Written by Sarah Stoffel
Has anyone ever said these words to you?
– You’ve forgotten me.
– I feel like you don’t see me.
– You don’t care about me.
– You don’t love me.
Maybe you relate because you’ve been the one exhaling these words. These are all statements made when someone feels exhausted, heartbroken, betrayed, unappreciated, and unseen.
In the book of Ezekiel God goes on and on about Israel’s unfaithfulness, their idolatry, and their refusal to repent and turn back to Him. And finally, in Ezekiel 22:12b, God says, “[you have] forgotten me…”
Just as a spouse betrayed by unfaithfulness might say, God further says to Israel in Ezekiel 23:35, “…Because thou hast forgotten me, and cast me behind thy back, therefore bear thou also thy lewdness and thy whoredoms.”
God gave the people over to the natural consequences of their unfaithfulness and promiscuity. This wasn’t an act made lightly. God had sent warning after warning to the people, His Spirit had already left the temple, and this was the final straw.
Though He longed for a relationship with Israel, they chose not to reciprocate and had to face the realities of life without God’s divine protection. Not because God wanted them to be left vulnerable, but because of stubbornness and pride they refused Him.
This is absolutely devastating.
We like to think that if we heard the words, “you’ve forgotten me” from someone we cared about, we would immediately do a 180 turn, changing the way we treat that person to repair the relationship. But just like the Israelites we too are stubborn, prideful humans who idolize ourselves. The truth is that if we’re already at the point where a person is crying out “you’ve forgotten me!” it might already be irreparably true just like it was in Ezekiel.
I don’t want to close my eyes and even imagine anyone I love saying those words to me- least of all God!
Oh, Reader… He is too good, too loving, too kind, and too gracious to be forgotten. He is FOR you, not willing that any of us should perish. I have personally been pursued by the living God and attest to you it’s true. He, willing to give us His everything, is worthy of our everything.
“You’ve forgotten me.” May it never be so Lord!
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