The memory of the righteous is blessed,
but the name of the wicked will rot.
Proverbs 10:7
‘Memory’, so it’s said,
Is of us when we’re DEAD.
In Proverbs 10:7, what insight,
That, in us, GREATER FAITH might ignite??
The Lord said, by Faith, we should live,
And by His Spirit that He gives.
Professing THIS verse qualifies,
For what, to us, He signified.
He ensures ‘memory’ of His saints is blessed,
After we are ‘dead and gone’. Nevertheless,
Before we go, keeping our minds on Him,
Helps to ensure they function like a gem.
Since memory has more than one meaning,
By faith, what, from this, should we be gleaning??
By faith, profess God’s Word, before problems manifest,
So by fears of memory loss, we won’t be oppressed!
A righteous legacy, we’ll leave behind,
And folks will know, with God, we were aligned.
His Spirit ensures that they will derive,
Lessons from our lives that He keeps ‘alive’.
~0~
There will always be ‘nay-saying text proofers’ who are prompt to challenge concepts that someone perceives in a Scripture text, but which is not explicitly written exactly as it is perceived. They may insist the perceived concept does not perfectly align with the definitions of the text written in ancient Hebrew and Greek. Perhaps, like me, you may have had your fair share of such encounters. Some may even cite the point in 2 Peter 1:20, that no prophecy is of private interpretation. Let’s examine some key points ‘nay-saying text proofers’ may tend to miss.
A. Transposing the Past to the Present: Peter’s point was that prophets did not personally conjure the prophecies in The Bible, but those holy men spoke or wrote as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. His point does not shackle The Holy Spirit in releasing fresh insights into what He inspired way back then! Recall how, since Adam, The Lord has been releasing insights to humanity in a progressive manner. Moreover, in Joel and Acts, He promised to release further insights beyond the written text, insights that amplify and clarify past insights He released, and possibly NEW insights as The Bible proves He did from Moses to Apostle John!
There is a significant difference between writing original, inspired prophecies, versus understanding and applying those prophecies to our modern lifestyles. For example, consider the extent by which modern meanings of ‘memory’ have expanded FAR beyond a person’s posthumous reputation.
Personal Memory
o Working memory: The brain's short-term storage system used to hold and manipulate information for immediate tasks.
o Episodic memory: The conscious recollection of personal life experiences, specific events, situations, and times.
o Semantic memory: The storehouse of permanent, generalized knowledge and facts about the world, independent of personal experience.
o Procedural memory: The unconscious, automatic memory of how to perform specific physical skills, actions, and habits.
o Immunological memory: The immune system's capacity to recognize a previously encountered pathogen and launch a rapid, targeted defense.
o Muscle memory: The neuromuscular adaptation where repetitive physical movements become automatic and require less conscious thought.
o Aural/Auditory Memory: Hearing in one’s mind, the pitch, melody, or parts of, or an entire composition.
o Tactile/Muscle Memory: Knowing the feel and touch of an instrument, allowing hands to execute patterns automatically.
o Visual Memory: Recalling the look of printed sheet music, chord diagrams, or the physical layout of an instrument.
o Analytical/Structural Memory: Knowing music theory, key changes, and formal sections of a composition to enable flawless navigation.
o Institutional memory: The collective knowledge, history, experiences, and cultural values retained by an organization over decades.
o Genetic memory: A biological concept where certain behavioral traits or survival instincts are passed down through generations via DNA.
Non-personal Memory (in our ‘everything’s-hackable’ world)
o Cache memory: High-speed, localized hardware storage designed to give computer processors quick access to frequently used data.
o Volatile memory: Temporary computer data storage, like RAM, that requires continuous power to maintain its state.
o Non-volatile memory: Permanent digital storage, like flash drives and hard drives, that retains data even when turned off.
Who among us is qualified to restrict The Lord
in blessing personal and even non-personal ‘memory’
in the lives of His saints, today?!
B. ‘The LIVING Word’: While Biblical texts are fixed, The Lord Who inspired them is not. He not only foreknew future definitions of His prophetic words, but He also foreknew when and how He would inspire future believers ‘to see’ what ancient prophets could never imagine in antiquity! Perfect examples include how Daniel admitted receiving revelations he did not understand, yet he faithfully penned them. Similarly, I imagine Isaiah may have ‘done a double-take’ as he spiritually heard, then wrote the last phrase in his extensive prophecies. In his day, the concept he described may have been unimaginable, just as it is to us today! But in His timing, The Lord will make its meaning fully known to relevant parties. While written prophecies themselves do not evolve, how they are understood and applied across human history, most certainly does.
C. The ‘Live by Faith’ Command: While the written Word is fixed in ink on paper, and now is also digitized, ‘nay-saying text proofers’ may have a lapse in their own memory if they fail to recall that, five times across the Old and New Testaments, The Lord inspired His prophets to write:
(we who have been made righteous in Christ)
D. Conclusion
Our faith walk with/in Christ is deeply personal. The Holy Spirit is well-equipped to tailor, and then to draw from our committed lives, exactly what and when The Kingdom of God on Earth will reveal to us, individually and corporately. If you are a ‘nay-saying text proofer’ who isolates passages apart from the Genesis-to-Revelation contextual message of The Bible, I encourage you to ask yourself,
Is what I am doing akin to focusing on
the letter of The Law, and missing The Spirit thereof??
For all others, I invite you to ask yourself:
To which aspects of my memory do I need to apply my faith,
based upon the contextual promises across The Bible??
As for me, I choose to personalize and orally confess the first half of Proverbs 10:7, with the broadest significance possible!
