Forgive and Forget

There is a popular American saying, “Forgive and forget.”  While this may be some good psychological advice, it is not practiced regularly in the Bible.  Before, I hear an outcry, let me explain.

This morning, I was reading Matthew 1.  Matthew, being Jewish, wishes to demonstrate the Hebrew roots of Jesus the Messiah.  He does this by writing the genealogy of Jesus.  Genealogies in the Bible can often be the dry recitations that we skim over and move on.  Today something jumped off the page at me.

In the genealogy, Matthew lists 42 generations leading up to Jesus.  For the most part, fathers are listed, but there are four mothers who are also counted.  They are Zorah, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba.  These women are listed because they are unique; two of them being non-Jewish!  However, Bathsheba is the one that really caught my attention.  It is because her name itself is not mentioned.

Matthew lists her this way, “David was Solomon’s father, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife” (Matt. 1:6).  Now that is an interesting way to say this.  Why not say, “Solomon’s mother was Bathsheba?”  It seems that God wants us to remember David and Bathsheba’s indiscretion.  You remember the story.  David did not go to war and saw Bathsheba bathing across the valley.  He called the woman to himself and then slept with her.  She became pregnant and then the cover-up began.  In short, David had Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah, killed in a military battle.  It is one of the oldest records of fragging or friendly fire on human record.

It is as if God wants us to remember that Jesus came from this line of people who were broken and sinful.  No whitewashing here.  God announces something like, “Jesus came from the likes of David and Bathsheba who sinned.”

We want everyone to quickly forget and scrub from the record our past.  We hope they will forget the stupid things we say, the bad business decision we authorized, the lack of compassion exercised, or hurt caused.  God seems to have a different idea.  His idea is certainly to forgive – and wow, David is our biggest example of this.  Thoroughly forgiven, greatest king from Israel’s past.  But the record of his sin lives on.  The story of God forgiving the murdering and adulterous king named David lives on!  Perhaps God does this as a signpost for the rest of us?

There is great liberty here.  It is a reminder that our past can be forgiven, and that we can be changed.  Even if the darker scenes of our past are remembered by men, they can be forgiven by God through Christ.  They don’t become our greatest moment, but they point to God who is constantly demonstrating his greatest moment, His Son on a cross for the redemption of the world.