The People Who Know Their God

All of us love to do exploits. Everyone wants to accomplish something great. Who doesn’t like to do great things? However, believe me, we all can carry out, not just exploits, but great exploits. There is only one condition for that. We must know our God – the Creator of heaven and earth.

Daniel 11:32b - The people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits.

In the book of Daniel, it is said that the people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits.

You may say – Yes, we know our God, we know Jesus, we know that He is the Creator, He died for our sins and rose again. We know that we can have eternal life if we trust in Him.

Good! But that is the knowledge you have about God. There is a huge difference between knowing God and knowing about God. Even Satan knows about God. He knows that Jesus died for our sins and rose again. However, knowing God refers to our personal and intimate relationship with Him.

We all know the great celebrities and leaders of this world. That is our knowledge about them. However, we do not know them the same way we know our spouses or our children. We know our family members in an intimate way. We know what likes them, what hurts them, their likes, their dislikes, their very personality and everything else. That should be how we must know God.

Only this intimate relationship with God will help us grow strong in Him and do great exploits.

Our depth of our relationship with Him is directly proportional to the great exploits that we can do.

The Israelite community lacked a personal relationship with Him

Exo 19:5-6 - Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel.”

Exo 19:8 - Then all the people answered together and said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do.” So Moses brought back the words of the people to the Lord.

They had knowledge of God, they had seen His great works and mighty wonders in Egypt. They even showed willingness to obey Him. But they did not know Him personally

Exo 20:18-19 - Now all the people witnessed the thunderings, the lightning flashes, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood afar off. Then they said to Moses, “You speak with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die.”

They just wanted a second-hand relationship with God. They were satisfied to hear from God through the man Moses.

Many of us fall in that category. We often hear people say, “Please pray for me and let me know what the Lord is saying?”

However, among that huge congregation of 6 lakh men alone, there was a small group of people who knew God to some extent. They had a personal relationship with God.

Exodus 24:9-10 - Then Moses went up, also Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and they saw the God of Israel. And there was under His feet as it were a paved work of sapphire stone, and it was like the very[a] heavens in its clarity.

These 70+ elders saw the manifestation of God. But they could not wait in His presence. They were told to wait while Moses and Joshua went up further. However, tired of waiting, they returned to the Israelites camp and worse still, they built a golden calf.

Exodus 32:4 - And he received the gold from their hand, and he fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made a molded calf. Then they said, “This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!”

There were however two men, Moses and Joshua, who approached even closer to God.

Exodus 24:12-13 - Then the Lord said to Moses, “Come up to Me on the mountain and be there; and I will give you tablets of stone, and the law and commandments which I have written, that you may teach them.”So Moses arose with his assistant Joshua, and Moses went up to the mountain of God.

Why was Joshua chosen by Moses? Joshua had a unique relationship with God.

Exodus 33:10-11 - All the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the tabernacle door, and all the people rose and worshiped, each man in his tent door. So the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. And he would return to the camp, but his servant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle.