Exodus 20:24 English Standard Version (ESV) An altar of earth you shall make for me and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen. In every place where I cause my name to be remembered I will come to you and bless you.

We spend time reading and memorizing scripture. Some of us take pride in that skill. Some use that skill to serve God as pastors and teachers of His Word. We might even take credit for all the effort we put into it.

Here in Exodus 20 we find that it is God Himself that causes His name to be remembered. With that comes His presence and His blessing.

2 Peter 3:1-2 English Standard Version

1 This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, 2 that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles,

The epistles of the apostles remind us to remember. The Word of God is our only source of truth and our failed memories need to be constantly reminded. More than that, we need to see that God causes us to remember because He speaks to us through the scriptures.

Hebrews 1:1-3 English Standard Version

1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. 3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

He upholds the universe by the word. His Word has the power to speak to us, if we will listen.

This is God causing us to remember because rather than relying on our memory, we can rely on His Word to speak to us.

While the Old Testament prophets had God speaking directly to them, and passing His message on to us. Those of us that have accepted Jesus Christ by faith have been given the Holy Spirit to speak to us, if we will listen and stop relying solely on our memory.

Hearing comes by faith.

Isaiah 28:9-10 English Standard Version

9 “To whom will he teach knowledge, and to whom will he explain the message? Those who are weaned from the milk, those taken from the breast?

10 For it is precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little.”

These are some strong words. They have been used over and over again in teachings to inspire us to read the scriptures. In almost every case that I can remember with my faulty human memory of those passages, they have been used out of context.

Verse 13 And the word of the Lord will be to them precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line,  here a little, there a little, that they may go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.

What is the context then?

The last words of verse 12 explain why, “they would not hear.” In all their studies and all their memorizing of every line and every precept, they failed to listen.

The Word was spoken, they just didn’t listen.

I see this now as I study God’s Word in more detail which begs me to ask myself, did my memories of past teachings miss the pastor’s point in his reaching? The fact that I remember only some points of past teachings means I was only impressed on certain points.

Memories can be selective because of relative importance. Maybe there was something I missed because it did not seem important at the time.

This is one more aspect of memories, they nag at you when they are not clear.

In the words of my loving sister, “It didn’t happen that way.”