We Want to Know
The urge to have control over
everything
versus child-like trust in a good God
André H. Roosma
13 February 2015
(Dutch version: 3 Sept. 2014)1
Knowledge is power!
Throughout the entire Bible we encounter this theme: man wants to
know everything, in order to be able to control the situation of his
life. It already started in Genesis 3. The adversary preached the blunt lie
that God could not be trusted; that He would have evil ulterior motives with
what He had said to ’Adam and Chuah (a.k.a. Eve), that He would want to keep them small and ignorant. When Chuah then
went to distrust God, she lost the security of her existence, and all of a
sudden the tree of knowledge of good and evil became “to be desired, to
make one wise”. And what was the result? A better world? No,
destroyed relationships, accusations instead of earlier appreciation; and
estrangement from God, from each other, and yes, even from one’s own
body...
Since that time I see that again and again that longing to know everything
is there. Well, it will be clear that I have nothing against knowledge itself.
But what we are dealing with here is not about knowledge itself. What is the
subject here is acquiring knowledge in order to have power; power
over situations, power over fellow men and women. Knowledge as a way to avoid
feeling vulnerable or dependent. It is not knowledge to be distributed
freely, but knowledge to control others. We saw this very clearly
with the Perushim or Pharisees.
They considered themselves superior due to their knowledge. Other
people had to call them ‘my master’ (Hebrew:
rabbi) and look up to them. Many people were excluded and
degraded as ‘sinners’ and ‘ignorant’.
And that same poison from Genesis 3 still is doing its destructive work. I
observe it in the past centuries and still up to this very day, on a macro and
a micro level. In family relationships, between countries, in churches –
almost everywhere. Still, there is that urge to have everything clear, to
press everybody into a well-defined role and job description, such that we...
yes, what is this actually all about? ...
such that we will not be child-like dependent on God or others!
Church leaders write doctrines, confessions of faith, creeds, bylaws and
statutes – as real Pharisees they lay it all down in great
detail in writing — and then they wonder that this leads to more
distrust, split-ups and other misery. Yes, I say here: more distrust,
for did they not already start with distrust towards the Head of the Church,
that He would direct everyone to his or her proper place? And that
therefore their only task was to help the people, to connect themselves
with God daily and to live from the communion with Him?
The Biblical alternative
Yeshu‘a (Jesus) showed a totally
different way. In Dutch I already wrote something about it under the title
Gelukkig zijn zij, die...
(Blessed are they who ...) He did not say,
“Blessed are those who have everything well arranged and firmly under
control!” No, His words were: “Blessed
are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” And in this way He continued in Mattit-Yahu (Matthew) 5: 1-12 — in fact a tribute to all those who do
acknowledge that they are weak and dependent.
Elsewhere he spoke of us, people, as sheep under His pastoral guidance, or
vines attached to Him as vine (Yeho-chanan (John) 15). I find little hierarchy in there, little power of one over the other.
I do find much connectedness and interaction between Him and us.
What it all revolves around again and again in the Bible is that God asks
us to put our trust in Him. Not in other powers, not in our own insight or
understanding, not in our equipment – only in Him. Childlike trust.
Without it we can not get there, Jesus said. That trust is trust in the
indescribable goodness and greatness of the God of Isra’el:
YaHUaH - the ever Present One.2 That was the trust that made
David go to battle with the big giant, for whom his older brothers and all
those other Israeli soldiers trembled. And he overcame. Not by his own
superiority, but by God Who was in everything with him.
The Christians in Corinth who had a disproportionally high self esteem were
reminded subtly by Paul that they had meant little when they were called
by God. God did not choose them because they were so learned or so skillful,
or because they had everything so well under control. No, it was His great
mercy in Christ Jesus, Messiah Yeshu‘a,
through which they came to believe and were saved.
Himself educated as a Pharisee, Paul considered all that attainment, all
that knowledge, all that pretense, as harmful garbage or muck,3
because knowing Christ Jesus personally (i.e. the
relationship with Him)4 went so far beyond all that
(see his letter to the Christians in Philippi 3:
5-12).5
In his Gospel and in his letters the central theme of Yeho-chanan (John) was not control through superior knowledge or
skills, no, his central theme was the relationship of trust
with Yeshu‘a.6
And not only in the New Testament do we find this. Among others in the
article series about the Torah I already showed that the Torah
was not intended as law at all, but that in the Torah it’s all
about joy in the relationship with God and with one another.
