God Remembered His Covenant

The author of Exodus provides the following explanation for the calling of Moses:

The children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage.

And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.

And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God had respect unto them.

Exodus 2:23-25

After Pharaoh refused Moses’s request to let the children of Israel go, God reiterated that his calling was prompted by the covenant:

I am the Lord:

And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, …

And I have also established my covenant with them, …

And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage; and I have remembered my covenant.

Exodus 6:2-5

What does it mean for an omniscient God to “remember” a covenant? The Hebrew word zakar (זָכַר), which is translated “remember” in these passages, isn’t about recovering lost information; it’s about taking something to heart, being mindful of it, and acting accordingly. For example, after telling Moses that He remembered the covenant, God listed seven things that He would do:

1. “I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.”
2. “I will rid you out of their bondage.”
3. “I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgments.”
4. “I will take you to me for a people.”
5. “I will be to you a God.”
6. “I will bring you in unto the land, concerning the which I did swear to give it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.”
7. “I will give it you for an heritage.”

(Exodus 6:6-8)

Remembering the covenant thus meant that God would act on behalf of His people.

Nephi used the same phrase to explain the deliverance from Egypt to his brothers:

Behold, he loved our fathers, and he covenanted with them, yea, even Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and he remembered the covenants which he had made; wherefore, he did bring them out of the land of Egypt.

1 Nephi 17:40

And when Jesus visited Nephi’s descendants, He promised more divine intervention on behalf of the descendants of Israel. He prophesied that in a future time when Israel would be afflicted by the Gentiles, “then will I remember my covenant which I have made unto my people, O house of Israel, and I will bring my gospel unto them … and ye shall come unto the knowledge of the fulness of my gospel” (3 Nephi 16:11-12).

He later added:

I will remember the covenant which I have made with my people; and I have covenanted with them that I would gather them together in mine own due time, that I would give unto them again the land of their fathers for their inheritance, which is the land of Jerusalem, which is the promised land unto them forever, saith the Father.

3 Nephi 20:29

The covenant, therefore, functions as an assurance of divine aid. When we make covenants with God, we know that He will fulfill those promises in His time. He will remember, and He will act. We can be sure of that.

Today, I will be grateful for the covenants I have made with God. I will also be grateful for the covenants prior generations have made with Him, which are still active today. I will trust that He remembers those covenants, and that He will continue to intervene on behalf of His people.