By Cameron Paine

Today you and I are constantly being told what we should be doing and what we should not be doing: "Eat this"; "don't eat foods that contain..."; "workout every day"; "get a medical checkup to see that some disease has not begun in your eyes, in your ears... because only if the disease is caught in the early stages can it be treated ...." Our society is full of people who seem to "know", people who hold themselves out as able to tell other people how to live.

Everyday voices from the TV are constantly hammering us, telling us what it is wise to do and what it is wise not to do.

Every week in the supermarket and convenience stores the racks are full of magazines bulging with warnings and instructions on how to live successfully: "Twenty-One Tips On How To Control Your Finances"; "Five Sure Ways To Lose Weight"; "The Two Secrets Of How To Be Appealing To Men/Women"; "How To Feed Your Kids"; "How To Sleep Soundly". Next week there will be more magazines; each will contain more "how-to" articles and instructions on how to face daily problems successfully.

All this advice, all this instruction, all this hammering, is going on constantly. And yet... The same problems keep recurring; they never stop appearing. Everybody has a cure but...But what?- the disease goes on. Everywhere I look I see or hear that there is trouble. Whenever I read the newspaper conflict is reported. No part of the world, no part of society is free from this symptom. It is everywhere. Conflict. Protests. Strikes. Riots. Murder. Divorce. Tensions. Problems. Not only is all this taking place at this time in history but it has been going on everywhere throughout history. At every point in history I read of the same thing: conflict, war, divorce, plotting, riots. It never stops. It never changes. Why not....

There is a reason. There is an explanation for the abundance of problems and for the reappearance of old problems in families and in the world. According to the Bible what is wrong is that the "disease" which is causing all the problems to begin with is not recognized. The "diagnosis" is wrong. The fact that other people may have said and thought the same thing is beside the point. Many, many, people have had theories about what is wrong and what needs to be done to remedy the situation. Not only in today's world but from the beginning of history people have been proclaiming different diagnoses and cures. The philosophers, the specialists, the 'experts', those with a lot of experience and those with none all have had answers. But all the answers that have been put forth have not resulted in a lessening of problems, in a lessening of tensions, conflicts, and violence. Look around you. Whose opinion can you count on? Whose opinion matters?

If you believed your life was at stake would you feel comfortable putting that life in the hands of somebody whose treatments have never worked (at least, not for long)? If you had a choice would you keep going back to a doctor who refused to recognize that you had a particular disease that was going to kill you, the very one that keeps producing the same symptoms--all the emotional tension, the hostility, the clashing of persons or personalities? Whose opinion matters?

What individual or what group of individuals is so perfect and has so much knowledge of every detail that he/they can deal with more than the smallest part? Who has perfect knowledge? Who has complete knowledge which means knowing how every truth, how every fact, fits together with every other truth? No group of men or women has ever demonstrated the ability to create an enduring society in which the symptoms of tension, conflict and violence have not appeared sooner or later. Whose knowledge is based on perfect health, on perfect control of all bodily processes and the inclinations of the heart. (See next paragraph.)  Even in the smallest community in which the 'built-in' forces of sexual attraction, parental affection, and responsibility are exerting an influence to hold that smallest 'community (the family) together --the same symptoms of hostility, of every person being for him- or herself continue to appear. Why? 

The Bible states what that explanation for the current situation is. According to the author of Bible the reason all the cures, all the solutions, all the 'treatments,' have not worked, is that the 'cures' don't go far enough; they don't go as deep as the 'disease.' (The issue is not that symptoms should never be treated; the issue is that symptoms should never be mistaken for the disease itself, that is, for the cause of the symptoms.); the diagnoses are not inclusive enough; the diagnoses deal only with details or parts of the big picture; the diagnoses don't go to the root of the matter, they don't go to the heart of the problem. (see Jeremiah 17:9 Matthew 15:18,19)

Who knows what the real problem is, what the real 'disease' is? God. (Galatians 3:22)

The Lord knows. God knows. God knows because God is what he is.          

"I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please." (Isaiah 46:10).

"Who then is like me?" God says. "Let him proclaim it. Let him declare and lay out before me what has happened since I established my ancient people, and what is yet to come--yes, let him foretell what will come" (Isaiah 44:7).

"Declare what is to be, present it-- let them take counsel together. Who foretold this long ago, who declared it from the distant past? Was it not I, the LORD? And there is no God apart from me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none but me." (Isaiah 45:21).

