We Don’t Know that we Don’t Know!
Job 13:15 Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him. Even so, I will defend my own ways before Him.
The older we get, the more we know that we don’t know much. God is all knowing. Man is anything but. We all think God should be like us, and do what we want Him to do, and be what we want Him to be. But God says that we need to lose our pride and admit that we don’t understand God and His ways, even though He fully understands us and our ways.
Job was a righteous man, God said so. He was attacked because Satan needed to see someone who worshiped God when worshiping God made no sense. Job had lost everything including his health. He had three “friends” and they said that hey KNEW that Job had sinned. Otherwise these things would not have happened to Job. They reasoned from experience, from insight from religious visions and from the wisdom of the ancients. Job just had to have sinned according to all human reasoning. There was just one problem. He HADN’T SINNED! Even Job didn’t always make sense. Sometimes he though the wicked prospered (Job 21:7-15) and sometime he thought the wicked would be repaid for their wickedness (Job 27:13-23). Even Job didn’t really know what He was talking about.
Jobs three friends had sat silently for a full week before saying anything. Then they waited for Job to speak first. They would have been wise if they had kept their thoughts to themselves and if they had never spoken because they simply didn’t KNOW WHAT THEY WERE TALKING ABOUT! And they certainly did not know that they did not know.
The people in Acts 17 were ancient Greek philosophers who loved to reason about things that they didn’t understand. They thought they were pretty smart but Paul had to point out that they were worshiping an “unknown God.” This God was not unknown to Paul, but He was unknown to these Greek philosophers. Some of them were Stoics who thought that self-discipline was the answer and some of them were Epicureans who thought that self-indulgence was the answer. But both groups were self-centered and did not know the LIVING AND TRUE GOD. They remind me a lot of the learned religious talk of people who consider themselves educated today. These philosophers certainly did not know that they did not know.
In John 9, a man who was blind from birth is healed by the Lord. The Pharisees said that the Lord was a sinner because he had healed on the Sabbath. The poor fellow who was healed used the logic of the Pharisees to prove that the Lord was not a sinner. Pharisees said God did not hear sinners, but the Lord had been able to heal so He couldn’t have been a sinner. The healed man said in John 9:31, “Now we know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does His will, He hears him.” The blind man knew two things that would never be taken from him. He knew that he could see. He knew that the Lord could not be a sinner. He didn’t know much, but WHAT HE KNEW, HE KNEW!.
The older we get, the more we know that we don’t have all the answers. However, we do know that we can depend upon God and we can depend upon His promises. I have found that when it comes to getting advice, I can shop around until I find those who will give me the advice I want to hear. In addition, if I want to know the will of the Lord in my life, I just ask someone. They will know. If I want to know why I am prospering, I just ask someone. They will know. If I want to know why things have turned out badly, I just ask someone. They will certainly know. And while counselors can be valuable, I have found that much counsel is based on the wisdom of man and not on the wisdom of God.
Job was wise. Even though He didn’t know why he was being attacked, He was going to trust the Lord no matter what. Our problem is that even though there are a lot of things that we don’t know, WE OFTEN DON’T KNOW THAT WE DON’T KNOW! And that is why we should be careful about passing judgment and offering advice.
I am kind of like that blind man. There are a lot of things that I don’t know or understand about God and His ways. But there is one thing that I know. I know that Christ died for me. I know that whereas I was blind, now I see (or understand.) I may not know much, BUT WHAT I KNOW, I KNOW!
Bruce Collins
Meditation for the week of July 14, 2013