“Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.” (Jer, 33:3)
The verse could remind us of at least three sterling descriptions of the Majestic God.
First, it may tell us to call to Him – “Call to me…” -- but we should not forget and should emphasize that it is God who calls. And He is a faithful “Caller”(1 Thess. 5:24).
We read in John 6:28-29: “Then they asked him, ‘What must we do to do the works God requires?’ Jesus answered, ‘The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.’”
God’s Word translation of the Bible renders the same verses: “The people asked Jesus, ‘What does God want us to do?’ Jesus replied to them, ‘God wants to do something for you so that you believe in the one whom he has sent.’” I love that translation: “God wants to do something for you…” Though we are concerned to perform what God requires, it is God who wants to do something for us, so that we’ll have faith in His Son!
Yes, God wants to do something for us! In fact, the Bible says, God “...has QUALIFIED YOU to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. For he has RESCUED US from the dominion of darkness and BROUGHT US into the kingdom of the Son…” (Col 1:12-13.) 2 Tim 2:25 says, it is “God (who) will GRANT... REPENTANCE…” In Deut 30:6, we read: “The LORD your God will CIRCUMCISE YOUR HEARTS and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul…” Ezek 36:26-27 reveals God “...will GIVE YOU A NEW HEART and PUT A NEW SPIRIT in you; ...will REMOVE FROM YOU your heart of stone and GIVE YOU A HEART OF FLESH… will PUT (HIS)... SPIRIT in you and MOVE YOU to follow … (His) decrees and be careful to keep… (His) laws.”
And we may be tempted to emphasize Rom 10:13, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."
But should we not exalt God? Should we not praise Him more for what He does? Should we not abound with gratitude that “God, who HAS CALLED YOU into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful” (1 Cor 1:9)?
Should we not also say it is God who has called us, even before there is any desire in our hearts to call upon Him?
Yes, let’s focus on Jesus. Let’s focus on what He did, what He is doing and what He will still do for us. “And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified” (Rom 8:30).
Truly, our salvation does not depend in our works (Eph. 2:8-9), but on the cross!
Aside from a “Faithful Caller;” He is the God who Answers – “ I will answer you..”
Challenged the prophet Elijah, “Then you call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the LORD. The god who answers by fire-he is God” (1 Kings 18:24).
And God did answer:
At the time of sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed: "O LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. Answer me, O LORD, answer me, so these people will know that you, O LORD, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again." Then the fire of the LORD fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench. When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, "The LORD-he is God! The LORD-he is God!" (1 Kings 18:36-39.)
Let’s also listen to the testimony of king David, “To the LORD I cry aloud, and he answers me from his holy hill.” “Now I know that the LORD saves his anointed; he answers him from his holy heaven with the saving power of his right hand.” “I call on the LORD in my distress, and he answers me” (Ps. 3:4; 20:6; 120:1).
During our time, I also experienced many answers from Him. But what was really significant was an occasion when His answer did not happen in the form of visible deliverance. It was, perhaps, a “once-in-a-lifetime” problem in my life that really disturbed me for several days until I found it hard to sleep. No solution was in sight. No person could help me, even the one dearest to me. Only God.
One night, that I will always remember, when I could not again sleep, His answer came. It did not come by “burning away” my problem. It did not come by pouring down on me an overflowing blessings of solution or favors. Neither it came through His thundering voice waking all those who are asleep in the area, while causing me to sleep by His Sovereign command!
His encouraging word of promises I continually repeated in my mind became “alive” and “as if” – but during that very moment, it was so real to me – He was answering to eliminate all my doubts and apprehensions with a very gentle, sweet, comforting voice with a “commanding” assurance that all will be fine… like the voice of a loving parent singing to put his baby to sleep… I believe that was the “sweetest” sleep I was privileged to experience. He can answer also through a sweet voice!
As God who Answers, He can answer in and through many ways.
Job 33:13-30 states in part: “Why do you complain to him that he answers none of man’s words? For God does speak-now one way, now another- though man may not perceive it. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on men as they slumber in their beds, he may speak in their ears and terrify them with warnings, to turn man from wrongdoing and keep him from pride, to preserve his soul from the pit, his life from perishing by the sword…God does all these things to a man- twice, even three times--to turn back his soul from the pit, that the light of life may shine on him.”
Lastly, we can also learn from Jeremiah 33:3, really God is the Revelator -- He will “tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.”
We tend to believe that the “great and unsearchable things” we do not know is the future, the secret of success, the way to perfect health, peace, or happiness, or the mystery of the universe, electricity, etc.
Is there anything greater than the Great God? Is there more “unsearchable” than His love, grace, power, mercy, faithfulness, etc.? Could it be that He is more concerned of revealing Himself more intimately to His people?
The same prophet Jeremiah wrote, “’Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,’ declares the LORD” (Jer. 9:23-24).
How about the prophet Isaiah?
"’You are my witnesses,’ declares the LORD,
‘and my servant whom I have chosen,
so THAT YOU MAY KNOW AND BELIEVE ME
AND UNDERSTAND THAT I AM HE.
Before me no god was formed,
nor will there be one after me.
11 I, even I, am the LORD,
and apart from me there is no savior.
12 I have revealed and saved and proclaimed--
I, and not some foreign god among you…’” (Isa 43:10-12.)
And the Revelator Himself said, “I have made you (God the Father) known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them" (John 17:26).And in Matt. 11:27, “All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”
Do we call and come to God, so He can unveil the future to us, to disclose the solution to our problems, or to reveal Himself to us?
Paul was desirous to know more Jesus than to make himself comfortable. Let’s follow his example. Nothing is more encouraging, comforting and satisfying than to become acquainted with the Great and Unsearchable God – the Faithful Caller, the God who Answers in many ways and the Revelator who reveals Himself to His people!
