What does it mean when the Bible says God remembered something?

How often we carry our sorrows instead of pouring them out before the One who came into this world of weeping, to bear our griefs and carry our sorrows. Have we a secret sorrow; have we an adversary that sore provokes (verse 6); anything or anyone that causes our spirits to fret (verse 6); anything that grieves our hearts (verse 8); anything that fills the soul with bitterness, and the eyes with tears (verse 10)? Then let us pour out our souls before the Lord and He will pour in His peace. And a glad heart will make a glad face, as we read, "Her countenance was no more sad." The heart at peace, and filled with the gladness of the Lord, is the heart that worships; thus with Hannah, we read, she "worshipped before the Lord" (verse 19).

Then having learned that the Lord is able to sustain in the circumstances, and make her a worshipper in spite of them, the mercy of the Lord alters the circumstances by granting her request. She had prayed, "O Lord of hosts … remember me" (11); now we read, "the Lord remembered her" (19). She obtains a son — the man-child she had asked for. The child that she receives from the Lord she gives back to the Lord. "For this child I prayed; and the Lord has given me my petition which I asked of Him; therefore also I have lent him to the Lord; as long as he lives he shall be lent to the Lord."

Now we are called to witness in Exodus 3, the call of the deliverer, precious and convincing proof the unforgetting heart of God in His remembrance of His earthly people.

At the close of the second chapter these poignant words are recorded — "And the children of Israel sighed because of the bondage, and cried; and their cry came up to God because of the bondage; and God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob; and God looked upon the children of Israel and took knowledge (of their state)" (Ex. 2:23-25). As already remarked, these verses furnish us with an appropriate introduction to chapter 3, since in the 7th verse of this chapter we have the wonderful declaration on the part of God, in which we would reverently remark, He lays bare the deep feelings of His heart toward His earthly people in their state of cruel bondage, and so He exclaims, "I have seen assuredly the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and their cry have I heard on account of their task-masters; for I know their sorrows, and I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land, unto a good and spacious land, unto a land flowing with milk and honey." God in His deep compassion heard their cry: it does not appear to have been directly or expressly addressed to God: rather it was the cry of hopelessness and despair; no ray of hope to assuage the sense of utter wretchedness, no expectation of some measure of alleviation or eventual deliverance from their state of abject misery and crushing bondage, no looking out to God or counting on His mercy. But God is faithful! How blessed for us that He is so. God heard their cry, He saw their state and He had come down to deliver them, and so again He says in Exodus 3:9, "And now behold the cry of the children of Israel is come unto Me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them; and now come and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt."

"And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows. And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good land and a large, to a land flowing with milk and honey. … Now, therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel is come up to me; and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them." (Ver. 7-9) Here the absolute, free, unconditional grace of the God of Abraham, and the God of Abraham's seed, shines forth in all its native brightness, unhindered by the "ifs" and "buts," the vows, resolutions, and conditions of man's legal spirit. God had come down to display Himself, in sovereign grace, to do the whole work of salvation, to accomplish His promise made to Abraham, and repeated to Isaac and Jacob. He had not come down to see if, indeed, the subjects of His promise were in such a condition as to merit His salvation. It was sufficient for Him that they needed it. Their oppressed state, their sorrows, their tears, their sighs, their heavy bondage, had all come in review before Him; for, blessed be His name, He counts His people's sighs and puts their tears into His bottle. He was not attracted by their excellencies or their virtues. It was not on the ground of aught that was good in them, either seen or foreseen, that he was about to visit them, for He knew what was in them. In one word, we have the true ground of His gracious acting set before us in the words, "I am the God of Abraham," and "I have seen the affliction of my people."

