So he answered, “Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”

II Kings 6:16 NKJV

I am currently reading a book called “The House of Morgan” by Ron Chernow detailing the history of the company we now know as J.P. Morgan Chase. Chernow spent great energy, time, and resources collecting and reading thousands of pages of historical documents about the company, its founders, directors, and the economic and political events of the past 150 years. After carefully reading, researching, and studying the historical documents, Chernow narrowed his work into a book of 848 pages. What was the point of his work? That the reader might know something of J.P. Morgan and the company that bares his name.

Why do we study the Scriptures so closely? Is it so that we can boast in our knowledge of Scripture? Is it so that we can win theological debates with our friends? Or is it primarily that we might know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent?

We have had many devotionals centered on just one verse of one chapter in II Kings. Several more are planned applying the text to our daily lives. All of it is for this purpose: that my readers and I might know the only true God!

Perhaps you are familiar with the analogy that has been made to husbands getting to know their wives. They listen to their wives, observe their interests, understand their personalities, and spend much time with them. As they do these things they get to know their wives better and united to Christ and His Word might love them more. While knowing God may have some analogy, knowing God is of far greater consequence. For to know God truthfully is to have eternal life.

As Jesus was praying before His crucifixion He said, “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent” (John 17:3). Jesus was likely making reference to several Old Testament passages including Proverbs 8:35, “For whoever finds me finds life, And obtains favor from the LORD.” To know Christ truthfully, that is, by faith, and in accordance with His Word, is to have eternal life.

We study God’s Word, meditate on His works, and ponder His ways so that we might know God, believe in God, and in knowing and believing God, have eternal life. Paul said, “Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ, and be found in Him…” (Philippians 3:8-9).

Do you know God? Do you know Christ? The Scripture does not use this language in the sense of knowing about God like nearly everyone in the world knows about God or Christ and has heard something about Him. The Scripture uses “know” in the sense of believing that: the Lord our God is one (Deut. 6:4); that the one God is Triune, revealing Himself to us in three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; that Jesus is the eternal Son of God and God the Son as He claims Himself to be in the Scripture; that He created all things; that He was begotten and not made; that He was born of the Virgin Mary; that he lived perfectly and suffered terribly not for Himself but for us; that He died, was buried, and rose form the dead on the third day; that He ascended into Heaven where He is now and from where He will come at the last day with great power and glory. To know Christ is to know that He came to save sinners of which I am greatest and that He did in fact save us. To know Christ is to know of the power of His resurrection. All who know Him, that is all who believe in Him, have their names written on His hands, and shall not perish but have everlasting life.

Do you know Christ? Do you know God? If you study Scripture for purely intellectual reasons, keep on studying and pray the Lord will use it for salvific reasons. But the Word was not given that we might merely grow academically. It was given that we might know God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost and love Him with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind. It was given that we might reflect Him in our lives and confess Him with our mouths. It was given that we might know Him not as the wise of the world but as little children.

Those who know God are called by God to be His disciples. His disciples must always be ready to give an answer for the hope that is in them. That answer is impossible to give if we do not know God. The church is called to promote, proclaim, and protect the truth of God’s Word but it cannot do that if it does not know God and His Word. We study the Word in its depth, breadth, height, and width that we might know God and in knowing God, believe on Him, have everlasting life, and contend earnestly for the faith.

Elisha, his Servant, the Syrian army, the city of Dothan, all of these people and places were given to us that we might know that the Lord who is with us is more in number, power, position, and truth than those who are against us. If we miss this we will miss much about our God. We study the Scripture that we might not miss God, but know God, and find in Him alone eternal life. As we come to know God then our joy shall be full and we may rejoice in God’s Word, “as one who finds great treasure” (Psalm 119:162).

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