Do You Know Me Now?
"This is what the LORD says: 'Let not the wise man gloat in his wisdom, or the mighty man in his might, or the rich man in his riches. Let them boast in this alone: that they truly know me and understand that I am the LORD who is just and righteous, whose love is unfailing, and that I delight in these things. I, the LORD, have spoken!'"-God (to Jeremiah the Prophet, 9.23-24)

If you were to ask your spouse or best friend to describe you, how much could they get wrong before you decided they didn't really know you? Say there's 100 "things" that compose you-personality traits, behavioral tendencies, likes and dislikes, etc. And your spouse, parent, sibling or best friend had to identify or describe as many of those "things" as possible, what score could they get to qualify as actually knowing you? Most of us have a "breaking point", a point at which we would shake our heads and say to someone, "you don't know me."

How many things can you get wrong about God and He would still say you know him? In the passage above, God is pointing out the one thing people should be "proud" about-knowing him. You'll also notice, however, that he throws in a couple of "things" about himself. He delights in justice, righteousness, and unfailing love. If you said you knew God but said He didn't care about justice, or righteousness, or unfailing love, could you truly say you knew Him? I know some say we finite humans can't really know an infinite God, but He seems to think we can in the passage above. In fact, He expects it.

After the Exodus (Exodus 32.1-8), Israel made a golden calf and said "these are the gods who led us out of Egypt." They called the golden calf the LORD (God's own name). They said this calf was the one who saved them from slavery in Egypt. They worshiped the calf as God and offered sacrifices to it. But did they have the right God? Was the calf really the LORD just because they said it was?

In Jeremiah's day he struggled with people speaking in the name of God (but not really for God) or saying things that God would want or cause to happen (when He really didn't or wouldn't, Jeremiah 23.16-17). They said they knew God but really didn't.

How do you get to know God? Lots of people say stuff about God and for God, but are they right? Does it matter if someone says stuff about God or for God but is wrong? Thousands of books and articles are written about God and what He likes, but how do we know if they're right?

A few weeks ago I wrote about us losing our spiritual heritage because we're losing our familiarity with Scripture. We have Bibles but don't know them. We read books about the Bible, God, and faith, but we don't hear the Bible. I know the Bible is not God, but we're not hearing what God says about Himself in it. Neither do we hear what His chosen spokespeople said about Him as His authorized representatives. I don't necessarily think we have to be 100% accurate or God will say we don't know Him. However, don't you think it's a problem for Him to be telling us about Himself but we don't even pay attention?

The more ignorant we become of what God says about Himself, and His "things" that let us know Him, the less able we are to tell when someone is selling us a golden calf and telling us it is the LORD.

~Shawn