The Unknown | BCL Monthly
February 2024 Edition
Happy February to our BCL readers!
Sometimes we like to know and other times not so much. Perhaps we’re waiting to find out if we got the job or we have been accepted into a school we’re longing to attend. We may be waiting on test results for a worrisome health issue and don’t want to hear bad news. We wonder if we will have children some day and whether they will be walking with the Lord in their adult years. Maybe we’re unsure of where we will sleep tonight and if we will have anything to eat. We contemplate what our future will be like and if our hopes and dreams will come true. How should God’s children view and approach the unknown in a tumultuous world? In this month’s issue, Dan shares why Christians can have confidence amid the unknowns of our sufferings, Ayrian interacts with the Sermon on the Mount and what Jesus teaches us about trusting God to meet our needs and wants, and Le Ann considers both what God wants us to know and what he doesn’t want us to know when it comes to our future. To God be the glory!
In Christ,
Le Ann Trees, Managing Editor
Dan Rowlands, Content Editor
Ayrian Yasar, Associate Editor
Many things were unknown to Job, especially why he was suffering and what was going on behind the scenes. Our suffering and that of others is no different—we ask, why me? What did I do to deserve this? How is it all going to turn out? Where are the answers to my prayers?
We can’t know with absolute certainty the exact reasons for our sufferings.
Job's suffering was so terrible that he wished he had just died at birth (Job 3). Then his three friends added insult to injury when they tried to explain that the reason for his suffering must be that he committed some egregious sin (e.g., Job 4). In all they tried to do to help, they really had no idea what the reason was for Job’s suffering. It was a huge unknown for Job and for his friends, just like for our own trials. We search for reasons hoping to find the answers in order to fix our problems, and we question our faith—does God really know what he’s doing? We have a hard time with the unknown.
What are we to make of all our unknowns? First, as Christians it is a fact that we will suffer just as Christ suffered (2 Cor. 1:5; 1 Pet. 2:21). Following Christ means walking in his footsteps of distress, misery, and torment. Second, we may never know why. True, God uses our suffering to discipline us (Heb. 12:3-11), and afflictions are one of the ways God strengthens our faith as we look to him for wisdom and steadfastness (James 1: 2-4). But, all said, we can never with absolute certainty know exactly why. So much suffering we see and experience is a big unknown, and it is fruitless to try and figure it all out.
It’s better to focus on what we know, what God has revealed, rather than what we don’t know.
For example, at the beginning of the ninth chapter of the gospel of John, Jesus meets a man born blind. Immediately his disciples ask Jesus,
“Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” (John 9:1).
Just like Job’s friends, Jesus’ disciples jumped to the conclusion that some sin, perhaps a hidden one, must have been the cause of his blindness and they wanted Jesus to tell them what it was:
Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.” (John 9:3)
In other words, until Jesus revealed that the man’s blindness occurred at birth in order that God’s actions might be seen by all, the people tried to draw a straight line between some particular sin and suffering. This was a big mistake. Just like Job’s suffering, the reason the blind man was afflicted was unknown until God revealed it. We can learn from this about our own “unknowns”—it’s better to focus on what we know, what God has revealed, rather than what we don’t know. Consider Deuteronomy 29:29:
“The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.”
The almighty Lord, who created everything and knows everything, is incomprehensible to our small and finite minds.
In fact, Job did get an answer from the Lord after he pleaded with God, whose painful silence felt like cruelty and persecution (Job 30:21). The Lord responded to Job with an indictment:
“Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?” (Job 38:2)
Humbling Job, the Lord asked,
“Have you commanded the morning since your days began, and caused the dawn to know its place…” (Job 38:12)
"Have the gates of death been revealed to you, or have you seen the gates of deep darkness?” (Job 38:17)
Job can only respond in silence, for the almighty Lord, who created everything and knows everything, is incomprehensible to our small and finite minds. When he finally regathers his wits, Job says,
“Behold, I am of small account; what shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth.” (Job 40:4)
Job has no answer because he doesn’t know the unknown. But he does know God is sovereign and mighty:
“I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.” (Job 42:2)
In all the unknowns of our sufferings, we can have confidence in our loving God, who knows all things.
God doesn’t tell us everything, but what he has revealed—what is known—is there for our faith, hope, love, comfort, and sanctification. From Scripture we know who God is, we know our fallen state of sinfulness, we know Christ Jesus as the only way of salvation to eternal life, and we know what a glorious heaven awaits us. These “knowns" are where we ought to place our focus rather than on the secret things of God that he has decided not to reveal to us.
