Forgetting Painful Memories
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Is it possible to forget the past?
And Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh: For God, said he, hath made me forget all my toil, and all my father’s house. -Genesis 41:51
Here we see what I like to call: The Manasseh Effect. Joseph had gone through incredible heartache, sorrow, and pain in his life. Even from the onset as a young child, his brothers were jealous of all the attention that their father Jacob was giving to Joseph.
From there, he went from betrayal to betrayal by everyone he met:
- He was put down into a well by his brothers and left for dead.
- He was captured and sold into slavery.
- He was falsely accused of attempted rape, and put into prison.
- While in prison, he was forgotten by the Pharaoh’s butler and remained in prison for an additional two years, when Joseph rightly interpreted his dream and hoped to be set free.
And after all that, you’d think he would’ve been scarred for life: unable to function or succeed at anything. But not only did he return to regularly functioning as a healthy person, but he excelled.
God’s gift to us: Manasseh
It wasn’t until Joseph got married, and had his first son, that he named his son Manasseh, which means forgetfulness. “For God, said he, hath made me forget all my toil, and all my father’s house” (Genesis 41:51). It was through this one blessing, (for Joseph, it was having a son), that caused him to completely forget all the pain and heartache that he had ever been through up until that point. Amazing!
How quickly God is able to reverse our fortunes, and our attitudes! I’m sure that for many years, and in many circumstances, Joseph despaired for his life, and wondered if it was even worth it at all. He knew that God had promised to make him great, but he simply wanted to break even. He just wanted to make it out of prison, and perhaps break free from some of the current struggles that he was facing.
Yet God had much bigger plans for him: in only a day, Joseph would interpret the Pharaoh’s dream, and become one of the most powerful men in the world, and be blessed with a family that would erase all of his former pains.
What is your Manasseh?
It may not be a son as in Joseph’s case, but I believe that in many people’s lives, God wants to give us His special blessing—a Manasseh—that will bring us such joy and fulfillment that we’ll forget all about the troubles that we’ve been through. Maybe you can’t think of any possible scenario where you could ever forget the past. Perhaps you can’t envision a means by which you could gain victory and happiness over defeat and sorrow.
The funny thing is, Joseph didn’t know what would truly make him happy either. He wasn’t planning on becoming second-in-command behind Pharaoh in Egypt. He was only dreaming of his escape from prison. He could only see a small part of the bigger picture, but God knew the entire plan. And it turns out, God did in fact have a plan: a good plan.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. -Isaiah 55:8-9
Just because we cannot see the means that God will use to liberate us, doesn’t mean that there is no hope. Just because we cannot see the end from the beginning, doesn’t mean that God doesn’t know what He’s doing. He has a plan, and He might not make it fully known to us until the right time: it may even catch us off guard and surprise us.
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. -Jeremiah 29:11
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