14 “Therefore behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when it will no longer be said, ‘As the Lord lives, who brought up the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’ 15 but, ‘As the Lord lives, who brought up the sons of Israel from the land of the north and from all the countries where He had banished them.’ For I will restore them to their own land which I gave to their fathers.
16 “Behold, I am going to send for many fishermen,” declares the Lord, “and they will fish for them; and afterwards I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them from every mountain and every hill and from the clefts of the rocks. 17 For My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from My face, nor is their iniquity concealed from My eyes. 18 I will first doubly repay their iniquity and their sin, because they have polluted My land; they have filled My inheritance with the carcasses of their detestable idols and with their abominations.”
19 O Lord, my strength and my stronghold,
And my refuge in the day of distress,
To You the nations will come
From the ends of the earth and say,
“Our fathers have inherited nothing but falsehood,
Futility and [c]things of no profit.”
20 Can man make gods for himself?
Yet they are not gods!21 “Therefore behold, I am going to make them know—
This time I will make them know
My [d]power and My might;
And they shall know that My name is the Lord.”
This passage has opposite “bookends”, but they nearly sum up the entirety of the book. In v. 14, God speaks of when He brought Israel out of Egypt, but they will no longer be known for that. Rather, it will be known that God gathered up the children of Israel from the north and “all the countries where He had banished them.”
The final verse speaks to why God is going through all this effort–that they may know His power and might, and know that His “name is the Lord”. That latter “Lord” is, I believe, a simplification of the name God gave to Moses, in English we usually translate it Yahweh.
Thus pairing verses 14 and 21, God brought them up out Egypt, and did amazing incredible things. He showed them His power and might, and they forgot, again, and again, and again. So now God would scatter them into multiple nations, reign down judgment for all their wickedness, and then do something even bigger.
Before we get too hard on the forgetful Israelites, we should check our own memories. How often do we forget God’s goodness and the blessings He has poured out on us. Whether life gets tough and we think God has forgotten us or… it gets too smooth and we forget our need for Him. In any and all cases, it is too easy for our fickle minds to forget God’s kindness to us.
So today, take time and remember everything God has done. Remember especially the biggest thing God did, far beyond gathering Israel back to their land, He paid the price for our sins, and has rescued us from death and judgment. God isn’t done with your life yet either, so thank Him also for what He has planned in the future, it’s going to be pretty amazing–an eternity with our Creator, who made this magnificent world, and who kitted you together in your mother’s womb, every single cell.