But it is not knowledge as we know it that makes God's knowledge so awesome. We have heard the phrase, 'knowledge is power.' The scientist, for example, has power because he has knowledge. Because the scientist has certain kinds of knowledge, i.e., he understands the law of gravity or other 'natural' laws he can use that knowledge to carry out his purposes, to plan vehicles for space travel. But God's knowledge of the law of gravity or other 'natural' laws is very different. We might say, the law of gravity and other laws are themselves a part of God's knowledge, a manifestation of God's knowledge. The 'natural laws' were made by God.  He made them  to serve his purposes. (What a nerve we have to describe the laws as 'natural'!) And what God made he can change.

God knows because he (Jehovah) is what he is. How do we know what he is? He is what His own written word has revealed him to be--the Creator and sustainer of the world.

"The LORD does whatever pleases him, in the heavens and on the earth, in the seas and all their depths." (Psalm 135:6).

"In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will." (Ephesians 1:11).

Why fear the Lord? Because it is his purposes that prevail. "The plans of the LORD stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations." (Psalm 33:11).   "Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the LORD's purpose that prevails" (Proverbs 19:21).

The Lord knows all. But His 'knowing', his diagnosis and cure, is more than head-knowledge. The knowledge Jesus had was true. But that is not all. The Lord's knowledge is inseparable from what he brings about- his creation, his 'laws'. What the Lord brings to pass is an outward expression or form which his knowledge takes. By the word of the LORD were the heavens made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth....Let all the earth fear the LORD; let all the people of the world revere him.  For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm. (Psalm 33:6,8-9; see also Matthew 8:26; 9:3-6)

The Lord healed diseases by merely speaking, saying, "You are well". Many times the people around Jesus while he was on earth noted with amazement that His teaching was not like that of the human teachers they knew. His teaching was different, it was "with authority or power" (Matthew 7:29, Luke 4:32). He did not quote great men and women of the past (or present) to fill in the picture of truth or to provide support for what he said. He did not just pass on cultural heritage as other teachers do. He was not just a link in a human chain. He did not have to go to school to learn, or to hear the 'wisdom' of previous generations of human philosophers or "experts". He did not have to be taught the truth. The Bible says so. "Whom did the LORD consult to enlighten him, and who taught him the right way? Who was it that taught him knowledge or showed him the path of understanding?" (Isaiah 40:14) "Can anyone teach knowledge to God, since he judges even the highest?" (Job 21:22). "Who has prescribed his ways for him, or said to him, 'You have done wrong'?" (Job 36:23; see also Daniel 4:35 )

There is a reason Jesus, the Son of God, did not have to be taught the truth. Jesus himself expressed the reason. What statement that Jesus made could be more unambiguous and at the same time more awesome-- "I   am  the way and the truth" (John 14.6). Jesus told his disciples, "all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me" (Matthew 28:18). In the gospel according to John we read, "For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it." ( John 5:21) In Jesus' own recorded prayer to the Father he said, "For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him." (John 17:2)  What the Son of God thinks and says makes a difference, a tremendous difference; it makes all the difference. 

If you choose not to believe this you are looking upon God's word as either not being the words of the Creator and sustainer of the world etc, or as containing lies. In either case you are rejecting what God has done. In either case if the Bible is God's revelation of himself and of the truth you are insulting him; you are, as the saying goes, "playing with fire."

Jesus did not say to his disciples that what you believe is irrelevant. "Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son." (John 3:18; see also 1 John 5:10-11)

There is more to reality, more to God than love. Love is not all that God is. Love does not obliterate any of God's other attributes including his righteousness, or his purity or his holiness. The Bible tells us about our God: ^"Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrong." (Habakkuk 1:13; see also Exodus 34:6-7; Numbers 14:18; Joshua 24:19; Nahum 1:3; Psalm 5:4-5; 11:6-7; 34:16; Romans 9:22-23; Revelations 21:8)

It was Jesus himself who told his disciples about God, saying, "Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell" (Matthew 10:28). What opinion Him who has the power to give life (that is, Jesus) has and what He says makes a difference.

What does the word of the Creator say? "Whoever believes in the Son [Jesus] has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him" (John 3:36). The significance of any other advantages or afflictions in this life pale in comparison with the eternal, the unending,  consequences that Jesus spoke about.  Pay attention to Him who 'knows'. Pay attention to Him who  is   the way and the truth. Before your time on earth ends --perhaps without warning--  pay attention to the declarations of Him whose diagnosis and prognosis is necessarily accurate and necessarily certain. 

(If you appreciate what you read here please tell your friends about this URL and sign my guest book on the homepage. Also, if, as you read any of the meditations, you feel you know of a situation that beautifully illustrates any of the points made I would be delighted to learn of it. I might incorporate it.)    mailto:camppp21355@comcast.net

 Copyright 2004 Cameron F. Paine Usage Encouraged