But it was not only the wilderness as the scene of continuous trial, nor the quiet seclusion with God which the lowly life of a shepherd furnished, to unlearn as it were what Egypt had taught, nor the long daily proof to humble and prove what was in the heart (so blessed to Moses who bowed, and so fatal afterwards to Israel who did not bow). Moses had God's manifestation in the way most suited to the work given him to do, in a flame of fire out of a bush that burned but was not being consumed. It was holy ground: Moses was told to unloose his sandals from off his feet, and heard the divine voice say, I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob. It was for the fathers' sakes to whom He had pledged His promise and whose God He was. But He had also heard His people's cry under bitter oppression, and came down to deliver them. They indeed groaned and sighed by reason of the bondage; but they had not the faith to cry to Him. Yet their cry came up to God; and God heard their groaning, and remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob, which they had forgotten, long sunk in the darkness and idolatries of their cruel masters. But God looked on the sons of Israel and acknowledged them, and called His servant Moses, at this point of their depression, to the great work of crushing the pride of Egypt, and pouring contempt on their gods in the redemption of His people.

(2.) It is not as if God forgot the things, but He does not remember them — hold them in His mind — against them in any way. If I say I forget as well as forgive, it only speaks of the completeness, not, if the thing is called up, that my memory has ceased to know it as a fact. If I give an account of myself to God, I must do it completely or I should lose something of the goodness of Him who has called and saved me. Paul lost nothing in saying, "Lord, they know that I imprisoned and beat in every synagogue," etc.

We shall now return to Noah, and contemplate him in a new position. we have seen him building the ark, we have seen him in the ark, and we shall now view him going forth of the ark, and taking his place in the new world. "And God remembered Noah." The strange work of judgement being over, the saved family, and all in association with them, come into remembrance. "God made a wind to pass over the earth; and the waters assuaged; the fountains also of deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained. The beams of sun now begin to act upon a world that had been baptised with a baptism of judgement. Judgement is God's "strange work." He delights not in, though He is glorified by, it. Blessed be His name, He is ever ready to leave the place of judgement, and enter that of mercy, because He delights in mercy.

The five months of floating on a shoreless sea would seem interminable to Noah and his family, and it can be well imagined that they would feel that God had forgotten them. “But God remembered Noah, and all the beasts and all the cattle that were with him in the ark,” — the wild beasts as well as domesticated animals. But a flood covering even the mountains would require a long length of time to subside, even with the wind God sent to help in this. However, the sources from which the water came were stopped. If a tidal wave had emanated from the seas, this ceased to exert its power, and of course the rain from heaven no longer fell. This itself would be a welcome relief to the people in the ark. Yet at the end of 150 days the ark only grounded in the mountains of Ararat: there was still no land visible (v. 4). Four and one half months later the tops of the mountains were seen (v. 5).

The next chapter (Genesis 8) shows God's remembrance of Noah and every living thing. Here it would not have served His purpose to say, "Jehovah remembered every living thing," because every living thing was not in moral relationship with God. Noah was undoubtedly; but it is not always, nor here, the aim to draw attention to what was special.

Look at the result, "They rose up in the morning early and worshipped before the Lord and returned to their house in Ramah and Elkanah knew Hannah his wife and the Lord remembered her". The first thing is husband and wife worship together. That is a happy thing when the home life is of such a character, where husband and wife are devoted to the Lord's interests and they can worship together, pray together, consider the Lord's interests together. What a happy home that kind of home is! The Lord's blessing is there, there is a response to the Lord, the Lord's interests are cared for there, and that is the kind of home that the Lord is welcome in. At Bethany, in the house of Mary and Martha and Lazarus, the Lord was welcome and they made Him a supper, and I am sure they knew something about worship and prayer as He was in their midst. So it was with Elkanah and his wife Hannah, they "worshipped the Lord and the Lord remembered Hannah". This is the great thing. Think of a God who hears our prayers, takes account of the motives, and the desires. In the epistle of James he says, "Ye ask, and receive not" (4:3). How often we have to say that is true of our prayers - we ask and receive not, why says James, "because ye ask amiss that ye might consume it in your lusts".

The closing verses of Exodus 2 relate the death of the Pharaoh of those days, but the oppression of Israel continuing, God heard their cry and groaning, and He remembered His covenant with Abraham. Let us note that His intervention and His redemption of Israel from the house of bondage was under that covenant, and the covenant of law was not propounded until we reach Exodus 19.