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The Lonely God |
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The Paradox
Thus saith the LORD, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom,
neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man
glory in his riches: But let him that glorieth glory in this,
that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the LORD
which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth:
for in these things I delight, saith the LORD (Jeremiah 9:23-24).
For as long as I can remember, I have believed in and thought about God. Like a lot of people, I have had my ups and downs, my moments of clarity and my bouts with doubt. But over time I came to realize that if I was to have any hope of understanding God, I would have to get used to truth being expressed in paradoxical terms. We’ve all heard the old canard, “The Bible contradicts itself.” It doesn’t really, but there are times when the truth runs sharply counter to what we think, and it is often presented to us in the form of a paradox – a statement that is seemingly contradictory or opposed to common sense, and yet is true.
We have trouble with this, in part, because of the way modern man thinks. The people who first received the books of the Bible were much more comfortable with paradox. The western mind has to explain everything, even things it does not really understand. The oriental mind realizes that there are some truths that defy rational explanation and are better taken as they stand.
The difficulty also arises out of the fact that a complete understanding of God in real terms extends beyond the grasp of the human mind. That is not to say that God is a mystery, but that the mind has limitations that aren’t easily transcended. One scientist observed that the universe is not only stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine. So it is with God. This leads me to conclude that Jeremiah is saying that we can understand God, not at the cosmic level, but at a practical level that the human mind can grasp. Jeremiah suggests that there are specific things about God that we can understand and that these are the important things.
Against Jeremiah’s statement is this one from Solomon. “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end” (Ecclesiastes 3:11 NIV).
The different versions of the Bible seem to struggle over this verse, but it serves the purpose in saying that there are limits to our understanding. The Hebrew word owlam, here rendered “eternity,” comes from an old root that means, “to veil from sight.” It is the vanishing point, the place where two parallel lines seem to meet in the distance, the point where something disappears from sight. We can look back in time and accept that God has always existed. But we cannot imagine how that can be. We can’t resist thinking about it, because God has placed it in our minds. But he has done so in a way that leaves us unable to grasp the idea from beginning to end – doubtless because there is no beginning and there is no end.
There was a time when I thought that if I just studied the Bible long enough and carefully enough, I could answer all the big questions and put them together in a way anyone could understand. It was a foolish idea and I am glad to be rid of it. It has freed me up to talk about God in whatever terms he sees fit to reveal himself. And if some of that revelation seems paradoxical, so be it.
This does not mean that we cannot know or understand God. Far from it. What it means is that we can know and understand him only on his terms, not ours. And if God seems paradoxical, we would serve ourselves well to keep an open mind and take him that way. The paradox may only exist in our own mind.
This book is not an attempt at a unified theory of God nor an attempt to argue for this or that dogma. It is a conversation about God. It is possible that I will answer some questions about God that have troubled you. It is certain that I will raise some new questions to take their place. My objective is to share the journey toward understanding, to walk alongside you and talk about God. And perhaps, dare we think it, to find friendship with God.
A note on Bible references: Unless otherwise noted, scriptural citations are either from the King James version or the New King James version. The difference between the two is obvious. Other translation abbreviations are, NIV - New International Version, NRSV - New Revised Standard version, NASB - New American Standard Verson.