MY PEOPLE DO NOT KNOW ME!!
“Sons I have reared and brought up, but they have revolted against Me. An ox knows its own master and a donkey its master’s manger, but Israel does not know, My people do not understand.”– (Isaiah 1:2, 3)
Here is a terrible charge levelled against the people of God: even though they bear His Name, they do not know him! How can such a thing be? How is it possible that those who are called the people of God could have no real acquaintance with Him? The clear implication of the above passage from Isaiah is that since it is perfectly natural for the ox and donkey to know their owners, why is it that Israel does not know the Lord? There is a sense of both grief and astonishment in the cry of the prophet.
Could the same be said of the Lord’s people, the Church, today? Tragically, yes! There seems to be little understanding of the God of the Bible amongst today’s Christians. Perhaps we should not be entirely surprised at this, since the Scriptures are steadily being relegated to a position of irrelevance by many, and so there is no true revelation of the Lord. (We do well to remember that it is only the Biblical revelation of God that will keep us from idolatry.)
GOD – OR IDOLS?
In fact it is true to say that mankind has an innate predisposition towards idolatry, in its multifarious forms. If we do not come to know God as He is, then we will invariably have to ourselves a God of our own making, perhaps even worshipping ourselves. Now it may be argued that the Patriarchs of Israel had no Bible and yet knew the true and living God. This is undoubtedly so, but we must remember that God chose sovereignly to reveal Himself to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Moses. It is also worth mentioning that Joseph’s righteous conduct arose out of a genuine experience of the Lord – again without the benefit of the Scriptures.
Nevertheless, the point here surely is that if these men could come to know God without the revelation of the Bible, how much more should we be able to know Him since we have the whole book? However, the failure is that many will not read it, and have to obtain their understanding of God from other sources, particularly books, tapes, videos and the ideas of others, who may not even themselves have a real knowledge of God. Secondly, there can often be a failure to translate what we have read of Him into reality: i.e. for it to become experiential knowledge. The Gospel must be worked out in our lives, not confined to the realms of mere intellectual persuasion. Not only that, perhaps in many ways we have already become like the people of Jeremiah’s day. The prophet’s soul was in anguish because of the impending judgement upon Judah (Jeremiah 4: 19-22); yet note the Lord’s assessment of the state of His people: “My people are foolish, they know Me not; they are stupid children, and they have no understanding.” The writer to the Hebrews expresses it this way: “They always go astray in their heart, and they did not know my ways.” (Hebrews 3:10, quoting from Psalm 95:10). The problem, therefore, is not confined to Israel of old! When Paul writes to the Corinthian church, he upbraids them in very strong terms: he says, “Become sober-minded as you ought, and stop sinning, for some have no knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame.” (1 Corinthians 15:34)
What was wrong here? Some in Corinth it seems were in a state of stupor from giving heed to false doctrine. This is evident from Paul’s use of the term eknepho, which carries the meaning of returning to one’s senses from a state of drunkenness. (It may be suggested that if they had truly known God, they would not have come into such a condition in the first place!) It is evident from the Scripture that each generation of believers must come in to the direct personal knowledge of the Lord for themselves. We will be reminded here of the situation in the time of the Judges. The people had served the Lord all the days of the elders who had survived Joshua. Eventua!Iy all that generation died and “there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord, nor yet the work which He had done for Israel.” (Judges 2: 7-10). The result was that they served the Baals and forsook the Lord.
THE TRUE GOD REDISCOVERED
 Here, then, is what we find: firstly, we are able to know God and His ways through the Scriptures – but we must have the Holy Spirit’s quickening on the Word. We need Him to give light upon it. Secondly, we can know God by His direct, sovereign, personal revelation, but then His Spirit will lead us to the Word. Therefore the Word of God is indispensable to us in seeking to know the true and living God. Failure here will lead eventually to some form of idolatry, perhaps not in the beginning, but in due course becoming almost inevitable. For centuries in our nation, men and women only knew of God through the ministrations of a corrupt church and priesthood, many of whom had no knowledge whatsoever of the Lord or of His Word. The explosion of faith at the time of the Reformation was due to the rediscovery the Scriptures, and the preaching of Biblical truth by genuinely Christlike men. Men and women came to know God for themselves, and the hold of the idolatrous priesthood was broken. Friends, this was true liberty, experienced for the first time by multitudes of the people!
