Remembering Past Grace for the Sake of Future Grace

An Old Testament Pattern The pattern of looking back in order to believe in future grace is as old as grace itself. The Old Testament tells us of times when the people of God looked back to strengthen their faith in future grace and of times when they didn’t. For example, we are told that soon after Gideon died “the people of Israel turned again and whored after the Baals” (Judg. 8:33). Why did they do this? Why would they choose a second-rate foreign deity instead of trusting the future grace of the true God for their help and deliverance? The next verse gives the answer: “And the people of Israel did not remember the Lord their God, who had delivered them from the hand of all their enemies on every side” (Judg. 8:34). They forsook their faith in God’s future grace because they stopped remembering his past grace. Nehemiah points to another example when the people rejected the Lord in the wilderness and wanted to go back to Egypt. “Our fathers acted presumptuously and stiffened their neck and did not obey your commandments. They refused to obey and were not mindful of the wonders that you performed among them, but they stiffened their neck and appointed a leader to return to their ...