When I was growing up in Northern California, in the 60's and 70's, I and most of my friends were obsessed with finding a sense of meaning and purpose in life. One of the popular songs we listened to began with the words, “I don’t want no gold watch for working 50 years from nine to five.” The adults we knew seemed to be living such meaningless lives, going through the same routines year after year. We wanted to do something worthwhile, something exciting. We thought life should be more than what we saw all around us.
The author of Ecclesiastes struggled with the same thing. Here’s how the book begins: “Smoke, nothing but smoke.... There’s nothing to anything–it’s all smoke. What’s there to show for a lifetime of work, a lifetime of working your fingers to the bone? One generation goes its way, the next one arrives, but nothing changes–it’s business as usual for old planet earth. The sun comes up and the sun goes down, then does it again, and again–the same old round.... Everything’s boring, utterly boring–no one can find any meaning in it. Boring to the eye, boring to the ear. What was will be again, what happened will happen again. There’s nothing new on this earth. Year after year it’s the same old thing” (1:2-5, 8, The Message). I hadn’t read Ecclesiastes at that point, and I would have been surprised to find these kinds of things in the Bible. I would have been surprised to learn that a biblical writer agreed with my perception that the life that was being offered to me at that point, the life to which most people I knew resigned themselves, was meaningless, that it lacked any sense of purpose.
In the introduction to Ecclesiastes in The Message, Eugene Peterson makes this observation: “Everything we try is so promising at first! But nothing ever seems to amount to very much. We intensify our efforts–but the harder we work at it, the less we get out of it. Some people give up early and settle for a humdrum life. Others never seem to learn, and so they flail away through a lifetime, becoming less and less human by the year, until by the time they die there is hardly enough humanity left to compose a corpse.” One group resigns itself to the meaninglessness of existence and just goes through the routine. The other group fights against the sense of meaninglessness but never arrives at anything better; those who follow this route end up destroying themselves in the process.
But what is the root of the problem? Why does life so often seem so unsatisfying? Why is there such a sense of restlessness and discontent in our hearts? Because we were created to know God and worship Him, to “glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” The abundant life that Jesus came to give His followers is not a life of luxury and ease, but a life of fellowship with God. This is eternal life: knowing God. This is what we were created for, and it’s what our hearts long for. St. Augustine said “You awake us to delight in Your praise; for You made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You” (The Confessions of St. Augustine, a modern English version by Hal M. Helms, p. 7). Our hearts are restless until they find rest in God. This is the way we were made, and we can’t escape it, no matter how hard we try.
These verses in Jeremiah 9 deal with this same issue from a different perspective. God had given Jeremiah this message to deliver; verse 23 begins with the words, “This is what the Lord says,” and verse 24 closes with “declares the Lord.” This is a message from God to His people. Jeremiah ministered during one of the darkest period’s in Israel’s history. At one point, he said this to the people in Judah and Jerusalem: “For the past twenty-three years–from the thirteenth year of Josiah son of Amon, king of Judah, until now–the Lord has been giving me his messages. I have faithfully passed them on to you, but you have not listened” (Jer. 25:3, NLT). The people were determined to walk away from God. But because we were created to be worshipers, when we turn away from God we don’t stop worshiping. We just end up worshiping something less than God Himself. We take that which belongs to God alone and give it to His creatures. That’s what happened to Israel at this point. They didn’t stop worshiping. They turned away from God and started worshiping idols.
And in turning away from God, they sought meaning and purpose in other things. They sought to meet their spiritual needs through idolatry. But idols don’t really exist. They’re gods created in our own image. They don’t do anything, in themselves. They’re not capable of filling the God-shaped vacuum in our lives. So when we turn away from God we turn to all sorts of other things in a desperate attempt to fill the sense that something is wrong, that something is missing. Verse 23 lists some of the things people use in this way: wisdom, strength, and riches.
