Spiritual Amnesia

Therefore, say to the Israelites: ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians.

Exodus 6:6-7

In these verses God tells Moses that His purpose for the plagues is so that Israel may know that He is the LORD. After more than 400 years in slavery Israel has spiritual amnesia. They have forgotten who God is. Either they have stopped telling the stories of His mighty deeds that He performed on behalf of their ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob or else they have become only stories to them and they have forgotten that a real God of power stands behind them. So, through the ten plagues God is going to remind His people who He is.

The ten plagues, the exodus, all of it is designed to be a special revelation of who God is for His people. His actions in the Exodus will prove that He is the LORD. In the plagues He reveals His love, His power, His wisdom, His provision, His faithfulness and so much more to this people who have forgotten who He is. 

I’m convinced that just like Israel we are all prone to spiritual amnesia. We are prone to forget who God really is! Over time our human brains grow weary of straining to comprehend a God who is beyond comprehension. So they shrink Him down to a more manageable size and we forget who God really is. We forget the mighty deeds He has performed in the past. We forget what He has revealed to us about Himself. And as we forget these things we slowly drift away from Him. This is the human condition, the spiritual amnesia, that plagues us all as humans. 

But just like He did for Israel, God battles our spiritual amnesia by revealing Himself to us. I am convinced that God reveals Himself to you every day. He reveals His power and beauty and creativity every day, morning and evening in the sunrise and the sunset. His wisdom and order are displayed in the intricacies of the natural world. His power is revealed by wind and storm and sea. His goodness is made known by all the pleasures He makes available to us in our world. He reveals all this and more about Himself every day so that you might know that He is the LORD. 

Yet, sadly, for the most part, you are blind and deaf to all of this revelation of who God is. You rush from one place to the next consumed by the things of this world and you miss this amazing revelation of who God is. Open your eyes! Pay attention to what God is doing in our day and know who He is. Open your Bible and read what He has done in days gone by and know who He is. Open your ears and hear the birds singing, the crickets chirping, the cattle lowing, and the dogs barking as they all sing His praise. He has done all this so you might know Him. Open your eyes and remember who your God is!