Fellow travelers,
With other people, we can often decide what they know and don’t know about us. We can guard our reputation by doing things out of the view of others or behind their backs. We believe we can avoid any negative consequences of our actions and choices if others don’t know about them, especially people in authority. Sometimes we may even think this applies to God. Isaiah recognized this when he said the words of Isaiah 29:15 –
“Ah, you who hide deep from the LORD your counsel,
whose deeds are in the dark,
and who say, “Who sees us? Who knows us?””
The verse is directed at people who assume God has limited knowledge of us. People who think they can avoid being seen and avoid consequences. But things that apply to other people do not apply to God. He knows all of our “counsel” – our thoughts – and all of our “deeds” – our actions – even if we think we’re doing them in secret. He, as our maker, knows us better than we know ourselves. He knows all, and Isaiah points out the foolishness of thinking He doesn’t in the next verse:
“You turn things upside down!
Shall the potter be regarded as the clay,
that the thing made should say of its maker,
“He did not make me”;
or the thing formed say of him who formed it,
“He has no understanding”?”
It’s upside down and backwards to apply what we know about people (“the clay”) to our “maker” and “him who formed it.” He sees and understands things we don’t see or understand, not the other way around. Pretending we can keep secrets from Him only deepens our sense of separation. It darkens our “counsel” and ultimately our “deeds” as well. God can’t get us back on the right path if we build up walls against Him. In the case of Isaiah’s audience, since they were not willing to trust God, they end up allying with Egypt[1], something God had told them never to do. In the spiritual metaphor, Egypt represents our slavery to sin, since Israel were once the slaves of Egypt, and they/we should never want to go back. But we so often do, and often because we think He doesn’t know about it or care.
Like Paul in Romans 7:15 (“For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.”), we are people who don’t even understand ourselves. But God knows how we’re broken, why we’re broken, and what can be done to fix us, because He is our “maker.” So, what should we do?
First, we need to recognize that God does see and He does care. Every thought we have and every deed we do matters to Him, because He wants us to be holy, for His glory and for our good. He knows better than us and He expects us to act like we believe that.
Second, regular prayer of confession for purpose of self-examination and re-alignment with God is necessary, otherwise we will continue down the wrong path. I find many of the Psalms to useful guides when it comes to these prayers, but the prayers can come from anywhere as long as they’re sincere.
Third, we must constantly seek to know Him and what He wants, and doing so means spending time with Him in His Word, the Bible. Hebrews 4:12-13 says:
“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”
His word can reach all of our “thoughts and intentions.” It can remind us that nothing is hidden from Him, but it can also teach us what “thoughts and intentions” we ought to have.
Lastly, we must walk according to the Spirit, acting on the right “thoughts and intentions” and live with a clear conscience before God and man. However, if we keep Him out because we are ashamed of our inner desires and rebelliousness, or because we think we can hide it, we are refusing the only solution He has provided for our deepest problems.
Can we do any of these things perfectly? No, but we can and must try. Pretending God is like other people who don’t know or care isn’t an option. He died so we might know Him, and to know Him is to become like Him.
Amen.
[1] Isaiah 30:1-2
Driving Toward the Morning Sun 