Nov. 7 Knowledge Withheld

November 7 - Knowledge Withheld

This is a difficult lesson for me. You see, I really like to 'know' things. I study all the time, I think that research would be the best job in the world for me, I am so excited to have the power of the web at my fingertips nearly all the time. I love knowledge. To find that God withholds information and knowledge from us is a little unnerving to me. But, I am quick to recognize that He is God and I am not.

Genesis 2:17 says, "but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die."

Ok ... God placed a tree in front of me that is filled with knowledge and tells me not to eat the fruit from it. Ummm ... God? Do you not know who I am? I would so be Eve. And I would be in trouble.

Jesus said in John 13:7, "You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand."

Why did He say this? Well, Simon Peter had just asked him if Jesus was going to wash his feet. Hmmm .. since Jesus had done it for everyone else - what do you think, Peter? And Jesus said those words to him. I might have said something along the lines of, "Duh ... and someday you will understand what is going on here, but today? You're dumb as a rock." Alright, maybe I wouldn't have said all those words, but I certainly would have thought them! Sometimes we're just too slow to understand what it is that God is doing in our lives and the lives around us!

In John 16:12 he says, "I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear." Wow, sometimes I feel that way when I'm reading scripture - there's too much to comprehend. Yes, Jesus probably was overwhelming His listeners with information that was beyond their thinking.

1 Corinthians 13:12 says, "Now we see but a poor reflection; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known."

1 John 3:2 says, "Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is."

I've been told that I am not a terribly patient person. Let me tell you, waiting for the knowledge of the world to be given to me nearly kills me sometimes. But, I am confident in the fact that God knows it all and sometime in the far future when I'm in His presence, I will have no more questions and no more desire for knowledge. I will know everything in full.