Knowing yet not knowing
Allan Vint
August 22, 2021
Add to Favourites
Listen to this daily worship
1 Kings 3: 3-15 (NIVUK)
3 Solomon showed his love for the Lord by walking according to the instructions given him by his father David, except that he offered sacrifices and burned incense on the high places.
4 The king went to Gibeon to offer sacrifices, for that was the most important high place, and Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar. 5 At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon during the night in a dream, and God said, ‘Ask for whatever you want me to give you.’
6 Solomon answered, ‘You have shown great kindness to your servant, my father David, because he was faithful to you and righteous and upright in heart. You have continued this great kindness to him and have given him a son to sit on his throne this very day.
7 ‘Now, Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David. But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties. 8 Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number. 9 So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?’
10 The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this. 11 So God said to him, ‘Since you have asked for this and not for long life or wealth for yourself, nor have asked for the death of your enemies but for discernment in administering justice, 12 I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be. 13 Moreover, I will give you what you have not asked for – both wealth and honour – so that in your lifetime you will have no equal among kings. 14 And if you walk in obedience to me and keep my decrees and commands as David your father did, I will give you a long life.’ 15 Then Solomon awoke – and he realised it had been a dream.
He returned to Jerusalem, stood before the ark of the Lord’s covenant and sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. Then he gave a feast for all his court.
There is so much about the universe that is unknown. At first glance this may seem to be a pretty negative statement — but it’s not. Actually, it is really clever, insightful and (can you believe it) helpful. If we were to ask some very knowledgeable scientists they would tell us the astonishing facts that: what we know about the universe, all the stuff taught in schools and universities about atoms, molecules and matter, would amount to no more than about 5% of all that there is; there is a fair degree of suspicion that 27% of what is left is made up of something called ‘dark energy’ (but we don’t know anything about it) and the rest is just plainly unknown.*
So, there is currently a giant search underway in the science community to find answers to some of the most basic questions of existence. How will these be found? Well, I imagine there will be lots of thinking, watching, waiting and probably some experiments to test out ideas. In the midst of this adventure someone, somewhere, will have a spark of wisdom that will lead on to another small step of progress towards answers.
This search for wisdom only begins when we have an awareness that we don’t currently possess the answers we need but we are willing to go on an adventure to find them. For that we will need to pack our suitcase with all the things we know, leaving room to add in new discoveries along the way.
The God of the Bible has made it plain that if we are willing to carefully look and listen, to ask and to probe and to be open to new things then wonders await. Didn’t Jesus say that if we were we to, “Seek first the kingdom of God… all these things shall be added to you’.
Come on, let’s get going, let’s pursue wisdom that matters.
PRAYER:
Lord God, into our unknowing allow us to discover new truths
Into our emptiness bring us new meaning and life
Into our yearnings bring substance, hope, love and especially that precious wisdom from above. Amen.
* ‘We have no idea – a guide to the unknown universe’ Jorge Cham and Daniel Whiteson
Login to comment.