God wants us to remember who we are: we have been chosen to become His “acquired possession” (1 Pet. 2:9). Like the Hebrews in the Old Testament, who after four hundred years became Egyptian in their identity, we have been constituted by a different value in the world we were born into. But our identity changed the day we first believed Him. That believing started us on our journey through the wilderness: a journey of remembering and transformation.
Even though we have crossed the river and are indeed His acquired possession, we find ourselves with a lingering constitution from our old life — just like the Hebrews, who were always looking back to what they had left behind and treasuring the tastes of Egypt (Exo. 16:3, Num. 11:5). That is why the Lord asks us to remember Him and how He brought us out from Egypt. He asks us to “be careful and guard your soul diligently, so that you do not forget…” and to look forward to all that was prepared in the good land to come (Deut. 4:9, 14). Today, in the New Testament era, that means we are to set our minds on the truth of who we are (Col. 3:2), because who we are determines what we treasure and thus where our heart is (Matt. 6:21).
These reminders always bring us back to Himself. They draw us to look at Him — so lovely, so attractive, so much richer and more plentiful than all the tastes of Egypt. In Song of Songs, the Shulamite was drawn to her Beloved and His words, being transformed from a “mare among Pharaoh’s chariots” (S.S. 1:9) to the lover of Christ seeking her Beloved’s return “upon the mountains of spices” (8:14). She changed as she grew in her “minding” — thinking of her Beloved and who she was in Him. What a reminder that we belong to Christ — that He is our Husband! We are His bride; we belong to Him. Today in the church life we are remembering our first love and looking forward to the coming wedding feast (Matt. 25:10, Rev. 19:9). Our renewed identity leads to our change of heart and minding, a change of taste and direction: Instead of longing for the things of the world, we are free to love Him as His bride and to seek out our transformation into His builded church.
(Above are notes of fellowship taken from a gathering on 10/27/2024, not reviewed by the speaker.)