“For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His counselor?” – Romans 11:34
I had a professor during my days in seminary who taught entry-level theology to students. While I learned a lot in his class, it would be accurate to say that his teaching style was quite unconventional.
He asked a lot of questions of the class that did not initially seem related to one another. The first question might have something to do with the character of God and the next question would have something to do with the Dallas Cowboys football team. It wouldn’t be until the end of the 90-minute lecture that we would see how he wove both questions into one larger narrative.
Another unconventional approach he took was always leaving you guessing where he actually fell on certain controversial bible teachings. To this day, I cannot tell you what his positions on women in church leadership or infant baptism or the rapture actually are. If you asked him a question on his position, he frequently answered the question with a different question.
In other words, it was very difficult to know his mind on certain matters. He kept that on a short leash.
In many ways, this is how the God of the universe is. Since finite beings like us cannot truly fathom what infinite means, it follows that our understanding of the infinite God would be equally limited.
Try to imagine someone who never had a beginning. There was never such a time as “before God.”
Now try to imagine that size and the complexity of His mind. Having both foreknowledge of everything that has, is, and will happen, but also a design for all creation based on that foreknowledge.
And yes, I believe that God keeps most of who He is hidden. I don’t believe He does this because He enjoys being coy and catty with human beings. In fact, quite the opposite; He knows that giving us a full knowledge of who He is and how He thinks on all matters would certainly be dangerous for us. How does a limited mind understand an unlimited God?
But this doesn’t mean that we have no knowledge of God. He has revealed Himself in many ways. First, he reveals Himself through His preserved word (Luke 24:27). Second, he reveals Himself through His creation (the world around us, Romans 1:19-20). He has implanted a desire to know who He is (Ecclesiastes 3:11). He reveals Himself through the life and ministry of Jesus Christ (John 1:18).
In other words, the part of God that we are MEANT to know has been fully revealed. The apostle Paul said that today “we know in part” and that “we see in a mirror dimly,” but at some point, in the future, we “will know fully” (1 Corinthians 13:9-12).
I tell you all this to make one simple but encouraging point. God chooses not to reveal Himself fully to us as part of a plan to help us learn what we can without being overwhelmed. Just like my professor who intentionally kept parts of his personal thoughts hidden so that we might focus only on the things he felt we needed to know, so God controls the flow of information about Himself to our hearts and minds.
One day, the mystery will be resolved. A day of full knowledge and disclosure will come and we will understand our God in a profound way. Until then, the dim mirror is not a burden or a handicap; rather it serves us ideally as God shows Himself on His terms alone.