You Lose Your Way When You Forget Your God

Have you ever found yourself in a parking lot somewhere wandering aimlessly, looking for your car? Maybe you went in one entrance of Walmart, came out the other entrance, and you totally forgot where you left your car. This is a fairly frequent experience for me. Nobody enjoys wandering the parking lot. In Numbers we read about a group of people who would wander in the wilderness for forty years. Whether you are wandering through a parking lot or wandering through a wilderness, nobody wants to waste their years wandering when they could be following the One who knows the end from the beginning, the Lord Himself.

Haven’t you been in a place where you think, “Why am I in this room? I know I came to find something, but I can’t remember what it was”? No one likes that feeling. In Numbers 15 God is trying to prevent that aimlessness by reminding the children of Israel of what matters and more importantly, who matters.

The context for the encouragement given here is the fact that God brought them out of Egypt and would bring them into a land He had promised. In verse 2 it says, “When ye be come into the land of your habitations, which I give unto you.” Then He goes on to talk about what needed to be the case when they entered that land. Notice there is a kind of quiet assurance. It says “when” not “if” you come into the land. Notice that God says it is the land that He gives them. They didn’t take it; God gave it. In verse 18 God tells Moses, “Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land whither I bring you.” He goes on to give them more instructions.

So, I gave you; I brought you; and verse 41 says, “I am the LORD your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: I am the LORD your God.” God did not bring these people out of Egypt arbitrarily, by happenstance, or for no good reason. God made them a special people. They were His people. He gave them the land and brought them to the land. God said, “I give; I brought; I am.” You are reminded that you lose your way when you forget your God. That is exactly what God gave them, the importance of remembering who He is.

In verse 39 God says, “And it shall be unto you for a fringe.” They were to make fringes on the borders of some of their garments. It was a reminder, a physical sight that reminded them of what mattered. It continued, “That ye may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the LORD, and do them; and that ye seek not after your own heart and your own eyes, after which ye use to go a whoring.” They were being unfaithful to God when they went after what they wanted and not after the God who had brought them out of Egypt. Verse 40 says, “That ye may remember, and do all my commandments, and be holy unto your God.” So, you lose your way when you forget your God. There are three things to do: remember, do, and be.

First, remember. They were to have physical things in their lives, in this case a fringe, to remind them of God. Maybe you have a reminder. Maybe on your refrigerator you have a New Year’s resolution to do better about what you put in your mouth that says, “Don’t eat the cake.”  Maybe you have a Bible verse stenciled over the window by your kitchen sink. These are things to remind you. That is what God is saying, that there ought to be things in our lives that remind us of who God is. Later Jewish people would have phylacteries with portions of Scripture in them that they would wrap around themselves in some way. They were to help remind them of who God is. “I am the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt.” So, remember. The fringe had a purpose.

Second, do. Your actions become your identity after some time. Verse 39 says, “Remember all the commandments of the LORD, and do them; and that ye seek not after your own heart and your own eyes.” In their case, the laws God had given were distinct and showed they belonged to God Jehovah. What you remember should lead to what you do, and what you do becomes your very identity. Maybe you think to yourself, “I am the kind of person who runs five miles in the morning” or “I am the kind of person who eats healthy” or “I am the kind of person who smiles at others.” These are actions you take and after a while they become your identity. In Israel’s case, they were to remember who God was, which was to affect how they lived and who they were. Remember and do.

Third, be. Be holy unto your God. “Be” is short for belong. They belonged to God, so they were to be in accordance with what they were. God basically had said, “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to a land that I am giving you and I promised to you. I am the LORD your God.” So, be who you are.

When I was a kid, if my parents went out to eat and left us with a babysitter, my dad would say to us kids, “Remember whose kids you are.” What did he mean? He meant, “You belong to this family. We belong together. Live in light of who you are.” He wasn’t afraid I was going to have amnesia. He was saying I needed to live a life that reflected who I am. Today, nobody wants to wander the world, the years, or the parking lot. We all need guidance that God will give. Remember, do, and be. You lose your way when you forget your God. God will give you all the guidance you need if you will accept it.