The Original Sin Was Forgetting?
I remember when I was growing up my mom would always get mad at me when I said I forgot to do my chores. She would say that I had “selective memory.” However, now that I’m older, we’ve realized I really do have a horrible memory. I don’t have a lot of memories of my childhood, and it’s ridiculous how quickly I forget to do something when I don’t write it down. It’s a wonder that I’ve made it this far in life! ;)
Maybe it’s my own mini trauma response of my mom getting mad at me for forgetting, but when I studied the Old Testament over the past few months, the phrases of “remember” and “do not forget” seemed to jump off the page at me. They were repeated all throughout the Pentateuch, which is where I first started noticing. Upon further research, I found these phrases are repeated 337 times in the Old Testament. (For any other Bible nerds like me: “forget” in Hebrew is the word sakah and is repeated 102 times in 95 verses. “Remember” in Hebrew is the word zakar and is repeated 235 times in 223 verses.)
Over and over in the Books of the Law, Moses reminded the people, “Take care, lest you forget.” Any time in Scripture a word or phrase is repeated, it is the author trying to emphasize something to the reader. As a counseling major, I immediately thought of what this means in regards to what scientists now call neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity is the way the brain changes as a result of mental activity. For those of us who follow Jesus, we call it the renewing of the mind (Romans 12:2).
In the fantastic book, Switch on Your Brain by Dr. Caroline Leaf (a communication pathologist and audiologist who has worked in the area of cognitive neuroscience for over 36 years – AKA this girl really knows what she’s talking about), Leaf explained how our brains are directly influenced by the brains of our parents. Our genetics matter to the composition of our brains. The sins of our parents matter to the way we interpret and perceive the world we live in. However, through recent study on epigenetics that Leaf mentions, we know that “epigenetic changes represent a biological response to an environmental signal. That response can be inherited through the generations via the epigenetic marks. But if you remove the signal, the epigenetic marks will fade” (p. 59).
In other words, our actual brain composition is affected by the brains of our parents and their parents, etc. In Deuteronomy in particular, God is teaching the people that the way they live their lives today will impact their children and their children’s children for years to come. Remembering is important. We must not forget. But, that starts with us.
God says to the Israelites, “You shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand [what you do], and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes [what you think]. You shall write on the doorposts of your house [in private] and on your gates [in public]… Take care, lest you forget the LORD” (Deut. 6:7-9, 12).
What is the best way to remember something? Teach it to someone. Talk about it — everywhere you go, in everything you do. Think about it. In the privacy of your mind, your home, your family, and in the public places of your churches, your community, your neighborhood, your world.
So clearly, remembering and not forgetting is important to the people in the Old Testament and to us today. But, why? There are two main reasons that stuck out to me in my study:
The antidote to pride is remembrance.
We know from the Old Testament that God will punish and correct those who elevate themselves. God says over and over that he values the humble and disdains the proud. In the words of the authors of The Handbook on the Pentateuch, “The way to avoid such a humiliation is to remember the Lord who brought her out of bondage (Deut 8:14), who led her through the wilderness (8:15), who fed her in the wilderness (8:16), who has given her power (8:18)” (p. 410). They go on to say, “For once a person has succeeded it becomes fatally easy to forget help received along the way. So few know how to handle affluence” (Handbook, p. 410). When we remember correctly all the ways that God provided and lead and protected us, being arrogant about how we arrived is not likely. When the Israelites remembered their history correctly, they knew they only survived because of the kindness of God. When they forgot, they began to think they didn’t need God and turned to other countries, gods and resources instead. And, as we see in the book of Judges, for each generation that forgot what God commanded, the darker and more sinful they became.
When we remember correctly, we cannot help but to see ourselves correctly.
The antidote to stress and discouragement is remembrance.
When I am discouraged, the last thing I am often thinking of is the ways when I succeeded, or felt loved, or saw God show up for me. Usually my brain is caught up in all the negatives. Once again, in the book Switch on Your Brain, Leaf explained that the part of the brain called the hippocampus is the location of our stress responses, our spatial memory and short-term and long-term memories. It is here that we can switch on good stress markers or bad ones. The same location where we remember or forget is where we can feel good or bad. When you remember the encouragement that your friend gave, or the time when you got the best hug from your mom, or the time when you felt so rested at your favorite spot in the world, or when God answered your prayer, or when God provided for you, etc…
When we remember correctly, we cannot help but to be encouraged that we are not alone, we are not forgotten, we are not abandoned, and this is not the end of the story.
Honestly, I could continue on for days about all the ways that I see remembrance healing and helping in our daily lives. But, this quote from Leaf sums it up well: “God is a God of order and balance, and He has fashioned our spirit, soul, and body this way. So it is quite simple; when we don’t follow His ordinances, there will be consequences. The brain moves into an unbalanced state, producing neurochemical and electromagnetic chaos” (p. 86). In other words, there is intention to the way we were created, and when God says something, it is for our good.
God warned the Israelites to remember and not forget, for themselves and for their children and the following generations. Because of neuroplasticity, we know that our brains can change — no matter how fixed they may seem. But, we must be diligent and intentional to remember and not forget, to zakar and not sakah.
Let’s do it together! The Stand Unshaken Collective is a great place to be surrounded with other women like you who are seeking to live lives that honor the Lord. We’d love to have you there!
Xoxo, Alicia