Suffering tests us here—we really want to know why: What did I do? How can I fix it? Yet, it’s better to remember all the wonderful things we enjoy from God’s loving and merciful hands, for we know that “every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights (James 1:17). So, when you suffer—and you have and you will—it’s better to find joy in it (James 1:2), for we can have confidence that it is our loving God who knows all things and will be glorified though whatever he calls us to endure.
How do we handle the unknown? Maybe you tend to try and control as many variables in your life so that the amount of unknowns is diminished. Or maybe you are in a constant state of worry and anxiety because the fears of what you don’t know are so overwhelming.
When facing the unknown, we need to keep God’s big picture in mind.
Matthew 6:25-34 shows us a few things about worrying: Keep an eternal perspective; worrying doesn’t change anything for the better; God is your Father and loves you dearly; and he will provide what you truly need. Jesus says,
“Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?... But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (Matt. 6:25, 33)
Jesus isn’t saying that food and clothing are not important, but he does want us to see that they are only part of the big picture and put them in perspective. This big picture is the picture of God saving a people and preparing them for a life forever with him in the new heavens and new earth.
Sometimes our struggles with the unknown are really a struggle with contentment or gratitude.
Often our lives revolve around food and clothing in an unhealthy way. We worry about what our food and clothing will be because we are comparing what we have to the food and clothing of others. Do we eat out as much as our peers do? Are we able to shop and get the most recent fashions we see at school or work? Do our children look “hip” or wear what’s in style? Our wants are not always aligned with our needs.
Sometimes our desires for more material things and our worries over them are really a struggle with contentment or gratitude. If our focus is on material wants, this makes us more anxious when those desires are not met. We worry when we don’t get them because of how it makes us look or feel and fret over the unknown of whether we will get what we want or lose what we want to keep holding on to.
Jesus also points out that our worry doesn’t change reality for the better:
“And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?” (Matt. 6:27)
We need to bring our worries and anxieties about the unknown to God, for he alone is in control of all.
There are many unknown in our lives, but Jesus tells us that to worry doesn’t change anything. In dealing with things that only God can change—like growing hair or length of life or the unknown—worrying or being anxious is not how to handle it. Instead, we should speak with God, who is in control of everything that is out of our control:
Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. Be sober-minded; be watchful. (1 Pet. 5:6-8)
Prayer is the way we “cast our anxieties” about the unknown upon our God who cares for us. Only Jesus knows the unknown, and only he can change it. So we must speak with him.
God is our Father and he knows what we need and how to get it for us.
Lastly, Jesus reminds us that God is our Father:
“Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.” (Matt. 6:32)
This is such a comforting thought! My husband and I love to give our son and daughter good gifts. God is our loving Father, but even more he really knows what we need (unlike earthly parents sometimes). As we face the unknown, the most comforting thing is that God is our Father and he knows what we need and he knows how to get it for us. He is willing and capable of getting it; indeed, he will not hold back anything that we need for our spiritual transformation into imaging his Son Jesus. We can be comforted in this known fact about God: He is our caring Father and knows everything we need, and because of Jesus Christ he will make sure we receive what we need.
Therefore, don’t worry about the unknown because God will take care of you.
People want to know the future. When we’re younger, we want to know whether we will marry and who the person will be if we do marry. We want to know what kind of work we will be doing as the years go by and if we will be able to reside in a safe place we enjoy. Will we have enough money to eat, be able to pay for our medical expenses, fulfill our dreams, and be able to have a restful retirement when we’re older? Amid so many unknowns, it’s helpful to turn to Scripture regarding both what God wants us to know and what he doesn’t want us to know when it comes to our future.
God does want us to know certain things about the future.
God doesn’t tell us everything about the future, but he does reveal some future events to us in his Word:
We know that Jesus is returning one day to consummate his kingdom (Matt. 24:29-51).
We know that tribulation will intensify, hearts will grow cold, and wickedness will increase as the Day of the Lord approaches (Matt. 24:9-14; 2 Tim. 3:1-9).
We know that God will never leave nor forsake his beloved children (Heb. 13:5), and no one will snatch them out of Jesus’ hand (John 10:18).
Aside from some notable exceptions, God doesn’t reveal to us what the specific future events of our personal lives will be.
True, through the prophet Isaiah God did tell King Hezekiah that he would live for fifteen more years (2 Kings 20:4-6; Isa. 38:4-5), but this is the rare exception and not the usual way God works in our lives. And when we stop to consider what it would be like to know the future like God does, we would hopefully think twice about the folly of such an ability. We don’t have perfect knowledge like God has, and we aren’t perfectly good like God is. It would be impossible for us as sinful fallen beings always to use such knowledge for good and never for evil. Furthermore, our ability to function on a daily basis would be affected in countless ways by such knowledge. The dread of an upcoming normally unexpected tragic event would cripple us, and the joy of an upcoming normally unexpected happy event would be lessened by the lack of surprise.