The author of Ecclesiastes sought meaning in all these things and he concluded that none of them gave him what he really wanted. When we don’t have these things it often seems, from a distance, like they’ll be the very thing we’re hoping for. (Why do people spend so much money on lottery tickets, for example?) But when we get these things, they disappoint us. The book of Ecclesiastes is an extended commentary on what Jeremiah 9:23 says. The book itself doesn’t have much positive teaching. Its function is to undermine our false hopes, to turn us in the right direction. Here’s more from Peterson’s introduction: “But [Ecclesiastes] is most emphatically and necessarily in the Bible in order to call a halt to our various and futile attempts to make something of our lives, so that we can give our full attention to God–who God is and what he does to make something of us. Ecclesiastes actually doesn’t say that much about God; the author leaves that to the other sixty-five books of the Bible. His task is to expose our total incapacity to find the meaning and completion of our lives on our own.” We’re incapable of finding a sense of meaning and purpose in our lives on our own, apart from God. That’s why God’s message through Jeremiah begins with these words: “Don’t let the wise brag of their wisdom. Don’t let heroes brag of their exploits. Don’t let the rich brag of their riches” (The Message).
The Eagles were my favorite rock group in the 70's. In the mid-70's they were at the top of the recording world. Everything they did was successful, and they made millions of dollars. But they were miserable, and they reached a point where they just couldn’t keep it together any more. It took them months to record their final album, and for much of the time it seemed like they were spinning their wheels, getting nowhere. Part of the problem was that they were heavily into drugs at the time, but it was more than that. They were discovering that success is never what we expect it to be. Their song, “After the Thrill is Gone,” describes something of what was happening in their lives: “What can you do when your dreams come true and it’s not quite like you had planned?” They were experiencing what the author of Ecclesiastes experienced and what Jeremiah warned about: “Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches.”
Verse 24 gives the positive side. Here’s the thing that’s worth boasting about, here’s the thing that’s really worthwhile, here’s the thing–the only thing–that won’t finally disappoint us: knowing God. If you want to boast, boast about this. If you feel a sense of emptiness in the depths of your heart, if you find yourself wondering what’s the use of doing all the things we do in life, here’s the answer.
He describes this knowledge in two ways: “that he understands and knows me.” First, there are things we need to know about God. We need to know the truth about Him, what He’s like. Part of knowing God is understanding who He is, knowing the things He’s revealed about Himself in His Word. There’s a tendency, in the contemporary church, to think that theology is a waste of time. Several years ago, in a popular evangelical magazine, there was a discussion about the book, The Prayer of Jabez. Some people were very enthusiastic about the book, and others were critical. The following month, one of the letters to the editor said, “God rescue us from the theologians!” The point was that this book is helping a lot of people, and theologians have no business criticizing it. Theology, in this view, is only about irrelevant, and often divisive, details. Theologians need to get out of the way and let us get on with living the Christian life.
When I first started reading theology, in 1978, I felt guilty, like I was falling away from genuine Christianity. I had to keep bringing myself back to the fact that I was only studying what God has revealed about Himself in His Word. We need to know the truth about who God is. One of Satan’s strategies is to tell us lies about God. That’s what he did with Eve in the garden. He undermined her assurance in God’s goodness. He convinced her that God was keeping them from something good by forbidding them to eat from the Tree, and that He was doing it out of selfishness: “God knows that your eyes will be opened when you eat it. You will become just like God, knowing everything, both good and evil” (Genesis 3:5, NLT). A.W. Tozer said, “Nothing twists and deforms the soul more than low or unworthy conception of God” (“God is Easy to Live With,” in The Root of the Righteous, p. 13). We need to know enough to discern and reject Satan’s lies. This is one of the purposes of theology.
So one side of the knowledge Jeremiah describes in v. 24 is knowing the truth about who God is, knowing what He’s revealed about Himself. But that’s not the only thing. Just studying the truth in a detached way can actually destroy us spiritually. God our Creator and Lord is not a subject for our hobbies. We study about Him in order to know Him better. When we try to separate these things, we endanger our own souls.
