is in her right hand..."
He is referring to wisdom, and in 4:10 he says that if his son will listen to
what he says the years of his life will be many. Again he says in 9:11, "For
through me your days will be many, and years will be added to your life."
In 10:27 he says, "The fear of the Lord adds length to life..." Not only is
the study of Proverbs good for the soul, but it is good for the body, and by
obeying its precepts one can even add to his physical life. The Jews stress
this more than we do as Christians. Death has lost its sting because of
Christ's resurrection, and so no longer is a short life as great a sorrow as it
was for those who lived before Christ.
In the Old Testament the patriarchs lived to a ripe old age and died in
peace giving their blessing to their children. This was the ideal in the Old
Testament, but in New Testament this is no longer stressed. It is still true,
however that a godly life is likely to be a longer life. Statistical studies
indicate longer life for those who do not drink, smoke, and who avoid all
the bad habits of the world. Christians do die young just as many in the
Old Testament did, but all things being equal, the believer will outlive the
unbeliever because holiness is a part of health, and it will preserve life.
Jesus died young, but had He been able to live out His life He, no doubt
would have lived to be very old because of His perfect adjustment to all of
life, and perfect obedience to God.
There is a story of an old woman who walked the streets of Strasbourg
in the 14th century carrying a pail of water in one hand an a torch in the
other. When she was asked why she was doing it she replied, "With the
water I want to put out the flames of hell, and with the torch I want to
burn up heaven so that in the future men will love the dear Lord God for
Himself alone and not out of fear of hell or out of craving for reward." It
sounds like a great ideal, but it is as unrealistic as the Lethe River of
forgetfulness. When our ideals rise above the Word of God they are
foolish and based on a total misconception of God and man. In both the
Old and New Testaments we are told that godliness is profitable for this
life and the life to come. All through the Bible are warnings of loss of
reward and promises of gain of reward. The fact that we must never
forget is that we cannot go wrong for time or eternity if we will remember
what we learned of God's truth and keep it in our hearts.
