When God Remembers
- Pastor Jay Christianson
- Apr 18
- 8 min read
“God remembered…” (Genesis 8:1)
“I’m going to smack you!”
There is a profound difference between whether your spouse says this or some weird guy on the street does. Why? Because the idiom that’s used can either mean you’re going to get a kiss of affection from your spouse, or you should consider ducking—now!
Understanding idioms is profoundly essential in any language. It’s crucial in understanding the Bible. And after all, if you don’t understand God’s word, then how can you do God’s will? Oh, don’t worry. There’s plenty in the Bible that’s clear enough to work on. However, we do miss and misunderstand subtle points that bring the text alive.
Here are a few Hebraic/Jewish idioms and their meaning.
“Even my friend in whom I trusted, one who ate my bread, has raised his heel against me” (Psalm 41:9). At first, this idiom seems weird. “What? Did someone show me their callused heel? Was he reclining at dinner and putting his feet up? I don’t get it.” Think about it visually. When someone addresses you, they face you. That means the person’s toes point toward you, with their heel pointing in the other direction. In order to see the person’s heel, they must first turn away from you. If they start walking away, you not only see their heel but it’s raised with every step they take. There you have it. To raise your heel against someone means that you’ve turned against them. It’s a visual description of an inward attitude.
Now, Jesus’ comment at the Last Passover in John 13:18 becomes clearer and more vivid. “I’m not speaking about all of you; I know those I have chosen. But the Scripture (Psalm 41:9) must be fulfilled: The one who eats my bread has raised his heel against me.” Jesus knew during the Passover meal that Judas’ attitude had utterly turned against him, and Judas was about to betray Jesus to the Temple authorities. Jesus subtly called out Judas without fully exposing His betrayer’s plan. Had Jesus done so, He might have caused Judas to balk. The Father required Judas’ treachery to set events in motion that would complete His plan of salvation. Powerful, huh?
Here’s another Hebraic/Jewish idiom that shocks a lot of people. “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26). Does Jesus really mean that? In order to be a proper disciple, we’re supposed to hate our parents? Doesn’t that contradict the Fourth Commandment, “Honor your father and your mother” (Exodus 20:12)? Surely the Author of the Ten Commands wouldn’t break His own command? Of course not!
This idiom has nothing to do with hate. It has to do with priority and preference. The idiom is an exaggeration to show emphasis. What Jesus is saying is, “Nothing, not even your closest family ties, should take priority over your commitment to Me. As My disciple, you should prefer Me above everything else in your life, even your self-preservation.”
The tricky part with this idiom is that it intensifies Jesus’ call and command over us as His disciples. Do you see any wiggle room here? I don’t either. But now you know what Jesus expects from you, and I bet you’re thinking that you were better off not knowing what “hating” meant.
Now, I want to reveal the meaning behind a very subtle Hebrew idiom, God remembered.
God remembered doesn’t mean that He forgot something and it suddenly popped into His omniscient divine awareness that knows all things inside and outside of time. That would be ridiculous and would contradict His divine nature.
This Hebraism means that the time for God to act has come, especially when it applies to a promise He has given.
For example, we find it used in the following scriptures:
“God remembered Noah, as well as all the wildlife and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. God caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the water began to subside” (Genesis 8:1). It’s not as though the Lord misplaced Noah and his family, all cooped up in a floating zoo bobbing somewhere in the midst of a global flood. You know, like, “Aw shoot! They were right here off the coast of Turkey a minute ago.” What it means is that once His work of washing the earth of corrupt humanity was complete, it was now time for God to act and begin the draining and drying process so that humanity may start afresh.
Here's another scriptural example. Later on in Genesis, we see Jacob’s first wife, Rachel, yearning to conceive a child for her husband. Jacob’s 2nd wife and Rachel’s sister, Leah, had no problem popping out kids. Out of desperation, Rachel called upon an ancient practice of offering her maidservant, Bilhah, to Jacob as a surrogate wife. She had babies. Leah did the same thing with her maidservant, Zilpah, to stay in Jacob’s favor as the, umm, productive side of the family. Zilpah also produced babies. Rachel remained childless and destitute.
But finally, God remembered. “Then God remembered Rachel. He listened to her and opened her womb” (Genesis 30:22). For whatever reason, God held back Rachel from bearing children until the time was right for Him to act.
We see the idiom again in Genesis 19:29. “So it was, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, he remembered Abraham and brought Lot out of the middle of the upheaval when he demolished the cities where Lot had lived.”