Jeremiah uses two words here, to make sure we hold onto both things. We need to understand who God is, and we need to know Him through a personal encounter. The Welsh preacher Martyn Lloyd-Jones has had a major impact on my life. I first read his Studies in the Sermon on the Mount when I was travelling in North India in 1978, and it changed the way I look at Scripture. Since then I’ve probably read 20 or so of his books, some of them more than once. I’ve also read his two-volume biography by Iain Murray and have read his published letters and a number of essays about him and have listened to some recorded sermons. But I never met him and he died in 1981. I know a fair amount about him, but I don’t know him. I could learn more about him by talking to people who knew him, but I still wouldn’t know him in the way I know the members of my family. I know a lot about them, but I also have a relationship with them. We interact with each other every day and care for one another. There’s a whole dimension that we can’t get simply by gathering information about someone. God’s desire is that we not only learn about Him, but that we cultivate a relationship with Him. He wants us to know Him.
Samuel Rutherford was a Scottish preacher in the 1600's. Listen to something he wrote from prison: “Would to God that all this kingdom, and all that know God, knew what is betwixt Christ and me in this prison–what kisses, embracements, and love communion! I take his cross in my arms with joy; I bless it, I rejoice in it. Suffering for Christ is my garland. I would not exchange Christ for ten thousand worlds! Nay, if the comparison could stand, I would not exchange Christ with heaven” (The Letters of Samuel Rutherford, p. 213). This isn’t the language of detached theological speculation. He knew the truth about God; much of his ministry had been occupied with theological controversy. Rutherford understood the necessity and value of theology. But he also knew God in personal experience. And in prison he was finding a closer communion with Christ than he had ever known before.
This is eternal life: to know the only true God. The passage in John 17 also contains both elements: we need to know the truth about God, we need to know who He is; but it’s more than a detached knowledge about someone. Eternal life is knowing God. But Jesus adds something here: “that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” We know God through the free gift of salvation in Jesus Christ. Don’t think of this free gift as a once-and-done thing. We don’t “get ourselves saved” to ensure that we’ll be admitted to heaven when we die, then go on to live our lives without giving it any more thought. Through Jesus Christ we are admitted into fellowship with the Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Through Jesus Christ, we are able to spend the rest of our lives–even the rest of eternity–getting to know God better. The point of salvation is to restore us to fellowship with God, not merely to ensure a comfortable after-life. “This is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”
“You awake us to delight in Your praise; for You made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.” Does that describe your experience? Is your heart restless, filled with a sense of longing, a sense that something is missing? If so, what are you doing about it? Are you hungering and thirsting for more of God, the only one who can fulfill this longing? Are you seeking Him. Or are you allowing other things to drown out His Spirit?
Or maybe the voice of His Spirit has already been dulled over the course of your life. Maybe you’ve already given up and settled for a humdrum life. But even so, I suspect there are times when you wish things were otherwise, when you feel the weight of the meaninglessness of life in this world apart from God. God has made you for Himself; no matter how hard you try, you can’t change the fact that you were created for fellowship with God.
We begin by confessing that we’re sinners, receiving the free gift of mercy through Jesus, who paid in full the penalty for our sin. But then, having begun, how do we grow to know Him better? To begin with, by studying His Word, reading attentively to know what He’s said about Himself. And by spending time in His presence, meditating on His Word and praying in response to what you read. I often quote A.W. Tozer, because he hungered and thirsted after God for a lifetime, and he said a lot of helpful things in that area. He was especially concerned about the lack of spiritual growth he observed in Christians he knew. He was concerned at seeing people who’d been Christians for 30 or 40 years, but who seemed to have made no progress toward spiritual maturity. Here’s what he said about the problem: “The causes of retarded growth are many. It would not be accurate to ascribe the trouble to one single fault. One there is, however, which is so universal that it may easily be the main cause: failure to give time to the cultivation of the knowledge of God” (“We Must Give Time to God,” in The Root of the Righteous, pp. 10-11). For the most part, we don’t know God very well because we don’t spend time in His presence. We need to make time for Him, and we need to persevere in seeking Him over the course of our lives.
