When the Bible says God remembered something, what does that mean?

from the old testament

• God is omniscient, which means at any given moment, He knows everything at once. Scripture refers to His understanding as “unsearchable” (Isaiah 40:28) and “beyond measure” (Psalm 147:5). It also teaches that He even knows what we will say or think before we say or think it (Psalm 139:1-4). So, when God “remembers,” we know it cannot mean that He forgot something and then later remembered it or that He needed to recall something from within His stored memory.
• When God “remembers,” it means He intends to act (or not act) on someone’s behalf at that moment. For example, after Noah and his family had been in the ark for an extended period of time, we read, “God remembered (zakar) Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided” (Genesis 8:1). God did not forget about Noah, see him floating there, and remember him. Instead, once God finished pouring out His judgment, He turned His attention to Noah by clearing the water so that he could leave the ark.
• In another example, through a series of plot twists (Genesis 29:21-25, 30; 30:1-9), Jacob ended up having children with four women rather than just Rachel, the one woman he loved. Rachel started out as baren until “God remembered (zakar) Rachel, and God listened to her and opened her womb” (Genesis 30:22). It was not that God had forgotten about Rachel because of the other women. Rather, at a specific time, He allowed her to start having children.
• In yet another example, God, knowing that Israel would disobey and He would punish them by eventually removing them from their land (Leviticus 26:14-39), said, “I will remember (zakar) my covenant with Jacob, and I will remember (zakar) my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember (zakar) the land” (Leviticus 26:42). God knows everything, so“remember” in that passage means bringing it to mind with the intent of restoring them to their land.
• Sometimes “remember” is used in a way that sounds as if God will “forget” something. Speaking about the future restoration of Israel, God said, “they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more “ (Jeremiah 31:34). He means that at that point, He will no longer bring their sin to mind with the intent of punishing them, not that He is no longer omniscient.
• Similarly, at times God remembers with the purpose of not acting. After Noah left the ark, God told him, “When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember (zakar) my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh” (Genesis 9:14-15). He was not saying that He might forget His promise to not destroy mankind with a flood, so he needed rainbows in the sky to remind Him. Instead, He was saying that we can rest assured that He actively brings His covenant with mankind to mind each time there’s a storm. He does so with the intention of actively not destroying mankind in the same way as before.

from the new testament

• The statements of God remembering are found primarily in the Old Testament. The New Testament uses similar language a few times, but almost exclusively when quoting from the Old Testament (see, Hebrew 2:6; 8:12; 10:17). Therefore, those quotes have the same meaning as they did in the Old Testament.
• Perhaps the only time remembering is associated with God outside of an Old Testament quote is in Mary’s song about the recent news that she was to give birth to the Messiah. She said, “He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy” (Luke 1:54). As in the Old Testament, Mary was not saying that God had forgotten about His promises to be merciful, but that He, at last, brought Israel’s plight to mind with the intention of sending them the long-awaited Messiah so that they might be saved.

implications for today

Because God knows everything at all times, He never forgets and then remembers something in the way we generally mean it when we say we remember something. Instead, at the times of His choosing, He takes specific actions. In that sense He “remembers” those on whose account He is about to act.

God has promised that Jesus will return to destroy the wicked and save His children. He has not forgotten that promise, yet one day He will begin that action, “remembering” His promise and bringing all things to an end.

God’s remembrance is a joyful reality for believers. It means that God doesn’t just make promises, but that at the exact right time, He follows through. Though it has been two-thousand years since Jesus left the earth, we can rest on the promise that He will return.

For the unbeliever, God’s remembrance is frightening. It means that while you have not yet been fully judged for your sin, that one day God will remember you with the intent of bringing His just wrath upon you. However, right now He is delaying that action to give you the opportunity to repent (2 Peter 3:9). If you do repent, God promises to never again bring your sin to mind (Hebrews 8:12). He can do that because Jesus has paid the punishment for all repentant sinners (Romans 3:26). Because God never forgets, we implore you to repent now while you still can so that you will be saved from His wrath (Romans 5:9).