Beautiful Mystery: How Unsearchable His Judgments

I was just thinking today about how I love old buildings and the romantic mystery of wondering what took place there so many years before. I think sometimes we forget the beautiful mystery of God. We try to study His word perfectly and sometimes fool ourselves into thinking that we can know it all exactly, that we can get it just right. I don't know. Somehow I think that's a little too uncomplicated for God. God is GOD! God is complicated. God is amazing. And wouldn't the God who created the Universe be mysterious and beyond our understanding? God is not like just any college professor- you can study enough to become like them. God is beyond what we are capable of learning in many lifetimes... now that's awesome!


Our Lack of Knowledge

1 God presides in the great assembly;
he gives judgment among the "gods":
2 "How long will you [c] defend the unjust
and show partiality to the wicked?
Selah

3 Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless;
maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed.

4 Rescue the weak and needy;
deliver them from the hand of the wicked.

5 "They know nothing, they understand nothing.
They walk about in darkness;
all the foundations of the earth are shaken.

6 "I said, 'You are "gods";
you are all sons of the Most High.'

7 But you will die like mere men;
you will fall like every other ruler."

8 Rise up, O God, judge the earth,
for all the nations are your inheritance. (Psalm 82)


This sounds like a frustration we might have. Look at the situation of the world- the hunger, death, pain, war, affliction- God stop all of this. Why do bad things happen to good people? And why is the reverse true? But we remember, like Asaph, that we are wandering around in darkness. We don't know the whole story, the why, the how, what is going on here. And we don't know, because even though we are sons of the Father, we are just men. We are just human. We have a limited understanding and a limited lifespan unlike the Lord who knows all.

A little humility goes a long way... recognizing that we really don't know understand so much, that we know nothing in comparison to the all-reaching knowledge of God. And the comparison makes for an awesome sight. There is none like Him and the depth of His wisdom.


The Depth of His Wisdom

33Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and[d] knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgments,
and his paths beyond tracing out!
34"Who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has been his counselor?"[e]
35"Who has ever given to God,
that God should repay him?"[f]
36For from him and through him and to him are all things.
To him be the glory forever! Amen. (Romans 11:33-36)

Perhaps it is because I have this pressure to become 'an expert in my field', but there is something sooo comforting about not being able to know and not being expected to know. It is humbling too, as I mentioned before. We can't study a few more hours to learn God's paths or judgments. We won't be able to know His mind. How could we imagine ourselves able to 'counsel' Him? If we couldn't counsel Him, then we ought to put everything into a perspective of humility. God does not need to repay us at all, in fact we could never be able to repay Him.

The phrase that struck me to the core this morning was "how unsearchable His judgments, His paths are beyond tracing out!" No detective, no secret agent, He is beyond us. It is this that reminds us that He is Lord, and allows us to stand in awe of Him.