But beyond this, here are a few other suggestions before I close. 1) If you want to know God better, don’t take sin lightly. Jeremiah says that God exercises “kindness, justice and righteousness on earth.” He’s concerned about righteousness. Don’t be careless with what you consider “little sins.” Sin will cloud your relationship with God and will prevent you from knowing Him better. We need to take seriously the damage that sin causes in our relationship with God. But, at the same time, we need to know what to do when we do fall into sin. John’s first letter says this: “My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin; but if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense, Jesus Christ the righteous one” (2:1). The idea is to avoid sin, but when we do fall into sin we need to avoid wallowing in discouragement and self-pity. The solution–the only solution–is to come boldly into God’s presence and ask for mercy.
2) Avoid things that dull, or take the edge off, your spiritual appetite. These are things that may be legitimate in themselves, but they tend to keep you from seeking God. Other people seem to engage in these things harmlessly, but it doesn’t work that way for you. I have friends who don’t own a TV for that reason. They see others who watch in moderation, but if the TV is there in the house they lose control over it, and soon they find that their prayer life has been undermined. For others it can be a hobby that consumes all your free time, or a certain type of books or music; not things that are sinful in themselves, but they end up harming you. They dull your spiritual appetite and draw you away from seeking God. Excessive recreation is another possibility. Whatever it is in your life that gets in the way of seeking God, you need to avoid it. Don’t make excuses, and don’t try to justify yourself. Admit your weakness, cry out to God for help, and lay the thing aside. It may be fine for others, but not for you. Here’s another quote from Tozer: “A thousand distractions would woo us away from thoughts of God, but if we are wise we will sternly put them from us and make room for the King and take time to entertain Him. Some things may be neglected with but little loss to the spiritual life, but to neglect communion with God is to hurt ourselves where we cannot afford it. God will respond to our efforts to know Him. The Bible tells us how; it is altogether a matter of how much determination we bring to the holy task” (Ibid., pp. 12-13).
3) Put yourself in places where you’ll grow in the knowledge of God. Don’t miss an opportunity to be someplace where people seem to be enjoying fellowship with Him. Discipline yourself to attend times of corporate prayer, whether you feel like it or not. Don’t allow yourself to avoid corporate worship unless you’re truly unable to be there. Christ has promised to be present when His people are gathered in His name. We tend to pamper ourselves too much in this area. By taking yourself in hand and dragging yourself to church when you really don’t want to go, you’re demonstrating to God that you’re in earnest, that you truly desire to know Him. He’ll respond to your diligence. And, related to this point, seek out fellowship with people who know God better than you do. We learn by example, and hunger for God is contagious. Seek out people who are hungering for more of God.
We’re faced with two alternatives. We can’t escape who we are. We can’t escape the fact that we were created to know God and worship Him. We can spend a lifetime trying to live as if things were otherwise. We can seek to live for ourselves, grasping after whatever we think will make us happy. But we’ll find, again and again, that it’s not what we were hoping for. Our hearts are restless until they find rest in Him. So the only real solution is to surrender to His will and seek Him. This is the conclusion the author of Ecclesiastes reaches near the end of the book: “Honor and enjoy your Creator while you’re still young, Before the years take their toll and your vigor wanes, Before your vision dims and the world blurs And the winter years keep you close to the fire” (12:1-2, The Message). Or this, from Hosea the prophet: “Come, let us return to the Lord! He has torn us in pieces; now he will heal us. He has injured us; now he will bandage our wounds. In just a short time, he will restore us so we can live in his presence. Oh, that we might know the Lord! Let us press on to know him! Then he will respond to us as surely as the arrival of dawn or the coming of rains in early spring” (6:1-3, NLT). Let’s press on to know Him. Let’s make it the business of our lives to know Him.
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