After Joseph, who was Pharaoh’s favorite, established the people of Israel in some choice lands in Egypt at the end of Genesis, we see a new Pharaoh reigning over the land at the beginning of Exodus. He didn’t know Joseph and was becoming more and more fearful of the Israelites who occupied some of their best land. This new Pharaoh decided to make slaves out of the Jews. His hatred for them and abuse of them went from bad to worse. Pharaoh made them do slave labor. Then, he made the labor severe. He stopped providing what they needed to do their work and demanded the same return from them. He believed that putting such a heavy work burden on them would decrease their birth rate. He was wrong. Then, he tried to cut their population by infanticide. Then, he tried to destroy the nation with genocide. At the end of chapter 2, they finally cry out to God for help. The text says that God heard them and cared about them. He loved them and would intercede for them. Exodus 2:23-24 says, “Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.”
When the Bible says, “God remembered,” it’s not the same thing as you and I remember. We forget something, and it’s out of our minds until something sparks the memory. That’s not what it means here. It is always associated with His promises to His people. That’s why the covenant with Abraham is mentioned in conjunction with God’s remembering. It is focused on God’s faithfulness to keep all His promises. According to His promises, He is now going to act. For God to “remember” is for God to Act. The interesting thing is that long before Israel ever cried out to God, He was already working on His plan of deliverance. He was preparing Moses, their deliverer. He had never forgotten as we might forget. His promises are always at work in God’s mind, and His actions are always in accord with those promises.
Silva suggests that when God remembers, it means he acts to save. He writes, “God’s remembering carries with it definite actions or consequences. The statement that God remembered Noah’ (Gen. 8:1) does not mean that the Lord had forgotten Noah or that he was merely bringing Noah to mind. It means that God would take action to rescue him from the terrible flood. A similar situation is described when God ‘remembered’ Hannah, changing her reality of barrenness and giving her a son (1 Sam. 1:19–20). One can argue that the remembering of God is often synonymous with his salvific activity.”[1] When God remembers sin, it means he acts to bring judgment on that sin. When God remembers His promise to His people, it means he acts to save them. It’s always tied in with God’s promises. God remembered His promises to Abraham and acted to save the Israelites from Egyptian bondage.
God made a new covenant with His people, and it’s recorded in several of the Old Testament prophets. The author of the New Testament book of Hebrews repeated it for us in Hebrews 8:12. He tells us that God said, “For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.” Wright wraps up this thought for you and me. He says, “The sin and guilt of the past will be forgiven and remembered no more. When God remembers, it means he will act. If he chooses not to remember, then no further action will be taken. Case dismissed.”[2]
[1] Silva, Moisés, and Merrill Chapin Tenney. 2009. In The Zondervan Encyclopedia of the Bible, Q-Z, Revised, Full-Color Edition, 5:77. Grand Rapids, MI: The Zondervan Corporation.
[2] Wright, Christopher J. H. 2014. The Message of Jeremiah: Grace in the End. Edited by Alec Motyer and Derek Tidball. The Bible Speaks Today. Nottingham, England: Inter-Varsity Press.