Forgetfulness of God and its consequences.
I. GOD AS AN OBJECT OF THE SOUL'S ATTENTION. He is the "God of men's salvation." His Name calls up all those ideas of power, of grace, of goodness, necessary to the Deliverer, the Savior. To acknowledge that such a Being exists is not enough; the eye of the spirit must be turned to him, its gaze fixed upon him, its ear bent towards the place of his holy oracle. Micah says in evil times, "I will look unto Jehovah; I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me." To think of God in his moral relations to us brings confidence and security to the heart. And hence the expressive image of the Rock on which the fortress stands, as symbolic of him, so frequently employed in Scripture (Deuteronomy 32:4, Deuteronomy 32:15, Deuteronomy 32:18, Deuteronomy 32:30, Deuteronomy 32:31, Deuteronomy 32:37; 1 Samuel 2:2; 2 Samuel 22:2, 2 Samuel 22:3, 2 Samuel 22:32; Psalms 18:31, Psalms 18:46; Psalms 19:14; Psalms 28:1; Psalms 30:1, Psalms 30:2). How much depends in our intellectual life on attraction—the grasp of objects, the remembrance of what they are, the firm hold of principles and truths I Impressions are made upon us as in wax or in running water, without this tension of the will. And how in various ways does Scripture press upon us the need of attention in religious things! "Earnestly give heed," "Remember," "Be mindful," "Look unto the Lord," etc; are all exhortations implying the need of prayer and habitual direction of the spirit to higher things. There can be no clear memory and no confident expectation where the mind has been lax and listless.
II. CONSEQUENCES OF FORGETTING GOD. Ephraim, turning away from its true rocky stronghold in Jehovah, will see its own castles lie in ruin and desolation. The estrangement from God is marked by indulgence in pleasure and idolatry. The people planted pleasant gardens, and sowed them with strange grapes; i.e. formed an alliance with a stranger, the King of Damascus. And these new institutions were carefully fenced, i.e. apparently they were established as a state religion. "And the very next morning he had brought into blossom what he had sown. The foreign layer had shot up like a hot-house plant, i.e. the alliance had speedily grown into a hearty agreement, and had already produced one blossom at any rate, viz. the plan of a joint attack upon Judah. But this plantation, so flattering and promising for Israel, and which had succeeded so rapidly, and to all appearance so happily, was a harvest heap for the day of judgment." The closing words of this strophe are impressive: "The day of grief and desperate sorrow;" or, "The day of deep wounds and deadly sorrow of heat." Let us fix on these words. Let us forget Ephraim for the moment, and think of the individual, think of ourselves. The words hint at remorse, which has been called "the echo of a lost virtue." It will come upon all of us in so far as, remembering many things not to be neglected, self-interest, duty to family, Church, country, we have yet forgotten the one thing needful—have not brought all our life's concerns into that unity which reference to the Supreme Will imparts. Life should be direct and simple; a simple piety can only render it so. There may be mindfulness about many things, distracting us from the central interest. How can it avail us to have remembered to be prudent, to have regarded public opinion, to have taken care to be with the majority, to swim with the stream, and in the end we find that this has been a turning of the back on God, and so an illusion, a misconception of life? For if God be remembered, nothing important will be forgotten; if he be forgotten, nothing is truly seen—attention is beguiled by fantasy, and life becomes the pursuit of a dream.—J.