“Keep your fork. The best is yet to come!”
March 28, 2021
For some reason, which escapes me at the moment, I was reading about the USA Memory Championship, an annual competition designed to test the limits of the human brain. Competitors, known as Mental Athletes, attempt to memorize as much information as possible from cards, random numbers, names and faces and then to recall it with as much accuracy as possible. The winner is the one who accumulates the most points for their keen memory.
Reading about this competition, reminded me of Numbers 11 in which the Israelites exercised some interesting memories. Chapter 11 begins with the complaining heart of Israel as they are on their march to Canaan, the Promised Land. God had done so much for Israel in organizing, blessing, and delivering them from Egypt, and yet the nation still complained.
“And the people complained in the hearing of the Lord about their misfortunes…” Numbers 11: 1
Israel, while complaining about the manna God provided for them, cried out:
“Oh that we had meat to eat! 5 We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. – Numbers 11: 4b – 5
Israel’s description of life in Egypt is an example of “creative memory”. Their recall of that time left out the fact that they were slaves in Egypt, and their creative memory makes one think their plates were always crammed with wonderful foods. The Israelites chose to remember certain things about Egypt and to exaggerate them, while at the same time choosing to forget other things.
Memory often romanticizes the past and may cause us to long for the time when everything seemed much better than the present. Israel fell in love with their faulty memory of the past. Egypt was not as great as they were remembering. They needed to look forward to the Promised Land which was truly a land of milk and honey, and full of all the great food the Israelites could ever want! Israel clung to past memories instead of looking forward to what God had for them in the future.
Not only did their complaining heart romanticize the past, but it exaggerated their present condition:
6 But now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at.” Numbers 11: 6
If my memory serves me correctly, I often do the same thing as Israel did—when my circumstances are not easy, rather than recall the many reasons to be grateful to God, I complain instead. Often, this complaining spirit comes from a faulty, creative, or romanticized memory which makes the past seem “not quite so bad” and the present seem “not quite so good”.
We need to remember God provided for the Israelites’ every need throughout their journey to the Promised Land. Manna was an excellent and nutritious provision to sustain them on their long journey through the wilderness. Israel would have done better to hold onto their forks from Egypt, rather than their disillusioned memories of life back in Egypt. The best was not in the rearview mirror; the best was yet to come!
GOD’S BEST FOR US IS ALWAYS AHEAD AND NEVER BEHIND!
But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,
nor the heart of man imagined
what God has prepared for those who love him”— I Corinthians 2: 9