“As a dog returns to his vomit, a fool returns to his folly.”

~Proverbs 26:11

It’s a verse that turns my stomach.

One more proof that God can and does use anything, even vomit, in a redemptive capacity.

The pointed and graphic example is not easy to ignore and maybe that is the point. As a child at my grandad’s house I saw his standard size poodle make the verse literally come to life. It is an image not easily forgotten.

As I shudder at the memory, I can only wonder why. 

Part of my morning reading, I thought through the verse again just after reading Psalm 78—that long and beautiful chapter describing God’s faithfulness to his people at every turn. It recounts his provision while exiting Egypt, the division of the Red Sea, the provisions in the wilderness. It also repeatedly tells the truth of his people and how they forgot what he had done, how they did not believe. 

The chapter begins by telling the reader, listen up. You are about to hear the story of God’s faithfulness so you don’t forget his good works! And by verse 11 the author reiterates why it was needed in the first place: “They forgot his works and the wonders he had shown them.”

Asaph continues to implore the reader, don’t be like these people in the wilderness. There is evidence everywhere of God’s faithfulness and you best not forget it.

God split open a rock to provide water, he rained down food from the sky and verse 17 tells us they only rebelled more, complained more, asked for more. 

God continued to provide even while his anger was kindled.

Verse 32 says, “In spite of all this, they still sinned; despite his wonders, they did not believe.”

Example after example is rattled off: streams flowing, skies opened, wind blowing, waters standing, clouds and fire leading.

But they did not remember, they did not believe.

In our age of the 24-hour news cycle, my husband often jokes about stories that loom large and seem to threaten a political career, any career. It will be forgotten soon he says and is proved right time and again. We don’t remember. Now more than ever, we have a short-term memory deficit as we move from each moment’s shiny ball to the next.

I think chapter 78 is written for that reason. The people living in those days struggled to remember God’s faithfulness, the rescue they’d just received. We all do. And so we look for ways to keep reminding ourselves in the midst of the trials and tribulations that he made a way out. 

He always has. 

He always will.

When chapter 78 reaches that critical moment after verse 32, the story doesn’t mince words. The brutal honesty is stark:

“So he made their days vanish like a breath, and their years in terror.

When he killed them, they sought him; they repented and sought God earnestly.

They remembered that God was their rock, the Most High God their redeemer.

But they flattered him with their mouths; they lied to him with their tongues.

Their heart was not steadfast toward him; they were not faithful to his covenant.

Yet he, being compassionate, atoned for their iniquity and did not destroy them; he restrained his anger often and did not stir up all his wrath.

He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passes and comes not again.”

Though God’s people repeatedly forget him, he never forgets them. 

Though God’s people often flatter with their mouths, lie with their tongues, he is always true. 

Though God’s people often lack compassion, he does not.

God’s people forget him, but he always remembers us.

These are the reminders we need.

As I kept making my way through the chapter that summarizes God’s long and faithful history, again God’s anger is roused as the people turn away. Yet even in this anger, the ultimate aim is to bring his people back. At all costs he is working to protect and save his own.

Even using the visual of vomit.

I think maybe I understand a dog returning to its vomit, or me returning to foolish and sinful ways—I have forgotten. 

For those who have experienced the goodness of God, his faithfulness, his mercy, his saving grace, there could be no other reason to return to our folly.

Every day I have to be reminded.

Every day he is willing to do it. 

It is part of this flesh, this wind that passes and doesn’t come again. It is the reason Asaph wrote this Psalm and tells the people, 

“I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings from of old, things that we have heard and known that our fathers have told us…that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children, so that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments…”

As we start a new year, a new day, a new thought, may we remember the works and wonders God has shown us.