God’s Forget-Me-Nots to Israel

It is an old saying that the beautiful forget-me-not flower is the emblem of devotion and friendship. It speaks eloquently of God’s creative power and wisdom, and is a potent reminder of His Love. Charles Kingsley, who was a great lover of nature, and especially of flowers, gazing at a display of beauties placed before him, was heard in his last moments to exclaim – “How beautiful God is!”

If the testimony of flowers, robed in their exotic magnificence, bear witness to God’s handiwork and thoughtful care, how much more precious should His written Word be to us, for the Bible is not only “the sure Word of prophecy, a lamp which shineth in a dark place,” but God’s forget-me-nots to His people Israel. “0 Israel thou shalt not be forgotten by Me” (Isa. 44:21).

When Moses was commanded by God to lead Israel out of Egypt’s cruel bondage, he was directed to say unto Pharaoh “Thus saith the Lord, Israel is My son, even My first-born, and I say unto thee, let My son go that he may serve Me” (Exodus 4:23).

Seven hundred and fifty years later the prophet Hosea confirmed this event in these words – “When Israel was a child then I loved him and called him out of Egypt … For the Lord’s portion is His people, Jacob is the lot of His inheritance” (Deut. 32:6-9).

From the multiplicity of references to the testimony of Moses, Jeremiah and others, it will be readily seen that Israel ONLY was known to, and by, God, of all the families of the earth (Amos 3:2). In these circumstances I ask, is it possible or reasonable to presume or believe that Almighty God would forget His noblest creation, the “peculiar” (“God’s elect”, Concise Oxford Dictionary) people whom He avouched should be high above all nations of the earth and whom He hath made, in praise, in name and in honour, “a holy people unto the Lord their God” (Deut. 26:18, 19).

Does a father forget his boy? Does a mother forget her suckling child? “Yea… yet will I not forget thee.” (Israel). “Thou art My servant in whom I will be glorified” is the emphatic declaration of the Almighty. “I will preserve thee and give thee for a covenant of the people to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages…. ” (Isa. 49:8, 9). What a forget-me-not that is, and what other inestimable honours He has bestowed upon us!

Two truths which Satan would like to wipe out are (1) that God is love, (2) the Bible that demonstrates the fact.

The history of the children of Israel from their earliest days and right along the stream of time down to the present moment, proves definitely and indisputably that God has most faithfully kept His promise “I have loved thee (Israel) with an everlasting love.” As for us, the party of the other part, our sin is one and the same, – FORGETFULNESS OF GOD, so conspicuously flagrant in these days of gross apostasy. Our fathers were a stiff-necked, rebellious and idolatrous people. They quickly forgot the wondrous protection and miraculous deliverances from Egyptian bondage. He was to them a sanctuary. He gathered together the outcasts of His people and brought the lost and dispersed sheep of the House of Israel, Ephraim and his fellows, by different routes and at various times, to their specially appointed place. Then in their island home under a new name, i.e. British, meaning Covenant People – they would never be forgotten or afflicted by their enemies as aforetime, but would be subject to a suspended sentence of salutary punishment for their/our correction; that Britain would be their headquarters from whence they would radiate to the remotest corners of the earth and be a blessing to all the families of the earth.

Thus, taking a retrospective view from the present day, after being housed, protected, sustained and provided for, we see how God has been ever mindful of His covenant and true to His promises, “0 Israel, thou shalt not be forgotten by Me.”

But what of Israel in these last days? Is the lament of Israel’s prophet Isaiah, uttered in B.C. 760, still in force and applicable? Is there any uncertainty in the inspired and pathetic prediction “the ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib, but Israel doth not know, My people doth not consider. Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters – they have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward” (Isa. 1:3, 4)Witness the corruption in political, social and commercial circles; scandalous immorality in the highest departments of government, the outright rejection and blasphemy of God’s Holy Word by atheists and modernist pulpiteers. Should we not constantly remind ourselves that the nation that forgets God shall perish? Shall Britain perish? Shall her sun which so long has shone peerless in the political heavens, be quenched? Shall the beneficent work of the former British Commonwealth of Nations, and the United States of America, presently the acknowledged leader of the so-called free world – their memorials of world service – be obliterated? God forbid. Is the present material and spiritual chaos the handwriting on the wall against us? As God is no respecter of persons it must be so.

From the depths of our innermost heart we intone the words of the Litany – “From all sedition, privy conspiracy and rebellion; from all false doctrine, heresy and schism: from hardness of heart and contempt of Thy Word and Commandment, Good Lord, deliver us.”

If we will have deliverance then we must DO something about it – and quickly – for the days are perilous and evil, and time is running out. The Divine directive rings clarion clear. “If my people, which are called by My Name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, THEN will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land” (II Chron. 7:14).