Romans 11:33-34 (NIV): Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! “Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?”
There are many these days who, like Job’s friends, speak strongly about God in ways that imply their intimate knowledge of His every thought. Those people seem to have no problem explaining God’s every motive (and often explaining away His every miracle!), and will confidently talk about the deepest recesses of His mind and thoughts. Those people may have studied the Bible thoroughly, and be able to quote chapter and verse, but they must remember that nothing could be known about God without His revealing it to mankind in the first place. And in the Scriptures, even though God has revealed everything that people need to know in order to live in relationship with Him, and to share the gospel with others, He has only revealed a small sliver of the infinity that there is to know about Him. Even if every computer in the world were devoted solely to compiling data about God, they would only be able to scratch the surface. Like Job, those who truly encounter God suddenly realize how vast, how utterly beyond human comprehension He is. The rightful role of humanity is not to fully comprehend God, or to fully explain Him, or to dissect and analyze Him, but to learn His word thoroughly so that they can fully obey all that He have revealed to us; to follow God everywhere that He leads, so that we can accomplish the work He has set forth for us to do; and to learn to live in His presence here and now, so that we will be able to live in His presence forever. If we will content ourselves with doing that, then we will have all of eternity to learn about Him in all of His fullness, and even then will never be able to learn it all!
Father, You are truly amazing, and it is easy to see how vast and inconceivable You are just by looking up at the vastness of the universe You have made. Lord, forgive us for our pride in thinking that we have You nailed down – that we truly understand You in every aspect, or even in some aspects, when we can’t even truly understand each other! Help me today to simply obey You, to humbly follow You, and to thankfully receive each blessing from Your hand. Amen.