TO KNOW GOD IS TO TRUST AND LOVE HIM

 

 

Psalm 9:10 And those who know [You] put their trust in you, for you, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek you.

Abraham was a prime example of this principle. His life had been characterized by spiritual failures. Instead of trusting God for an heir, He named his servant, Eliezer, as his heir. Years later, he followed his wife Sarah’s suggestion to raise an heir by his servant girl Hagar. Meanwhile, he required his wife Sarah to say she was only his sister as they sojourned throughout the Promised Land, that it “might go well for Abraham. Even after Yahweh had appeared to him and promised that Sarah would have her promised child in a year, he once again allowed the king to take his beautiful wife into His harem. Yet God struck down the entire Philistine nation of Gerar with a life-threatening disease. God then came to the king in a dream to instruct him to return Sarah to Abraham lest the entire nation die. God also warned that AbrahAm was His prophet, and he would have to pray for Gerar lest they all die.

Wisely, the king returned Sarah but asked Abraham how he could do such a thing to his nation. Shamefully, Abraham explained:

·       Genesis 20:13 And when God caused me to wander from my father’s house, I said to her, ‘This is the kindness you must do me: at every place to which we come, say of me, “He is my brother.”’”

Although Abraham had been a spiritual failure, Scripture presents a different picture:

·       Romans 4:18–21 In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.” He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.

How do we reconcile these two very different  portraits of Abraham—one as a spiritual flop and the other as a giant of the faith? Evidently, Abraham was growing in his faith and the assurance that God was able to provide:

·       Hebrews 11:17–19 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.

·       Romans 4:20…but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.

Abraham now knew, after 40+ years of following Him, that his God would once against deliver Him. Therefore, God remembered him for the man of faith Abraham had become! Even Job, the most righteous man in all the earth, had failed God and was reprimanded for the accusations he had been bringing against Him:

·       Job 38:2 “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?”

After Job had repented twice, God dealt with his three friends who had brought accusations against Job:

·       Job 42:7 …the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite: “My anger burns against you and against your two friends, for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.”

How could Job had spoken of God what was right? God had reprimanded him of not speaking what was right! Did He contradict Himself? No! Instead, Job’s confessions of sin made him righteous in the sight of God (1 John 1:9). Paul also came to know God through what he had suffered:

·       2 Corinthians 1:8–10 For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again.

Because God has delivered us, we become convinced that He will continue to deliver us:

·       Psalm 91:14 Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows [me].

To know our Lord is to stand against adversity:

·       Daniel 11:32–33 [The anti-Christ] shall seduce with flattery those who violate the covenant, but the people who know their God shall stand firm and take action. And the wise among the people shall make many understand, though for some days they shall stumble by sword and flame…

Daniel also came to know His God as trustworthy and was able to stand against the wrath of the king to survive the Lions Den.

As we come to know our God and to trust in Him, we too will be enabled to “stand firm and take action.” Therefore, Jesus had prayed:

·       John 17:26 “I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

How then do we come to know God? Only by seeking Him and His wisdom above all else:

·       Proverbs 2:3–7 yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God. For the LORD gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding; he stores up sound wisdom for the upright; he is a shield to those who walk in integrity,