A Shepherd’s Musings – God Is Knowable

Week 5  Devotional on the Theme: God Is!

Last week we focused on the truth that God is transcendent or beyond us. This week let’s consider the intriguing truth that although God is transcendent He is knowable.  From Deuteronomy 29:29 we can also discern that this is only possible because God reveals Himself to us: “the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever.”  Do you stand amazed at the eternality of this revelation of knowledge from God? What a gift, privilege, honor, and hope to experience knowing God forever!

The Psalmist of Psalm 100 gives us a good example of a proper response to knowledge of God:

“Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth! Serve the LORD with gladness! Come into his presence with singing! Know that the LORD, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name! For the LORD is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.”

First, let’s list the awesome truths about God acknowledged in this brief song of praise:

1. He is “LORD” Yahweh – the eternal self-existent one
2. He is knowable – “come into his presence . . . Know that the LORD, He is God!”
3. He is the creator – “It is He who made us.”
4. He is in relationship with his creatures  – “we are His; we are his people, and the sheep of His pastor.”
5. He is good – “For the LORD is good”
6. He is loving eternally – “His steadfast love endures forever”
7. He is faithful – “and His faithfulness to all generations.”

Second, let’s list the response called for in the Psalm to the knowledge of God:

1. Joyful noise
2. Service
3. Coming into His presence
4. Singing
5. Assurance in knowing God
6. Peace that we are His people
7. Thanksgiving
8. Praise
9. Blessing His name

How have you recently responded to the knowledge of God?  I encourage you to meditate on the selected verses on knowing God.  May the Lord help us to respond to the revelation of Himself in a more profound and meaningful ways this week!   May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.

With Prayer, Mark                                                                                         © January, 2011

Selected Passages on Knowing God

(Quotations are from the ESV – Emphasis Added)

Proverbs 2:1-5 My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God.

What are the conditions required in these verse to find the knowledge of God?  Do you meet them?

Isaiah 43:10-11, “You are my witnesses,” declares the LORD, “and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me. I, I am the LORD, and besides me there is no savior.

Ezekiel 20:18-20, “And I said to their children in the wilderness, Do not walk in the statutes of your fathers, nor keep their rules, nor defile yourselves with their idols. I am the LORD your God; walk in my statutes, and be careful to obey my rules, and keep my Sabbaths holy that they may be a sign between me and you, that you may know that I am the LORD your God.

Dan 11:32,  The people who know their God shall stand firm and take action.

2 Corinthians 4:5-7, For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.  But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.

Colossians 1:9-12, And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.

1 John 5:20-21, And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols.

2 Peter 1:2, May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.