A parallel situation had occurred in the time of King Asa, when the Lord spoke very plainly through Azariah the prophet: “… for many days Israel (i.e. the northern kingdom)was without the true God, and without a teaching priest and without law.” (2 Chronicles 15:3) Asa was encouraged to put away the idols from Judah and Benjamin and to restore the altar of the Lord (v.8); for us this clearly represents seeking afresh to know the true God, and to restore the place of the cross of Christ. Remarkably, many defect to Asa when they see that the Lord His God is with him (v.9). This is always the result when God is pleased to be with someone – it will be evident’
THE TRUE GOD UNKNOWN?
 The author found again recently that even amongst the Lord’s people there can be a real sense of lack here: as one lady put it, “After hearing that word , I feel that I don’t really know God , but I am going to seek Him now.” There must be some clear thinking here: if someone is truly-born again then he is saved, even if, regrettably, he has not pressed on to know the Lord. (After all, even the Apostle Paul spoke of his desire to know more of God in speaking of ‘pressing on’ Philippians 3:7-16. The Greek term here is dioko, which means to pursue, as in a foot race). Having said that, it ought to be the natural desire of every child of God to pursue the knowledge of God, so why does it not happen?
Perhaps one of the chief reasons is the lack of proper Biblical foundation in most people’s lives, with the result that many have an idea of God which is inadequate, incomplete or unbalanced in one way or another. This, in turn, will affect the way w e live, and also profoundly colour our service for God. A clear example of this can be found in the person ‘s attitude to the present foot and mouth outbreak. Is it a judgement from the Lord upon the wickedness of our nation and Government, or is it merely one of those things that happen from time to time? The Archbishop of Canterbury has real difficulty in seeing this as a judgement from the Almighty and prefers to think rather “in terms of the love of God”. It would appear that the Archbishop’s view – and that of many inside and outside the Church who would agree with him – is that Divine Judgement, if it occurs at all, must simply be relegated to some indeterminate date in the future, and that even then God’s love will simply wash over everyone, and all will be pardoned and given access to the Heavenly City!
A TRUE CONCEPT
 If we do away with the concept of God as One Who is able and willing to judge within the sphere of time, then we automatically do away with any concept of true justice. We are then left with man’s idea of justice which is warped, because it is relative, it changes. Now it is vital for our wellbeing and safety that we relate to God as He is not how we would like Him to be! Our concept of God determines how we relate to him, and therefore how we behave. For example, if we believe that there could never be any circumstances in which God would be moved to act against His own people , then that belief will most likely result in a carelessness about the way we live. There may well be a real lack of righteousness and holiness in such a person , since the fear of the Lord will undoubtedly be absent.
The prevailing unreality in much of the Church is due to many worshipping what is in effect a God of their own making, suitable to the expectations of a Biblically illiterate generation. (However, the problem can go deeper than that. Even amongst those who would have confidence in their knowledge of the Scriptures, there can still be an unbalanced view of God’s nature, character and ways. This often finds expression in the perennial Calvinist-Arminian debate, for instance, where both extreme positions can be dogmatically held. Whilst it is a, cause for regret that such dear brethren end up with a lopsided view of God, at least there is a place for the Scriptures in their thinking!)
TURNING TO THE TRUE GOD
 In reading recently a well known publication put out by an evangelical umbrella organisation, the author found himself in some difficulty trying to identify the kind of God apparently worshipped by the contributors to this magazine. In some instances, it was hard to recognise Him as the God of the Bible. How far we have moved – and in such a comparatively short space of time! We are undoubtedly suffering from the ‘pick and mix’ approach to spiritual matters . Which ever aspect of our ‘God ‘ appeals most – that is the kind of ‘God’ we will have. The less ‘appealing’ facets of His character we downplay, or ignore altogether. Most Christians would be horrified at the suggestion that they had created a God of their own imagination: “How could you accuse us of doing what New-Agers do?” they say. Yet that is precisely what they are doing, and it is all the more reprehensible since it involves the Name of the Holy One of Israel.
Again, what of the God of “Alpha”? Is this the God of the Bible ? It may be that a terrible shock could await those whose only acquaintance with the Lord comes through such impoverished means. Of course, the Lord is well able to meet with the seeking heart – almost in spite of men’s endeavours, one might comment – but that does not necessarily validate an unbiblical methodology or technique . Perhaps the last time God was genuinely known in our nation was during the Hebridean revival of the 1950s where many were awakened to their desperate need of Him. Conviction of sin was deep and great was the turning in men’s hearts. Will we ever see anything of this again? Only God knows , but we can readily see how the Holy Spirit recorded such a turning, for such is required in our land:
“… in every place your faith toward God has gone forth, so that we have no need to say anything. For they themselves report about us what kind of a reception we had with you and how you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God…” (I Thessalonians 1:8-10)
End
