“And Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh: For God, said he, hath made me forget all my toil, and all my father’s house.” Genesis 41:51
Dear Ones:
There is power in forgetting, the effect of which can be the removal of a burden and weight of wrongs, errors, unwanted circumstances and occurrences that have had a very deep, and significant effect upon us. There is also a power necessary to forget, an ability and strength to put behind us that which would deter and distract us from the duties and responsibilities of present obligations. It is a remarkable declaration by the Apostle Paul to the suffering, Philippian believers, when he wrote: “But this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” (3:14) Why would the Apostle put so much emphasis on this matter of forgetting things past?
When Joseph was carried to Egypt, made a slave, but eventually rising to the position of being a “father” to Pharaoh, there is no doubt that during that time, and especially in the beginning, he was longing for his family and “home.” His love for his father was perhaps the greatest burden and weight that he bore concerning his past. However, later he would write that God “…had made him forget all my toil, and all my father’s house.” Why is this so significant? How could Joseph rise to meet the demands upon him with regard to feeding an entire nation in a time of famine, if he was looking back to Canaan, and his family? God brought Joseph to the place where he surrendered his past, and his family to God, leaving them in His hands. The evidence of this is seen by there being no written account of him seeking to return to his family after he had become a ruler, second to Pharaoh. On the contrary, we see him absolutely dependent upon God, trusting Him to deal with his family, while he was concentrating upon the calling of the God who had put him in a position to save the people of Egypt, and his family.
In another example of the necessity of forgetting those things which are behind, we see Lot’s wife, who is being brought out of Sodom by the angels of
God, to spare her life. The angel of the Lord had specifically told Lot, “…escape for thy life; look not behind thee.” (Gen. 19:17) Lot’s wife did not obey this command, and in so doing, she revealed where her heart lay. It was not in submitting to God’s direction, and wisdom. She could not go forward freely because she was bound in her heart by that which God had told her to leave.
In the epistle to the Hebrews, the author writes: “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith.” (12:1) Here the call of God to the Christian, represented as a runner in a race, is one of NOT looking behind, but looking unto Jesus. Successes or sins in the past may be a hindrance, a distraction, a trap laid by our enemy, to distract and deter us from following Christ in the present moment. The believer is called to run “freely,” without the weights of sadness, sorrow, loss, successes and accomplishments. If one is to live in the present moment by faith, running this race, then the great object of our attention is to be Christ, and Him alone.
When Absalom, the son of David, died, David’s sorrow, sense of loss, and personal guilt, almost drove an unforgiveable wedge between him and the people who, at the risk of their own lives, saved his. It was by the reprimand of Joab, and the grace of God, that David was able to forget the past.
Dear Father, Give us grace to run freely by Thy grace. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Love, Dad