It is all we need to know

Anumber of years ago, I was severely entertained by the Red Green Show. It was a mix of sitcom, sketch comedy and perhaps a parody of the Home Improvement show. There was always a segment of the show in which a sketch was built around “the three little words men find impossible to say: ‘I don’t know.’” The words, “I don’t’ know,” are the hardest words for anyone to say when we want to know—when we need to know—when our faith seems to depend on knowing. When we ask our minister if it is true that there is a heaven, the last thing we want to hear is, “I don’t know.” We want to believe there is always an answer, a reason, a purpose; and we want to know that someone has the answer.

In the 24th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus talks about the Coming of the Son of Man. Yet there is an element of uncertainty in Jesus’ words: “But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”

What is interesting is that you will find a footnote in your Bible about this verse. It will read: “Other ancient authorities lack nor the son.” Why? Because some editors of some versions of the Bible could not bring themselves to believe that even Jesus did not know.

Six hundred years before Jesus was born, Judah was near her end as a nation. Assyria devastated Canaan. And then Babylonia also invaded. There was next to nothing left of Israel and her people. They asked their preacher, Habakkuk, “Why; why has God done this? Why has God permitted this evil to come to us?” They asked this question because, well, there had to be some reason. There had to be some cause.

Someone must be responsible.

Someone, something, must be behind it. And they believed it must be God.

The epitome of biblical narratives of human suffering is the Book of Job. When Job considered the powers of the world, he saw God as the ultimate Power. Therefore, Job asks the rhetorical question concerning God: “If it is not He, who then is it?” Why are we suffering?

The people asked Habakkuk, “Why has this evil come upon us?”

Habakkuk responded, “I’m going to find out. I’m going to climb the watchtower and I’m not coming down till God answers me!” So Habakkuk went up on the watchtower and prayed: “O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not listen? Or cry to you, ‘Violence,’ and you will not save? Why do you make me see wrongdoing and look at trouble?”

Habakkuk waited on the watchtower for an answer. And he waited. For days he waited. When he finally came down from the watchtower, the people gathered around him and asked, “What did God say? Why has this happened to us?”

Habakkuk then voiced the words that are so hard for a man to say: “I don’t know.”

The book closes with this powerful poetry: “Though the fig tree does not blossom, and no fruit is on the vines; though the produce of the olive fails, and the fields yield no food; though the flock is cut off from the fold, and there is no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will exult in the God of my salvation.”

Why is the world the way it is? I don’t know. But this I do know: God is a great God, and God is a good God. It is all we need to know.