¹¹ “And they shall not teach everyone his fellow citizen, and everyone his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all will know Me, from the least to the greatest of them … ’”

Restoration to the original condition, only better. It was God’s plan all along that His creation, the image-bearers (in other words, human beings) should know Him. Before sin, that was possible, but not because humans have the innate intelligence to figure all things out, and can find their way to God. No, it is impossible to know God apart from God’s revealing Himself. That is why searches for God are fruitless and result in some of the most inane and even silly religious practices. Yet, in today’s post-modern world, searches for truth are passed off as noble pursuits, but finding truth is considered narrow-minded.

Over against all this is God, communicating to His creation. True, the Scripture says that anyone who seeks God will find Him. But that is only possible because God first reveals Himself. The Scripture never pictures God as a deist sort of being who, having created the world, sent it off into space and then retired into His secret chambers, never to be involved again. He wants to be found. It is like a child playing hide and seek. When you walk into the room “looking,” he jumps out of the closet and says, “Here I am.” God wants to be found, He desires to be known.

But with sin, mankind has put distance between himself and his Maker. God gracious has sent teachers, prophets and leaders to bring us to the knowledge of God. Certainly, creation speaks of God but sin has darkened our own hearts (Romans 1:18-21). Our vision and knowledge of God have been severely muted to the point of blindness. So we have needed those who can point us to God and teach us about Him. Israel had her teachers (Moses, David, the prophets) and the church has its teachers (Eph 4:11, 2 Cor 12:29).

There is coming a time, however, when teachers will no longer be needed. There will be no need of evangelists pointing people to Christ, saying, “Know the Lord.” We will not need Billy Grahams preaching to masses, nor a man quietly sharing his faith with his golf partners. The New Covenant is written in our hearts, as it says in the previous verse (Heb 8:10). The knowledge of God will be in us. While we still need teachers today to help us understand, we no longer need anyone to point us to God, for now “we have the mind of Christ” (1 Cor 2:16)!

Lord, I do know You in a way that goes beyond the physical, tangible senses. And I want to know You better in all areas of my life.