“Behold, God is great, and we know him not, neither can the number of his years be searched out.” (Job 36:26 AV)
Where do you begin with a statement like that? How can one expound on a subject that he does not understand? What more can be said? How do we illumine any further truth than what Elihu has just stated? He is absolutely right, of course. God cannot be understood. The mere fact that He holds all of His attributes without limit stops any attempt to know Him beyond that which He has revealed. We may know God in a personal way. We may know of Him. We may know what God must be like to the degree we can accept what He is. But we cannot truly know Him. Not as He knows Himself. He is God and we will never be. We will never fully understand Him. Given all of eternity, we can know him as well as a newborn knows his dad. Barely. But this is not discouraging. This is encouraging. I am glad that I cannot really know an infinite God. Hallelujah!
We have robbed ourselves of the innocence of the Christian faith. A few days ago, we went to the Milwaukee County Museum. It is a natural history museum with a planetarium attached. We arrived just as school children were leaving. There were hundreds of middle school to high school-aged kids running all over the place. Then, they congregated at the front entrance, waiting for their bus to arrive. While there, a group of about forty kids huddles around one exhibit. I think it was one of those wishing-well-type things where you drop your coin at the top and it slowly descended while traversing a cone-shaped bowl. Around and around it would go. Then it finally fell into a small hole at the bottom. There were plaques around the exhibit explaining the forces of nature that were in play. But there they stood, captivated by something so amazing, it was the hit of the museum. Why? Because even though the words explaining the phenomenon were clearly visible with words not hard to understand, the concept was. They were amazed not because they could understand it. Rather, they were amazed because they could not understand it.
We don’t have to get to a point where we think we understand God to lose the wonder of who and what He is. All we have to do is believe that we can. In our pursuit of knowledge, we have to start with the truth that God cannot be understood. It doesn’t matter if we can ask the question. Just because we can ask the question does not mean we can eventually know the answer. This is what had happened with modern teaching. It is approached as though God is a subject who, given enough time and work, can be understood. Rather than approach it as an inexperienced person might approach electricity, we open our texts books, Bible, and commentaries thinking there is no question we can ask about God where the answer cannot be found. If that is your case, I truly feel sorry for you. You are bringing God down to your level and He has ceased to be as wonderous as He truly is. Elihu was right. We cannot know Him. We cannot understand Him. He is beyond our comprehension and even though we can ask the question, it doesn’t mean we will ever know the answer. That is why God is God and we are not.
P.S. Today is the last day of our drive. A $20 gift card is up for grabs. Have your friends and family follow this blog by clicking on the blue 'follow' button to the right. If they are reading from a mobile browser, then have them scroll to the bottom, locate and click 'view web version' then do the same. Have them mention you in a comment and the one with the most comments will win the gift card. Winner will be announced tomorrow.
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