Beelieve - Know God Intimately: God Is Incomprehensible

Definition:

According to Webster’s Dictionary, something that is incomprehensible is “not capable of being comprehended, something that no limits can contain, unintelligible ...” So it is with our God. He is incomprehensible to us. We cannot know Him by our on power.

Isaiah 40:27-28 “Why do you say, O Jacob, and assert, O Israel, "My way is hidden from the LORD, and the justice due me escapes the notice of my God"? Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable.” (Unsearchable, cannot be penetrated, discovered or understood by human wisdom)

Richard Baxter put it well noting that...
You may know God, but not comprehend him.

Stephen Charnock wrote...
It is visible that God is; it is invisible what he is.

What This Means To Me:

We need to be ever mindful that God is, in His essence, unknowable. He is far above us; exalted infinitely higher than we, His creation; infinitely above our conception, thought, and language. God’s essence (i.e. what He is in and of Himself) is hidden from us and beyond our ability to understand. We are finite, limited beings. The finite cannot fully take hold of the infinite. God has given us the capability and information (His Word) to know that He is, but not to totally know what He is. The Bible does not try to prove the existence of God. It assumes it as fact. “In the beginning God ...” (Genesis 1:1)....While Scripture teaches the total incomprehensibility of God (Job 38-41), it also presents a doctrine of God that fully maintains His know-ability. He has revealed, at least in part, His purpose for doing so-that we may worship Him as God and have eternal life. Our great God can be known, but He cannot be fully comprehended.

But the incomprehensibility of the godly nature is no reason why we should cease from worshipful inquiry and prayerful striving to capture what He has so graciously revealed of Himself in His Word. Since we are unable to obtain perfect knowledge, it would be foolishness to say we will make no efforts to achieve to any degree of it.

Yes, the incomprehensibility of the godly nature should teach us humility, caution, and reverence. After all our searching and mediations we have to say with Job, "Lo, these are parts of his ways: but how little a portion is heard of him?" (Job 26:14). When Moses asked Jehovah for a sight of His glory, He answered him "I will proclaim the name of the LORD before thee" (Ex. 33:19); as another has said, "the name is the collection of His attributes.”

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