Deuteronomy 8:14-16 “Your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. He led you through the vast and dreadful desert, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock. He gave you manna to eat in the desert, something your fathers had never known, to humble and to test you so that in the end it might go well with you.”

“What have you done for me lately?” In sports, if the quarterback who led you to the Superbowl, or the pitcher who won the World Series, has a down year, the team may trade them, or even cut them. There is little or no loyalty for past contributions.

“What have you done for me lately?” In business, if the CEO who drove the company to the top of the industry can’t keep it there, if last year’s salesman of the year can’t make his quota this month, they may find themselves on the street looking for a new job. “What have you done for me lately?” the board of directors, or the management team demands. People don’t value past contributions very much.

In history, particularly history seen from the viewpoint of faith, the God we worship has an impressive resume, one we can’t seem to remember very long. Moses walked the Israelites through some of the Lord’s more impressive work the last forty years: deliverance from Egypt, water from a rock, miraculous free food in the desert. In spite of experiencing these things themselves, the people’s forgetfulness was draw-dropping. Just two weeks after walking through the middle of the Red Sea on dry ground the people were accusing God of trying to starve them to death! It was as though the epic plagues the Lord brought on Egypt and the parting of the waters never happened. “What have you done for me lately?”

The Lord’s deliverances have only gotten bigger and more impressive since then. He left heaven to live on earth himself. He permanently adopted a human body and soul, fused himself to his own creation, and subjected himself to all the heartache and hardships of life in our world.

He made the guilt of our sins his own, carried it in our place, and faced the consequences for it though he was completely innocent himself. He endured the justice that should have been served to us, suffered the kind of abuse and torture that would be outlawed as inhumane in our place and time, and died pinned to a cross of wood, mocked or abandoned by all who knew him, forsaken by God the Father in heaven, to set us free from our sins.

Three days later he left his own grave alive and glorified to prove the price for sin was paid, and document the defeat of death and the devil. No greater sacrifice has ever been made. No greater danger to humanity has ever been overcome. No greater gift has ever been given.

But that was nearly 2000 years ago. Today Moses’ words urge us to remember the history that has brought us such good things. It is his promise of even greater blessings to come.