Still perusing the Hebrew narrative I find myself struck by an odd notion, repeated in the New Testament, of God declaring that He will forget the sins of Israel. This raises the fascinating theological and philosophical question as to whether or not God can actually forget. The scriptures seem quite adamant on this. In the words of Miroslav Volf, The “miracle of miracles, God doesn’t even remember our sins (Isa 43:25; Jer 31:34; Heb 8:12; 10:17 see also the psalms where God is asked to forget, which presupposes that God can forget: Psalm 79:8 & 25:7). They are just gone, gone from reality and gone from memory.” [Volf, Free of Charge, pg. 142-143]
Since Open Theism has taken us further in discussing and illuminating God’s relationship to humanity, I’m asking the question as to God and Memory. Does God’s mind erase information? (I realise that there are immediately problems with referring to God’s mind, but I can’t find another way to speak about this) Or is something else meant by the verses quoted above? What does this suggest about God’s omniscience? Does God have perfect past knowledge? Volf has explored some of this in his recent offering: The End of Memory. But to my knowledge, and please feel free to fill in the gaps, this has not been extensively discussed. The commentaries on the various passages noted above, either completely ignore this issue, fail to grasp the issue, or merely restate the issue. What I'm looking for is some clear and critical thinking on this topic - other than my own of course... A tentative thought, is to suggest that God not remembering Israel's sin means that the issue that was affecting the relationship between YHWH and Israel has been decisively dealt with, so that when YHWH looks at Israel that is not the first thought that comes to mind - but rather, Israel is viewed through the lens of sins having been dealt with. The problem with this thought, is that it flatly ignores the literal statements of Scripture and offers rather an explanation, that appears to be based on an anthropomorphic understanding of these passages. Which seems unlikely in my own hermeneutical understanding. So my final remark is to simply accept that God forgets sins. But this seems to counter-intuitive. Like my mind is being held captive to philosophy... Does God really forget my sins? Should we rejoice with Volf at this "miracle of miracles"? Indeed, if true, if would constitute a miracle of miracles...
Comments, questions, criticisms? All welcome...
2 comments:
Whether or not these statements in scripture are literal or metaphorical needs to be determined case by case and not by some philosophical or theological or hermeneutical framework.
Either way, the statements are saying that Israel's sin is no longer or will no longer be a problem. One should note the synonymous parallelism's in the passages where "forgive" (Jer 31.34) and "blot out" (Isa 43.25) are placed along side forget/will not remember. Whether or not God actually forgets (and cannot recall?) is irrelevant, although perhaps somewhat interesting...
Personally, I wrestle a lot more with passages that suggest that God might "forget" his covenant commitments. Ex 2.24 suggests that God needed to "remember" his covenant, and the prophets, perhaps inspired by this story, continually ask God to remember his people and his promises. If God forgets our sins, does God also forget his commitments? If we accept the "forgetting" of one, are we bound to accept the "forgetting" of the other?
Journeying as I do with "people on the margins," I am vividly confronted with people and places that, by all appearances, are godforsaken. Are the god-forsaken also the god-forgotten?
Indeed, Jacques Ellul would suggest that we are precisely the forsaken and forgotten (cf. Hope in Time of Abandonment). Thus, he argues that it is the task of the Church, as a prophetic body, to remind God of who God is and what God has promised, until the time when we are remembered and no longer forsaken.
Thoughts?
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