He Wants You to Know

Introduction

For eighty years God protected Moses. God kept the crocodiles away from his basket in the Nile when Moses was a baby, God spared him execution after he murdered an Egyptian, and God spared him from almost certain death as he crossed the desert. For forty years in Egypt and forty years as a shepherd in Midian, Moses has learned about God. But it is at the burning bush when Moses finally meets God. It is a dramatic, holy moment when God asks him to move from knowing about him to experiencing deeper relationship with him.
After Moses removes his shoes and runs out of excuses for why God should choose someone else to deliver the Israelites from Egypt, he accepts the call and new direction for his life that this encounter will have. Then comes the formal introduction. Moses asks God what his name is so that he can tell Pharaoh who has sent him. God answers, “Tell them I AM has sent you” (Ex 3:14).
Why would the all-powerful, all-knowing, Almighty God of the universe define himself with an incomplete sentence? I AM is a sentence fragment. A linking verb (am) requires either a noun to tell what “I” is (I am your mother; I am a taxpayer), or an adjective describing the subject “I” (I am angry; I am tired). Why would God answer Moses with an incomplete thought? In my years of studying God’s word, one thing I have absolutely learned; there are no coincidences in God’s word; details definitely matter to God. For God to give Moses an answer that provides no information indicates that God’s answer is bigger than Moses can understand in one sentence or in that particular moment. In Moses’ story, and in ours, that answer takes an entire lifetime to learn.
There is a significant difference between knowing “about”, knowing “that”, and “knowing”. I can know about anything that is listed in Wikipedia. Knowing “about” doesn’t require any level of discernment; possessing a few facts will support any claim of knowing “about”. The Bible never references the idea of knowing “about”, but it does speak extensively on the idea of knowing “that”.

Ex 6:7 I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am
the LORD your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians
Ps 46:10 Be still, and know that I am God.
Is 45:3 I will give you the treasures of darkness, riches stored in secret places, so you may
know that I am the LORD, the God of Israel, who summons you by name.

Knowing that he is God implies more information and personal experience than just knowing about God. For example, knowing about my favorite football team is different from knowing that they will win the Super Bowl or who they will take in the next draft. Studying biblical history gives me information about God; my personal experience in relationship with him leads me to know “that” he is the one true God. Even demons and unbelievers know about God. But the idea of “knowing” is far more complicated, time consuming, and intimate.
There are few people who actually “know” us. I know my children. I can read the expressions on their faces, see the look in their eyes, and know what they have not told me. My husband and mother and closest friends can usually look at me and know what I’m feeling or thinking when I haven’t said a word. The Bible is clear: God knows us.

Ps 139:4 Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD.
Ps 139:16 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the
days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
Luke 12:7 Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
Is 25:8 He will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears from all
faces.

Who on earth knows you like that? Who knows every detail about you: past, present, and future? Whom do you know so well that you trust them with your tears? Some of us are more prone to let our emotions show, but we usually try to hide our tears from those we do not know. God knows us. He knows our history, he knows our current weakness and fears, and he knows our future. The astonishing thing is that God wants us to know him.

Even cultures that did not know God left archeological evidence that man was trying to find the knowledge of God. Western Civilization and Humanities classes in schools around the world identify the earliest examples of architecture and art as evidence of a culture seeking God in this life and meeting him in an afterlife. We are created with an inner yearning to know God; God did that on purpose because he wants to be known.
In our attempt to communicate with each other, we rely on what is known to help us convey ideas that are less familiar. Writers and teachers will use all sorts of literary devices to either explain something that is difficult to understand, or to shorten an explanation by comparing it to what is known. Symbols are one way they do this, and no words are required to elicit understanding. Seeing the American flag reminds me of the sacrifice that has preserved that flag and brings me a sense of belonging and home and pride. A swastika always evokes repulsion and horror at the evil associated with the Nazis. Other symbols are similar: a skull and crossbones indicates poison, the Statue of Liberty has been seen by countless people as their entrance to new opportunity. Thumbs up represents approval, and thumbs down indicates rejection. The cross represents the Christian Church. Just the image of the cross conveys meaning and gives understanding. Have you ever noticed that there is no symbol for God? The second commandment given to Moses for all mankind was that there should not ever be any image of God. In God’s providence, he never allowed his people to limit him to one image.
But in his mercy, God does give us glimpses of his character and his love by providing metaphors throughout his word to help us understand. Metaphors are comparisons not using “like” or “as”. God teaches us about himself using metaphors that we do understand. He introduced himself to Moses with the name “I AM”, and then began an awesome journey through the desert and through history. Day by day, story by story, he is still revealing himself to his children. His goal is that as we learn to see him as he is, we will become who he created us to be.
When my boys were young, there were times when their questions required answers that they were incapable of understanding: How can God hear people when they all pray at the same time? Why does the wind just blow sometimes? Why are people mean? They didn’t have the education or experience to understand the answers. (In most cases, I still don’t!) For some inexplicable reason, God gives us the ability to ask questions that require answers we are incapable of understanding. He even gives examples of people in the Bible struggling with these kinds of questions. In Ps 8:4 David asked, “What is man that you are mindful of him?” In Luke 1:34 Mary asked, “How can this be since I am a virgin?” In Luke 14:5 Thomas asked, “We don't know where you are going. How can we find you?” In John 3:4 Nicodemus asked, “How can a man be born again?”
When the whole is answer is too big, too complicated, too far outside our ability to understand, sometimes the only way to approach the answer is for God to explain it in terms that we do understand and hope that we can make the connection.