Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - How to Remember God | The Life of Joshua | Joshua 23

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to Tim Minna Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. I'm Tanya Wilmuth. And I'm Patrick Miller. Right now, we're going through the Book of Joshua. Also, if you want to connect with us, follow us on Twitter at TMBT podcast. You can also check out our hashtag, hashtag, Ask TMBT, where you can ask us anything, and we'd love to connect with you. Our memory is incredibly powerful.

Starting point is 00:00:32 Just think of Memorial Day. It's a day that we set aside each year to remember those who died in defense of our country. Or think of anniversaries. It's a day that we set aside to remember the vows that we took to our spouses. Or think about looking back through old pictures when you remember all that you've been through in your personal life, all the ways that God has been at work. Our memories connect us to the past, but they also shape our future. And so it's no real surprise that one of the most frequent commands in the Bible is for us to remember. But what if you can't remember?

Starting point is 00:01:07 Consider the case of Jimmy. He had a rare neurological disorder. It was called Korsakov syndrome. And this disorder affected his memory. Jimmy's story is told in the book called The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat. It was written by Dr. Oliver Sacks, who met Jimmy in 1975. Jimmy walked into the doctor's office and said, hi, Doc. Nice morning.

Starting point is 00:01:31 Do I take this chair here? Jimmy was cooperative. He answered all the questions that Dr. Sacks asked him. Jimmy remembered his childhood, his home, his friends, the time he served in the Navy. He was stationed on a sub and he could still remember the Morse code he used in his service. Jimmy recalled his service in the Navy all the way through the end of the war in 1945. But that's where his memories stopped, and I mean completely stopped. Jimmy couldn't remember anything between 1945 and 1975 when he met Dr. Sacks. Jimmy thought Truman was still the president.

Starting point is 00:02:04 He didn't realize anyone had been to the moon because he had no recollection of anything that happened more than a few minutes in the past. He still thought he was 19 years old, not his actual age of 49 years old. One time, Dr. Sack showed him a mirror, and Jimmy gazed at the middle-aged man with bushy gray hair that he saw in his reflection.

Starting point is 00:02:24 He was shocked. Dr. Sack says, Jimmy was suddenly turned to Ashen and gripped the sides of his chair. What's going on? What happened? to me, is this a nightmare? Am I crazy? Over the next nine years as a patient, Jimmy and Dr. Sacks were introduced to each other and then reintroduced to each other because Jimmy could never

Starting point is 00:02:44 remember having ever met Dr. Sacks before. He stayed in a convalescent home where Sacks worked, but Jimmy never learned his way around the home. He was good at games that didn't last long, games like checkers and Tick-Tac-Tow, but he got lost in chess because the moves were too slow and he would forget what he was doing. Dr. Sacks said, I had never encountered, ever even imagined such a powerful form of amnesia, the possibility of a pit which everything, every experience, every event would fathomously drop. The staff of the home spoke of Jimmy as a lost soul. Without memory, we are all lost souls.

Starting point is 00:03:27 You see, in the Bible, memory is much more than just cognitive recall, like remember dates for a history test or remembering where your car keys are. In the Bible, memory includes the mind, but it also includes your emotions and your will. In chapter 23, Joshua calls the people to remember how God had worked in their story. Joshua is getting old, he's getting advanced in age, and so he calls for the leaders to come and listen to him. We'll pick it up in Joshua 23, verse 2. Joshua called for all Israel, for all their elders, for all their heads, for their judges, their officers, and he said to them, I am old, advanced in age. You yourselves have seen everything the Lord your God has done to all these nations for your sake. It was the Lord your God

Starting point is 00:04:16 who fought for you. Remember how I have allotted as an inheritance for your tribes, all the lands of the nations that remain, the nations I conquered, between the Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea and the West. The Lord your God himself will push them out for your sake. He will drive them out before you, and you will take possession of their land as the Lord your God promised you. Remember, it's a powerful word. Remember how God has worked in your life. The Israelites needed to remember their former lives as slaves in Egypt and how God worked through mighty miracles and delivered them out of the bondage of slavery. They need to remember how God had provided manna from heaven and water out of a rock and how God's presence had gone with them as a pillar of cloud and a fire. They needed to remember how the people had

Starting point is 00:05:11 rebelled, how the people had been filled with unbelief and how God had graciously forgiven them. They needed to remember how God had parted the Red Sea and the Jordan River, how he had brought down the walls of Jericho, and all the victories that God had given them. We too must remember how God has worked in our past, how God has encouraged us, how God has forgiven us. We must remember how God has worked in the past so that we can trust him with our future because when we forget all that God has done for us in the past,

Starting point is 00:05:47 we will not trust him in our future. When I don't remember how God has provided for me, I will take things into my own hands. When I don't remember how God has met my knees, I will begin to worry. When I don't remember how God has forgiven me, I will live in fear. This is a problem because our tendency is to forget all that God has done for us. Psalm 103 begins this way. Praise the Lord, my soul.

Starting point is 00:06:19 All my inmost being, praise His holy name. praise the Lord my soul and forget not all his benefits. In other words, David is in prayer and he prays that his soul would not forget because he knows his soul is prone to forget all that God has done for him. So we must remember by telling ourselves the story about God's grace and goodness in our life. We must remember all the ways that God has provided for us, perhaps by writing down the things each day that we're thankful for or sharing them at our dinner table. We must remember by listening to the story, by going back to the Bible and reading it so that we

Starting point is 00:07:04 remember what story our life is caught up in. We must remember through communion as we remember how God has forgiven us and promised us that we will spend eternity in his presence. Remember all that God has done for you so that you will trust him with everything that comes your way tomorrow. Thanks for listening. If you've enjoyed this content, please subscribe and give us a rating. That helps others find this podcast more easily. Also ask yourself who you could share this podcast with. Texting an episode to a friend or family member is a great way to help them grow spiritually.

Starting point is 00:07:45 If you want to go deeper, check out our show notes for book recommendations.

Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - How to Remember God | The Life of Joshua | Joshua 23

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.