Being Fully Known

Exodus 2; Job 19; Luke 5; 1 Corinthians 6

A speaker at a writers’ conference told of standing on the side of a mountain when an eagle flew by at eye level. The eagle turned and directly looked into his eyes. He said this gave him the strangest sensation of “being known in the universe” and he went on to talk about being known by God.

I’ve not looked at Maslow’s ‘needs’ chart lately but am pretty certain that ‘being known’ is not on the list. It should be. Every heart yearns to know that someone knows and understands them completely.

The Exodus tells of how the people of God were treated after Joseph died and the latest Pharaoh did not know or care about the Israelites. They were enslaved and crying out for help. God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.

And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel—and God knew. (Exodus 2:24–25)

I don’t know how to describe my feelings at reading those last two words. I tried, but satisfaction, etc. could come from many sources. This feeling of knowing God knows is deeper, richer, profound. I want to stay in this place of being known, enjoying the sense of it and resting without any tensions or concerns. I am known.

Then I read Job 19 and feel the anguish of a man who has been sidetracked from the assurance that God knows him. He is filled with grief as he describes what it seems God is doing to him and says to his critical ‘friends’ —

If indeed you magnify yourselves against me and make my disgrace an argument against me, know then that God has put me in the wrong and closed his net about me. Behold, I cry out, ‘Violence!’ but I am not answered; I call for help, but there is no justice. He has walled up my way, so that I cannot pass, and he has set darkness upon my paths. He has stripped from me my glory and taken the crown from my head. He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone, and my hope has he pulled up like a tree. He has kindled his wrath against me and counts me as his adversary. His troops come on together; they have cast up their siege ramp against me and encamp around my tent. (Job 19:5–12)

God may know Job but this man has lost his sense of understanding God’s care for him. Life is horrible, yet Job is a man of faith. Even in all this, deep inside he knows that he is known. He finally declares:

For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me! (Job 19:25–27)

He knows that God promised redemption and that he will see that fulfilled. Because of this, he is emotionally overwhelmed. That describes my feelings at knowing I am known!

The cross-reference to verse 27 takes me to this current life verse that sustained me through A-fib issues and getting a pacemaker: “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” (Psalm 73:26)

Again, I feel overwhelmed. God knows me. He is in charge of my heart, my life. I will spend eternity with Him, the One who knows me. I am in good hands.