What do we know?
Here in America, truth is relative. In our postmodern way of thinking, intelligence is determined not by facts but by feelings. Knowledge is measured by our level of assent to popular opinion. If feelings and worldly ideas were the answers to life’s problems, however, wouldn’t our world be getting better, not worse?
The book of Job is a poetic masterpiece in which true wisdom is slowly revealed through apparent injustice, physical suffering, ridicule, mental anguish, and spiritual confusion. Job, a righteous man who served God, is suddenly struck with tragic loss and physical pain so intense that he loathes the day he was born. On top of that, his wife basically tells him to curse God and take his own life, while his friends – perhaps well-meaning – come to visit and to share their “solutions” to Job’s predicament. God is not unjust, they say. So you must be sinning. You need to repent – then all will be well with you.
But what did Job’s friends know?
They spoke only out of their human understanding of how the world works, of how God works. But could they truthfully stand and say they can explain God and all His ways? “Oh the depths of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!” (Romans 11:33).
What do any of us know, really?
Job, while still unsure why God was allowing such a fate to befall him, knew more than most. In fact, he knew the most important truth there is to know this side of heaven – that we cannot, in our finite human minds, obtain the fullness of wisdom to make complete sense of the world, much less God. We can search and search, and gain treasures of knowledge along the way, but we will never come to the end of our need for more.
“…where can wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding? Man does not know its value, Nor is it found in the land of the living. The deep says, ‘It is in not in me’; And the sea says, ‘it is not with me.’ Pure gold cannot be given in exchange for it, Nor can silver be weighed as its price.” (Job 28:12-15).
C.S. Lewis expressed something similar:
“When a man is getting better he understands more and more clearly the evil that is still left in him. When a man is getting worse he understands his own badness less and less. A moderately bad man knows he is not very good: a thoroughly bad man thinks he is all right. This is common sense, really. You understand sleep when you are awake, not while you are sleeping. You can see mistakes in arithmetic when your mind is working properly: while you are making them you cannot see them. You can understand the nature of drunkenness when you are sober, not when you are drunk. Good people know about both good and evil: bad people do not know about either.”
In short, real wisdom and knowledge begins when we realize how much we don’t know! More specifically, wisdom begins in a correct posture before the One who does have perfect wisdom in all things.
“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge…” (Proverbs 1:7).
Are you struggling to know why bad things are happening to you, even though you have always tried to do what is right? Are you wondering why God, if He is truly good and wholly powerful, would allow tragedy and tribulation to occur in this world? Might I suggest that you stop striving to understand, and simply submit to God and His Word? Trust in His perfect ways, know that He sees the beginning and the end at the same moment in time. Rest in His love and compassion that supersedes any definition that we could give it from our limited view.
And that’s when we’ll begin to know something.
That’s when we’ll begin to hear the voice calling us into a deeper relationship with the God who formed us and made us in His image.
“Wisdom has built her house, She has hewn out her seven pillars; She has prepared her food, she has mixed her wine: She has also set her table; She has sent out her maidens, she calls From the tops of the heights of the city: ‘Whoever is naïve, let him turn in here!’ To him who lacks understanding she says, ‘come, eat of my food And drink of the wine I have mixed. Forsake your folly and live, And proceed in the way of understanding.” (Proverbs 9:1-6)
We will never come to the end of our need for more wisdom to live rightly in this life – to live to the glory of our Creator who alone is complete in knowledge and perfect in all of His ways. We can pretend to have the answers, or attempt to convince others that we know where to find them. But it’s not until we realize how much we don’t know, or will ever know, that wisdom begins to shine its light and lead us onto the path that brings life and assurance of hope.
In The Baby Will Be All Right (available on this site at the Extra Second Inc. store!), I tell the story of a family who strove so hard to come to terms with the news that their child was brain injured and the looming threat that she would never walk or talk. The mom, Athena, suffered emotionally and physically trying to solve her daughter’s problem in her own strength and understanding. Until one day, she collapsed. After being diagnosed with extreme anxiety and exhaustion, she left the hospital and got in her car, the anxiety just as heavy as before. And then she was met with a light of wisdom, calling her to come and enjoy the life that it offered. Stopped at an intersection, a bumper sticker on the car in front of her read, “God is your answer”.
God is the answer for all of us. Fear him, trust Him, and you will begin to understand your place as a humble creature, dependent on your Creator – a Creator who also lovingly opened the door for us to know Him and to learn of the mysteries of his wonderful grace.