Belief + Trust + Faith

How much do we really know about God? How much do we think we need to know?

One morning, right after school had started, the teachers were called into the teacher’s lounge for a quick meeting. This left all the classrooms empty. Mr. Miles knew that he had an especially unruly class, so he turned on the intercom so he could make sure they were not causing problems.

His suspicions were true. He heard all kinds of noise and one little girl’s voice stood out above all the rest. Mr. Miles knew this voice belonged to Mary, so into the microphone, he gave a stern command: “SIT DOWN AND BE QUIET, MARY!”

Instantly, the classroom got very quiet. Then, out of the silence came one little girl’s meek voice saying, “Okay, God.”

Mary obviously knew there was a God, but it was just as obvious that she didn’t know that much about Him. She was like many adults are: They know God is there, but they have many questions regarding Him and His ways.

For instance, we don’t understand the numerology of the Bible, like the number 3 representing the perfect Trinity. Most of us know “about” the Trinity, but we don’t have an understanding of it. I have heard two analogies that try to explain it, but I doubt they do that good of a job.

One is the analogy of the egg. An egg has three parts; the yolk, the white, and the shell. These are three distinct different things, but they all make one egg. The other analogy is of water. When it is frozen, it is ice. When it is heated, it is steam. When it is room temperature, it is liquid. But even though it can appear in three forms, it is still one thing – water.

The Trinity is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Yet, they are one Godhead. In the Trinity, we find three distinct people, all being one God. We don’t understand, and our nature is to understand everything we can, so this must leave many frustrated. But, God tells us that everything about Him is not to be understood by us.

In ISAIAH 55:8-9 –

‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,’ declares the Lord. ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.’

Last week, I told you about Edgar Whisenant. He was the NASA engineer who wrote a book giving his reasons why Jesus would return in 1988. He is the one who said that if Jesus did not come back then, that proved the Bible was wrong.

In the Scripture I just read to you, God is saying that men don’t know His thoughts, no matter how some are arrogant enough to think they do.

In JOHN 16:12, Jesus told His disciples;

‘I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear.’

Jesus wanted to tell them much more, but He knew they could not understand those things of a Godly nature, so in the following verses He tells them that when He is gone, the Holy Spirit will come and they are to lean on Him for the understanding of Godly things.

A Sunday school teacher was teaching the children once about believing in Jesus so they could all go to Heaven. At the end of his talk, he asked them where they wanted to go. All of them yelled out, “Heaven”.

He asked then what they had to do to go there, and there was silence. Then, one boy spoke up and said, “We have to die”. Sometimes, we just don’t have as much understanding as we would like to think we have.

Everyone has questions about God, and God knows we are unable to fully understand everything He wants for and from us, so He gives us glimpses. He doesn’t give us everything we want to know, but He gives us pieces of information, as we need it. These pieces are enough to keep us focused on Jesus and kept safe in His forgiveness. And there is a very good reason why we only get a little at the time.

Would you feel the need to depend on God if you knew as much as He did? I think probably not. As arrogant and self-centered as man has proven himself to be, I think we would turn our backs on God, thinking we were able to give us everything we need. God gives us enough knowledge to know that He exists and that we are to surrender to Him. He gives us the knowledge of why this is important and how we are supposed to do it. And He gives us the knowledge that tells us how very much He loves us.