So, the Lord says that His people have forgotten everything He did for them, forgotten all His wonders. And once again He performs wonders for His people. Why? After all, the people did not cry out to Him, did not offer sacrifices, did not ask for help... All the people did was hinder God from acting in their lives: burdening Him with sins and weighing Him down with iniquities, as the prophet Isaiah says. Why, then, does the Lord blot out all iniquities and agree not to remember sins?

And the answer He gives here is universal. He says: "For My own sake." He is ready to forget sins not because the people have corrected themselves or politely asked. He forgives because He is good and merciful, because He loves.

The Lord has redeemed us and called each of us by name. Redemption, that is, buying back, does not mean taking possession as property. If we continue to use the comparison from the realm of buying and selling, redemption is like buying birds in order to set them free. Nor does the fact that He calls each person by name speak of subjugation: this is not the name a master gives a slave, but the name that helps distinguish each one of us from all other people. This means that we are all dear to Him; each person is singled out without harm to those around him.

We are called witnesses, and here we encounter a new degree of His trust in us. In fact, the Lord does not need anyone's witness; His essence is above everything that can be said. Yet it turns out that we are important to Him not simply as creatures, but as those to whom great trust can be shown. All our sins and weaknesses are before His gaze, but they do not cancel the fact that we remain precious in His eyes.

Jacob, that is, the people of Israel who had fallen into sins and apostasy, is rebuked for not calling on the Lord. Nevertheless, He Himself, on His own initiative, blots out the people's sins. A question immediately comes to mind: why is there no mention here of repentance? Can one really do without it? No, of course repentance is necessary, but now the Lord lets us see that His forgiveness and mercy are higher than everything with which we are used to connecting them, and even higher than what we are able to imagine.

When reading the Bible, you understand that God's long-suffering is really unlimited. But all the same: for what? In the end, it is not only about the mercy alone, which is really unlimited for Him. It is about the covenant, about the union, which imposes obligations on both parties, and not only on one. And what, if one of the parties neglects the union, neglects very often openly and in a provocative way, by violating all its obligations, of which it cannot not know because the corresponding promises were publicly given, and cannot not remember, because the messengers of God very often reminded it of them? According to our earthly logic such union would be broken for a long time, and would be applied to the party which violated the corresponding penalties.

God however made more and more new attempts to reach out to those, for whom it seems for a long time that nothing is needed. For what reason? Why? Probably, because it doesn’t work out differently with fallen people. Of course, one can start all over again, including the history of the people of God. But where is the guarantee that the next time that will work better? In their fallen state in all the times, all men are more or less identical, in any case as regards to their spiritual and moral life. But the problem maybe is not only in that.

After all, God indeed has His plan, an exceptionally important plan, concerning not only the humanity and its salvation, but, it is possible, for something even greater, with regard to which, our salvation is only a part of the intention (although, probably, a part important enough). Is it possible to put the execution of this plan in the dependence of the disruptions of the human will and the perversity of the human nature?

And if not, then remains only to realize the indicated plan, in spite of all which can prevent its realization, including the imperfections of the people of God. And God really realizes His plan, in spite of the failures in the history of His people, which, would seem, had to put on its realization a fat point. Of course, the price is high: the Messiah, sent by Him dies on the cross. But the Kingdom enters all the same into the world. And the hope of salvation too.