In the spirit I see a beautiful perspective before us. A unity in which
each is full of joy, praise and wonder about God Himself, and where everyone
confidently takes his or her responsibility to learn to listen carefully to
the voice of the Shepherd. A unity, also, in which everyone therefore
receives richly from God, and shares freely what God gives him or her.
Then the church will again become an organism rather than an organization.
Then not knowledge but relationship will be the leading
principle. Then a pastor and elders will be people who show the way by the
lives they live rather than that they are managers. Then we no longer have
vacancies into which people are pressed with difficulty, as into a
straitjacket in which they just do not fit, but we recognize the gifts and
talents that God has given to build up the whole. Then there will be
confidence and joy — joy in Him and with each other!
Even then there will be suffering and sorrow, by the brokenness in us and
around us, or by prosecution, but then there is in Him and mutually a warmth
and joy that can make even that suffering bearable.
Hallelu-YaH!
Notes
| 1 |
The title of the Dutch original of this article is
We willen weten. Intentionally I have chosen a w... w... w... title
here. What makes the world-wide web so popular? Could it
- in part - be related to our desire to know everything, as described
here? |
| 2 |
The glorious Name of God represents His presence. Here,
that great Name is not replaced arbitrarily by some other word (e.g. LORD)
but transliterated as accurate as possible from the oldest Hebrew original.
For more background information on this see:
André H. Roosma,
‘The wonderful and lovely
Name of the God Who was there, Who is there, and Who will be there’  , extensive
Accede! / Hallelu-YaH!
study, July 2009. |
| 3 |
It is striking, that Paul uses this word here referring
to his formerly being a Pharisee. The word ‘muck’ here is the
translation of the Greek σκύβαλον - skubalon which means muck or dregs in the sense of worthless and detestable, as
excrements of animals (more negative than dung, which still has some
use agriculturally). However, Paul will have thought in Hebrew. The Hebrew
word that is equivalent in meaning is: פֶּרֶשׁ - peresh.
Yes, apart from the vowel signs that were added later, this is the same word
as פָּרָשׁ -
pārāsh, the root of the word perushim - pharisees.
The likeness and significance is clear: pharisee-ism is very dirty and one
is to get rid of it as soon as possible! |
| 4 |
I find it remarkable that the Biblical Hebrew word
for the verb to know, yada‘, originally:
wada‘, is also a word for experiencing the deepest unity between
husband and wife, in spirit and body... In case all the rest does not already
point to all revolving primarily around relationship and trust,
then this will... |
| 5 |
In his letter to the Christians in Corinth Paul said
that our knowing is incomplete and limited, and that we should especially
strife for love (1 Cor. 13). A little earlier (8: 1b-3) he wrote to them:
““Knowledge” puffs up, but love builds
up. If any one imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he
ought to know. But if one loves God, one is known by him.” So,
it’s primarily all about the love-bond with God!
The love of Christ surpasses knowledge, he wrote to the church in Ephesus (3:
19).
To his follower Timothy he recommends: “O Timothy,
guard what has been entrusted to you. Avoid the godless chatter and
contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge, ...”
Knowledge often leads to oppositions. It is falsely called knowledge,
because it is not about knowing God in the sense of maintaining a close bond
with Him. About this, see also my article ‘What to boast in – the Message of Yirme-Yahu 9: 23-24’. |
| 6 |
In his first letter Yeho-chanan (John) says that not we
but God has knowledge of all things (1 John 3: 20). It is safe to give Him the
last word in everything. |
As always, something that has been weighing deeply on my
heart, Father uses you to confirm through your writings. André, my dear
brother and friend, thank you for these words..
André (author)
Thanks Derek, for your appreciation!
Yes, I
thank YaHUaH for the great insight He gives into His Word!
Great
to have readers who are on the same wavelength, like you are!
YaH
bless you, and your ministry as well!
|