We should not desire anything that God does not desire for us to have. The Bible is clear that it is sinful to seek to know the future via any means, including sorcery, divination, etc. (Gen. 44:5; Lev. 19:26-31; click here for more verses). Our desires are always to be in line with God’s will. Indeed, Jesus’ clear teaching in the Sermon on the Mount directs us not to be anxious regarding tomorrow as the current day is enough to handle (Matt. 6:34).
It’s good to plan for the future, even though we can’t know or control it.
The book of Proverbs does have much to say about the wisdom of planning for the future. One such verse is Proverbs 21:5:
The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty.
Teaching that claims we don’t need to work diligently now so we have future resources since the Bible says God will provide for our needs is not interpreting Scripture in context. Indeed, such teaching actually promotes the sin of laziness (1 Tim. 5:8; 2 Thess. 3:10). Having stated the above, Scripture is also clear that we are not to trust in our diligent planning for our security but instead only in God.
Jesus made this point in the parable of the Rich Fool (Luke 12:13-21), which tells of a man who thought he was very clever in storing all his wealth in large barns he built in order to secure his future. Yet, when he had everything completed and all his crops stored, God took his life that night. Thus, as we plan for future needs, we must do so humbly, not forgetting to be generous to others and always remembering that God has his plans for us that might be different from our own:
The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps. (Prov. 16:9)
Even if we were able to know and seemingly control the unknown of the future, it would also be folly as God alone is sovereign over all things.
We can’t control God; instead, we need to submit to his sovereign rule over our lives, past, present, and future. When we go back to the book of Genesis in the Bible, we read about how Satan used Eve’s desire to know like God knows to tempt her to sin against her Creator. The devil falsely claimed the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil would make Adam and Eve “like God, knowing good and evil” (Gen. 3:4–5). After they ate the fruit, Adam and Eve’s eyes were opened—but not in the way Satan led them to believe. They painfully saw the shame of their sin and rebellion against God and attempted in vain to hide from him.
The result of Adam and Eve’s sinful desire to know like God knows was the fall of man from a righteous state before God. Going forward, all humans would have a sinful nature, be under the wrath of God, and live in a cursed world. Their only hope would be the God-man, Jesus, who would reverse the curse, obeying God perfectly as Adam failed to do and being the perfect once-for-all sacrifice for the sin of all who would trust in him alone for salvation.
May we be content in knowing only that which God wills for us to know as his precious children.
God alone holds our future in his hands, and he is all-knowing, all-powerful, and present everywhere always. We don’t need to know the secret things that God alone knows; we only need to know those things he has revealed to us (Deut. 29:29). We can cast our cares upon our heavenly Father in our prayers and rest peacefully knowing the future is ruled by God alone. As we keep God’s attributes of holiness, goodness, righteousness, justice, love, and mercy front and center in our thoughts, we can be comforted that all God is and does is good, even in the face of the unknown:
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
God wants us to know that all things work together for good for his children. God wants us to have joy in the knowledge that he is faithful, he loves us in Christ, he has a plan, and he will keep every single one of his promises. Knowing all this gives us true and lasting peace as we follow and cling to our Savior Jesus Christ, and nothing that is unknown can ever take this peace away from us. Praise the Lord!
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Is there a dream you’ve been holding onto for a long time and it hasn’t come true yet? Maybe you’re worried and anxious that it isn’t ever going to happen. Maybe you’re wondering if God really loves you after all. Here are five good things to remember in such times:
1. God still loves you.
We know from reading the Bible that God allowed his dear saints to go through various grievous trials. Because you are suffering right now in some way does not mean that God has forsaken you. He still loves you. Below are some of many examples from Scripture of this great truth: Read more...
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Since getting sick with MS or rather finally being diagnosed with it, Hezekiah has always been on my mind and what Jesus has shown us in regards to sickness. It's nit always bc of sin, but God allows it so His power may be known through them; essentially sowing seeds in different types of heart soil.
God saved my marriage through my illness. Since knowing about it, my prayer life has gotten better. However it's a double-edged sword bc of the illness I do tend to forget sometimes. There are days I go through fatigue and unable to focus. I orsy about these things in hope and faith God will help me through it. He doesn't always take the symptoms away, but He does extend His hand.