For Israel hath not been forsaken, nor Judah of his God.
Israel and Judah not forsaken
You would think, according to the teaching of some, that Christ s members kept lopping off something like the limbs of lobsters, and that new ones were constantly growing. There is nothing in Scripture to warrant such a notion as that. You remember Mr. Bunyan’s parable of a child who is in a room, and a stranger comes in, and says, “Come hither, child, I will cut off thy finger.” “No,” says the child. “Yes, but I will; I will take off your little finger. Here is a knife, I will cut off your little finger.” “No,” again says the child, and begins to cry. “Oh, but,” says the stranger, “that is a poor little finger that you have. I will cut it off and I will buy you a gold finger, such a brave gold finger. I will put it on your hand instead of your little finger.” “Oh,” says the child, “but it would not be my finger; I cannot lose my little finger.” Whereupon Mr. Bunyan says, “If Christ could have better people than those He has, He would not make the change,” for, saith He, “they are not My people; they are not a part of My own living self.” So the Lord Jesus would not change you for a golden saint, for one much better than you axe. That new finger would not be what the Father gave him, nor what He bought with His precious blood. “Thou shalt not be forgotten of Me,” means that God will never cease to love His servants. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
God’s people not forgotten or forsaken
Before the siege of Paris Gustave Dore had nearly finished one of his greatest paintings, one of the finest pictures which has ever been produced. Having to fly from the city, on a sudden, as the Germans were coming up, he hid his picture in a cellar, down under a heap of rubbish. When the siege was over, Dore came back to Paris, and of course when he returned he had forgotten all about his picture, had he not? Not he; he had taken too much trouble with it to forget it. He knew the value of it, and he knew where he had put it. He did not have to go up and down the house and say to the people, “Do you know where my picture is?” No! he never forgot where he had himself put it, so he found it where it was hidden, brought it out to the light of day, and finished it. Now, in a far higher sense than that, God will have respect unto the works of His own hands. The very bodies of the saints, though they were hidden away for a while in the rubbish of the earth, He will fetch out, and He will complete the works of grace which He has begun upon each one of them. The Lord hath formed us to be His servants, we shall not be forgotten of Him. (C. H. Spurgeon.)