Understanding God - 2

Fellow Partakers of God’s grace,

We are pleased to send out the second instalment of our series on “Understanding God”. Even though we have hardly started, we have begun to receive feedback from some of you. This is indicative of a desire to know God more, a desire we also share. May God richly reward our seeking in Jesus Name. Amen.

UNDERSTANDING GOD 2

In the first part of our study, we introduced our subject and explored the difficulty we encounter in presenting God to men. In this second part, we are focusing on the need to learn the ways of God, embrace His fear and go beyond the acquisition of knowledge.

The Person of God
The man who seeks God is faced with a number of questions, and he needs answers. He may want to know where God is coming from. In addition, he wants to know what God is (or is not) responsible for. This series may not necessarily answer all our questions, but an attempt will be made to lay a foundation for discovery.

To start with, we need to go beyond knowing the acts (or miracles) of God. Like Moses, we need a knowledge of His ways (Psa. 103:7), which will prepare us for a knowledge of His will and, ultimately His Person.
Elijah was a man who thought he knew so much, and later discovered that he had a lot of catching up to do. First, he gave God an account of happenings in Israel: His people had forsaken His covenant, thrown down His altars and killed His prophets. He was the lone survivor, or so he thought. How wrong! The Lord told him He had reserved seven thousand (7000) men to Himself, who had not bowed the knee to Baal. Again, Elijah looked for God in the wind, earthquake and fire, and did not find Him. The Lord chose to reveal Himself in the still, small voice, easy to be ignored. This was a new experience to a man that paraded impressive credentials in his walk with God.

A man who wants to know God must take seriously the following verse of Scripture: “the fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge” (Prov. 1:7, 9:10). The same thought can be expressed in a different way: “The secret of the LORD is with them that fear Him” (Psa.24:15). No doubt, this is a departure from that which the world teaches us. Those who teach us the ways of the world will have us believe that “instruction is the beginning of knowledge”. This may be true of other kinds of knowledge, but certainly not the knowledge of God. Paul, in addressing the church in Corinth, has this to say: “And if any man think that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know” (1Cor. 8:2, 2-4, 3:18-19).

The implication of these thoughts is that the knowledge of God is hinged on the Person of God. The man who does not fear Him will not know Him, even if he receives volumes of instruction. Likewise, if a man who once feared God ceases to fear Him, he loses whatever knowledge (of God) he once had (see Rom.1:21-22, 1 Tim. 1:5-7). The knowledge of God is the only kind of knowledge that a man loses (or forfeits) when He loses touch with the One that gave it to Him. The only thing that such a man retains is the shell, the mere carcass of a once glorious treasure.

Our goal in pursuing this pattern of exploration is to shift our focus from the desire to acquire knowledge of the Scriptures (as an end) to the desire to know God. Knowledge is a means to an end. Whenever it becomes an end, it becomes an idol, indeed a god. The knowledge of God is intended to move man into an intimate relationship with God. Any knowledge (believed to be of God) that does not accomplish this, will only puff up the recipient. In other words, “knowledge puffeth up, but Charity edifieth (1 Cor.8:1). The implication is that knowledge is destructive if it does not move us unto a practical and constructive relationship with God, with the brethren and with other men. On this note, we move on to consider the attributes of God.