We are as babes in the womb
We as humans are very quick to judge. I find it interesting how quick we are to write off anything we can’t understand. We cannot explain God so He must not exist. We also are quick to judge the actions of God. It is not uncommon at all to find someone asking God why He did something a certain way. Why did he decide before Jacob and Esau were born that he would love Jacob and hate Esau? Why does it seem that there are inconsistencies in His Word? Why did He create man only to put evil into the world? Why does He hold us responsible for sins we are predisposed to?
When facing questions like these and trying to understand them with our created, human mind it would be easy to write God off. I know that this is one of the reasons so many people ignore Him. They look and see too many unanswerable questions. I get frustrated trying to comprehend His unfathomableness too. At one point in my life I believed that there was no unanswerable questions; that I could answer any question given enough time and information. More recently I have decided that there are some questions that we humans won’t be able to answer.
This can be seen many places in scripture and, for context, I will point you to a couple large portions of scripture and then narrow it down a bit. The first place to look is the book of Job. I would recommend reading the entire book but the following verses capture the issue very well.
Job 26:7-14
He stretches out the north over the void and hangs the earth on nothing. He binds up the waters in his thick clouds, and the cloud is not split open under them. He covers the face of the full moon and spreads over it his cloud. He has inscribed a circle on the face of the waters at the boundary between light and darkness. The pillars of heaven tremble and are astounded at His rebuke. By His power He stilled the sea; by his understanding he shattered Rahab. By his wind the heavens were made fair; His hand pierced the fleeing serpent. Behold, these are but the outskirts of His ways, and how small a whisper we hear of Him! But the thunder of his power who can understand.
The other portion of scripture I would recommend is Romans 9. This is a very disputed part of God’s word as many people struggle with its implications. Verses 19-23 is the part I will focus in on.
Rom. 9:19-23
You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist His will?” But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honored use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show His wrath and make known His power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessel of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory…
One more:
Isiah 55:8-9
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your way My ways”, declares the lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.”
A couple that is close to us had a baby recently. Anytime I hold a baby I always wonder what is going through their mind. What are they thinking about? It would be amazing to see the mind of a baby developing and learning. Then I thought of something else. What a change it must have been going from the world he knew in the womb to the world he is experiencing now.
Since God is infinite (and we are not) in his attributes His mind must be infinitely greater than ours. How then are we supposed to attempt to explain what God is doing in our lives, other’s lives, and in the universe? Trying to explain everything that God is doing would be like a baby in the womb trying to explain the world outside its confines, except on an infinite scale. It has absolutely no ability to do this. It might have a little insight as sounds make it into its world but it could not form an accurate view of the outside world.
It is the same with us as we try to explain God and His work. We do not have the capacity to comprehend everything that He is doing. We have much insight in the Bible and the world around us and we are encouraged to seek out knowledge of our Lord, but we do not have the ability to understand it all. Even though we may gain what seems to us to be great knowledge of God, it is actually only an infinitesimally small amount compared to who He is.
This is one of the great paradoxes of being in Christ. We are encouraged to do something that we cannot fully accomplish. Even though this is something we cannot fully complete while we are here we have to keep in mind that when we pass from this life to the next we will continue to grow in the knowledge of our Lord.
When we are birthed from this womb into the bigger world that is the dwelling of our Savior we will still be babes but we will have a greater picture from which to draw our understanding from. We will be with our God in a way we can’t begin to imagine. Until that time, we shouldn’t be frustrated with all the things we can’t explain. We should instead press on to know Him as best we can here, knowing that He will continue to grow us and use the knowledge He does give us to draw others to Him.
Brian
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Wow! What an awesome analogy! Your depth of thought encourages and inspires me!