It's okay not to know

Intelligence is something sought after. Wisdom has value. For example, there is not a bumper sticker out there in our area that says, “Hey, my kid is below average academically this year!” Instead, the one you read is, “My child is an honor student at such-and-such school.”

I’m not a king of car fashion, but believe bumper stickers are passé now, aren’t they? For a parent to slap on the rear of their vehicle this academic achievement message shows the world that being in the know is the way to go.

This is all gravy until it comes to theology. Some pieces to this God puzzle we have don’t fit so well together. Scripture makes it clear that when we come to God we find wisdom.

In Psalm 19, for example, we have the example of David. As a result of his tuning into God, David authors almost half of the 150 Psalms in the Bible. Because David turns to the wisdom, the power, and the steadfast character of God, David knows the source of his wisdom comes only from God.

In Deuteronomy 8:2-3, the reason God humbles the Israelites—and humbles us too—is because He wants them to know that "people do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4 NLT)."

These verses in Deuteronomy and in Matthew lead me to Genesis 11:1-9, which is the Old Testament lectionary reading many heard this past Sunday, June 9. Genesis 11:1-9 is the story of the tower of Babel. These verses begin by stating that at one time all the people of the world were united and spoke one language (verse 6). This sounds great.

Then God does something that may baffle or upset people who aren’t aware of the bigger picture. God causes the united people to scatter. He also confuses them by creating different languages (verse 7).

Why would God do this? The answer is that the people wanted to build a tower so tall that it would reach the heavens. They thought this would make them famous. Imagine the information these people would have if they had access to the heavens!

God doesn’t want us to have a lot of information independently. His desire is for us to have information dependently. Rather than turning to ourselves for all the great mysteries of the world, God wants us to turn to God.

A lot of people know a lot of things. As a result, so much of our world is safer, brighter, and healthier. Information is great. But we still do not know it all.

And that’s the point. We don’t need to know it all. In fact, we cannot know it all. But we can turn to God when we are confused, lost, or overwhelmed.

I don’t think God is against us getting together, sharing the same language, and building buildings for greater discoveries particularly in science and in math—and even church. Let’s do this!

But God knows what we know. We have a tendency to want to be famous, not humble like David.

Super smart people, here’s a FYI: it is okay not to know. It’s not okay to stay ignorant when we can turn to God for answers.