Hosea 13:6

"According to their pasture, so were they filled; they were filled, and their heart was exalted: therefore, have they forgotten me."

"They were filled; they were filled, and their heart was exalted ..." "Here we see the evil results that often flow from prosperity."[15] It is hardly understandable that the very blessings God gives to men should become the occasion, not of their honoring God, but of their denying him and rebelling against him. Every minister knows a thousand examples of the same thing. Here, we take the liberty of quoting at some length from Butler's wonderful perception of the sin in view here:

"Their trouble was pride. They did exactly what Moses warned them not to do (Deuteronomy 8:11-20). When they become affluent, they did like so many other nations have done, and like America is doing today, they lifted up their hearts in pride and said, "My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth." Pride, whether it is military pride, political pride, affluent pride, or intellectual pride, causes men wilfully to ignore the facts of history (2 Peter 3:3-7). Pseudoscientists, proud of their intellectualism, proud of their erudition, or their religious heritage, will deliberately ignore the historical, textual integrity of the Bible and substitute theology and philosophy for the Word of God. Pride is the trap that snared the devil, snared Eve, and then Adam, and snares many millions today."[16]

"They have forgotten me ..." The source of all unrighteousness lies in the fundamental mistake mentioned here.

FORGETTING GOD

Whatever suns of imminence or glory may beat down on man's head, it is only for an instant. Soon he must go down to the oblivion from whence he came. He must subside. He must repose in death, and only the power of the Eternal God can raise him from the grave. How tragic, then, that so many live out their brief hour upon earth without remembering God, the Creator. Four times God thundered the warning from the Book of Deuteronomy, "Beware lest thou forget Jehovah thy God!" (Deuteronomy 6:10; 8:11, etc.)

I. Most of the sins that people commit are only variations of forgetting God. Selfishness is the sin of forgetting God in others. Pride is the absence from the heart of any thought of God. Worry is the sin of forgetting God's providence. Envy is the sin of forgetting God in the blessings he has already bestowed upon us. One must forget God first, before such evils can blossom in the heart.

II. Why do people forget God?

(A) First, because the guilty conscience does not like to retain God in the thoughts (John 3:20).

(B) Another reason lies in the antagonism of the world. The din of the world is in our ears, the glitter of this world is in our eyes, the dust of this world is in our nostrils, the thirst of the world is in our throats, the affection of the world is in our hearts; and the madness of the world is a roaring tornado all around us. No wonder an apostle warned us, "Love not the world" (1 John 2:15).

(C) One of the most common reasons is prosperity, and of all reasons the most incredible. How unbelievable it is that men would make the very blessing of the Father the reason of their apostasy from him. Yet in every church there are examples of men who, while in modest circumstances, were faithful Christians, but who with a little prosperity, got divorces from their wives, bought yachts, quit the church and went to hell in all directions! They forgot God.

III. Why is it such a sin to forget God? First, it is a denial of the very reason for man's being created by the Father, that of glorifying God; and if a man is not going to do the principal thing for which God created and designed him, he is no better than a dog, and has become a thing of no cosmic value whatever. Man apart from his relation to God has the same eternal status as a bushel of turnips, a shovel full of coal, or any of the lower animals of nature. Secondly, forgetting God, is a mark of the basest ingratitude. It is always deplorable to see men forget friends from whose hands they received benefit and encouragement in the race of life; but what about God remembered not? God created men in his own likeness, endowed them with marvelous abilities, unspeakable privileges, and wonderful glory. How can men forget a God like that? Men may forget other things and retrieve the blunder, but forgetting God is an irrevocable mistake, the fatal blunder, the mortal error from which there is no recovery; for God will remember and punish wicked men whether they remember him or not.

IV. Ways in which men forget God.

(A) They forget God when they neglect to give thanks to God (Romans 1:21).

(B) They forget God who make plans without taking God into consideration (James 4:13-15).

(C) They forget God who take vengeance upon their enemies (Romans 12:19).

(D) Men forget God when they forget the church. When the solemn obligation to the church of God in Christ is neglected or abandoned, God is forgotten. Forget the church; forget God; they are one and the same thing.

(E) Men forget God when they forget solemn commitments made to worship and adore Him, as for example, in their baptismal vows which united them with Christ.

(F) And God is forgotten when the more personal and emotional promises once made to Him in the face of threatening tragedy and sorrow are remembered no more. Is there anyone who cannot remember when he poured out his heart to God in the presence of what seemed to be total disaster, defeat, or tragedy, the most fervent prayer of his whole life? Not once before in a lifetime had such a prayer been offered; and wonder of wonders, God heard and granted the appeal! And in circumstances like that, men pledge undying loyalty to God; but alas, the promises are little heeded nor long remembered. Men forget God.

God grant for all of us the grace of avoiding the incredible folly and madness of forgetting God! Long ago, Israel forgot God, and total and perpetual ruin was the fruit of it.