Forgetfulness of God, Destruction to the Soul
Deuteronomy 8:19-20
And it shall be, if you do at all forget the LORD your God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them…


I. WHAT IS THAT FORGETFULNESS OF GOD OF WHICH THE PRESENT EFFECTS ON OUR MORAL AND RELIGIOUS CHARACTER ARE SO HIGHLY INJURIOUS, AND OF WHICH THE FUTURE CONSEQUENCES IN REGARD TO OUR ETERNAL PROSPECTS ARE SO DREADFULLY FATAL.

1. If any persons can rise up and lie down, go out and come in, day after day, and week after week, with scarcely a transient thought of Him whose hand has sustained them, whose long-suffering has borne with them, and whose bountiful goodness has supplied their various wants, those persons are clearly chargeable with forgetfulness of the Lord their God.

2. The same guilt must also lie at our door, if we are habitually unmindful of the attributes of God; and, particularly, of His omnipresence.

3. The same may justly be said of him who allows himself to think of his Creator under a different character from that in which He has revealed Himself to mankind in His holy Word.

II. THE FEARFUL DOOM WHICH IS DENOUNCED IN THE WORDS OF THE TEXT AGAINST THOSE WHO ARE GUILTY OF THE SINS THERE FORBIDDEN. The expression, "to perish," when used in the Scriptures in a judicial sense, to describe the punishment of sin, does not mean the suffering of temporal death only — it further signifies the spiritual death of man's immortal part.

(C. Townsend, M. A.)



Parallel Verses
KJV: And it shall be, if thou do at all forget the LORD thy God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day that ye shall surely perish.

WEB: It shall be, if you shall forget Yahweh your God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day that you shall surely perish.




A Caution Against Forgetfulness of God
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