Searching out God is like that. At least sometimes. The wonder of who He is and what He does eludes me and then, a great wonder of all, He reveals something that I did not discern in my search and that truth is so obvious that it seems a wonder that I didn’t see it before.
But not always. There are things about God that are UNSEARCHABLE, even with the most painstaking study and earnest desire. God is beyond my finite mind and beyond my capacity to grasp even should He spell out everything there is to know about Himself.
Scripture authors knew this. Job, the psalmists, and the NT writers exalted the wonder of God being far greater than our ability to search Him out.
Job 5:8–9 and 36:26. “As for me, I would seek God, and to God would I commit my cause, who does great things and unsearchable, marvelous things without number . . . . Behold, God is great, and we know him not; the number of his years is unsearchable.”
The psalmists also knew this and declared it:
Psalm 90:2. “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.”
Psalm 102:25–27. “Of old you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you will remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away, but you are the same, and your years have no end.”
Psalm 145:3. “Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable.”
The prophet Isaiah seems surprised that others had not realized the wonder of who God is and the mystery of His ability to bless His people with what all they needed:
Isaiah 40:28–31. “Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”
In the NT, Paul also understood that the study of God was rich and deep yet also beyond our ability to grasp. For this, he gave God glory:
Romans 11:33–36. “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! ‘For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?’ ‘Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?’ For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.”
But Paul also understood more about God and His plan than the ancients. He knew that God was using His church, the Body of believers, to make His wisdom known to the spiritual realm:
Ephesians 3:8–12. “To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things, so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him.”
GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. These verses fill me with awe as they reveal what I know and what I don’t know. If I could fully search out God, that would put me in a higher place than is possible and it would make God a lesser being than He is. For God to be God, He must be more that I can know or grasp or search out. At the same time, He reveals enough of Himself to draw me again and again into His presence that I might know Him in a greater way. What a wonder and a joy to be His child!
No comments:
Post a Comment