Notice the connection—God remembered Abraham and brought Lot out. When the moment arrived to judge Sodom and Gomorrah, God acted to save Lot because of His bargain with Abraham (Genesis 18:22-33).
God remembered because it was time for Him to act.
Speaking of God acting because of His covenant with Abraham, there’s Israel’s slavery to Egypt. “God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob…” (Exodus 2:24). Centuries before, the Lord told Abraham that his descendants would spend a long time in Egypt as temporary residents, during which they would become heavily oppressed. But God promised Abraham that at the right time, He would act. The Lord would deliver Abe’s multitudinous family from their oppression and bring them into the Land that He had promised Abraham in Genesis 15:13-16.
A precious example of this God remembered idiom is in the story of the prophet Samuel’s conception and birth in 1 Samuel 1. A woman named Hannah was unable to conceive. It wasn’t her husband, Elkanah’s, fault because he had already produced children with his second wife, Peninnah, similar to the Rachel and Leah situation. Hannah was a first wife like Rachel was, and a wife was expected to bear children for their husband, especially boys, so those young men would carry on the family line and preserve the land inheritance. It seems likely that since Hannah did not bear children, Elkanah exercised his right to an additional wife to ensure the family line’s continuity. Paninnah bore the children. Hannah bore her shame.
But God is gracious. In the midst of deep grief, Hannah prayed to the Lord at the door of the Tabernacle, which was in Shiloh at the time. The High Priest, Eli, blessed her, “Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant the request you’ve made of him” (1 Samuel 1:17).
“The next morning Elkanah and Hannah got up early to worship before the Lord. Afterward, they returned home to Ramah. Then Elkanah was intimate with his wife Hannah, and the Lord remembered her” (1 Samuel 1:19). At the right time, God gave her one of Israel’s most notable prophets, Samuel.
God remembered. God acted.
“Sure, Dr. Jay, that was the Old Testament. Of course, that Hebraic idiom would be used. What about the New Testament scriptures? Those were written in Greek.” Yes, they were, although there is some debate about whether the originals were in Hebrew or Aramaic as well as Greek. Regardless of the language used, the Hebraic idiom is still embedded in the text—Luke 1:72, to be precise.
At John the Baptist’s birth, his father, Zechariah, was loosed from being mute, brought on because he had doubted God’s promise to him about producing the forerunner of Israel’s promised Messiah (Luke 1:13-20). John’s birth signaled the moment God acted on His promise to Abraham and his descendants that He would bring forth a Messiah. John’s birth also fulfilled His promise that Zechariah would be the forerunner’s father. A double God remembered!
Zechariah proclaimed, “He has dealt mercifully with our ancestors and remembered his holy covenant—the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant that we, having been rescued from the hand of our enemies, would serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness in his presence all our days (Luke 1:72-75). Yup. The time had come for the Messiah and His forerunner, and God remembered. He acted and brought forth both baby boys, Jesus the Messiah and John the Immerser.
Finally, not all of God’s “remembrances” are for good. Sometimes, God remembers to dish out some payback when the time is right.
Since the Fall, humanity has suffered with sin and evil for millennia. In biblical history, the city of Babylon became a symbol of the ugly, corrupt, and wicked world system that God will eventually destroy and replace with His righteous global kingdom. When will that happen? I’ll give you one guess.
When God remembers.
And when He remembers, He acts with swift finality. “The great city split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. Babylon the Great was remembered in God’s presence; he gave her the cup filled with the wine of his fierce anger” (Revelation 16:19), “For her sins are piled up to heaven, and God has remembered her crimes” (Revelation 18:5).
God has a long memory. He will not forget His promises to us. We may feel forgotten in the sense that God is not acting on our behalf, but He’s always there, even if He’s quietly working in the background of our lives. Like most of the people in the Bible, we live out our days working to remain faithful to the Lord, awaiting the moments when God “remembers” us. Those are thrilling moments when we see the Lord act on our behalf in amazing, promise-fulfilling ways.
When the day comes when we leave this biodegradable container and go to meet the Lord, He will remember for the time will have arrived for Him to act. But will He act by receiving us into His heavenly courts warmly or send us to hell to await the final judgment of eternal separation?
When that day comes, or Jesus returns, may God remember all of us for good.
Shining the Light of God’s Truth on the Road Ahead
Pastor Jay Christianson
The Truth Barista, Frothy Thoughts