What Does It Really Mean to Know God? | Jeremiah 9 | Chris Wright

It's great to be with you. Now, I'm sure that

these words are very familiar to you. They're

words from Jeremiah, where he talks about the

new covenant. And he said, no longer will they

teach their neighbor or say to one another, know

the Lord, because they will all know me from

the least of them to the greatest of them. One

of the great promises there of the new covenant,

which, of course, is picked up in the book of

Hebrews. And we often, when we're preaching that

sort of text, we say, well, this is great because

we know that as New Testament believers, we have

the presence of the Holy Spirit and the knowledge

of God, that intimate personal relationship with

God that we can have in Christ is such a wonderful

blessing. And that's true. But I wonder if we

were to ask Jeremiah when he'd said that, well,

Jeremiah, what do you mean by knowing God? What

are you talking about? i think he probably would

have said well haven't you been listening because

twice already in his book He has talked about

knowing God and spoken exactly about what it

means. One of them is in Jeremiah chapter 22.

Jeremiah 22 · chapter mention

It's perhaps the more negative one. He's contrasting

the King Josiah with his father Jehoiakim, who

had been cruel and oppressive and unjust and

wicked and greedy. And Jeremiah says, but your

father, he's talking about Josiah, he did what

was right and just and all went well with him.

him he defended the cause of the poor and the

needy and so all went well is that not what it

means to know me says the Lord it's just a few

words in Hebrew that is To know me, says God,

is to do righteousness and justice. But the text

that I thought we would just spend a few moments,

the one that was read to us a moment or two ago,

is from Jeremiah chapter 9. Those are the beautiful

Jeremiah 9 · chapter mention

two verses there, 23 and 24. They're like a little

gem in the midst of a pretty miserable chapter.

I didn't ask for the whole bit to be read because

the last verse talks about dead bodies in the

field and things like that. But here we have

these two verses. And it's almost like a little

seesaw. balanced text On the one side are three

things that human beings value as good gifts.

Let not the wise boast of their wisdom, or the

strong boast of their strength, or the rich boast

of their riches. Three things, wisdom, strength,

riches. And on the other side of the fulcrum,

which we'll come to in a minute, are three things

that God values, which are actually characteristic

of him, that they understand and know me, that

I am the Lord who exists. exercises kindness

and justice and righteousness on the earth, for

in these things, says God, I delight. And in

the middle of that seesaw, the three things on

one side and three on the other, comes this,

that he knows me. The knowing of God is there

in the middle of those two verses. So let's just

think of the three good gifts of God that we

shouldn't boast about and what that means, and

then these three things that God values and delights,

and ask, well, how will that impact what we mean

by knowing God in our studies, in our life, in

our ministry, and in the future? Three wonderful

things. Verse 23, in fact, is rather surprising

when Jeremiah says don't boast about these things

because they're all very good things. Wisdom,

strength, riches, they're all gifts of God. They're

often described as a blessing. These are not,

in a sense, you know, some evil tycoon just throwing

his weight around. Wisdom. is highly praised,

isn't it? It's applied knowledge, it's experience,

it's skill, it's discernment. It's all over the

book of Proverbs and the wisdom literature requested

by Solomon instead of riches and given by God

who gave him both. So yeah, wisdom, it's a good

thing. It's God's gift. Strength, well, there's

physical strength is often thought of and praised

in the Old Testament. I mean, there's Moses who

could sort of zap an Egyptian at the age of 40

and look after sheep at 80 and climb a mountain

at 120. Clearly a man of enormous physical strength.

There's Samson. Book of Psalms celebrates when

it talks about God has lifted up my horn. In

other words, given me strength to do what God,

we sometimes talk about being as strong as an

ox. That's from the Psalms. So strength, again,

when we have it, is a good gift of God. And riches,

again, the gift of God. Here's what God promised

to the Israelites in Deuteronomy 28 and verses

8 to 11. If they would obey God and follow him,

then the Lord will send you a blessing on your

barns and everything you put your hand to, the

Lord will bless you in that land. Then all the

peoples on the earth will call you blessed because

you will have an abundance of prosperity. So

there's nothing wrong intrinsically with these

gifts of God. wisdom strength riches the problem

is what happens when we boast of them which is

what verse 23 says let not the wise or the strong

or the wealthy boast of those things. Because

then what happens is, of course, that we fall

into the trap again of what Deuteronomy warns

against in chapter eight, when he says, when

you get into that land and God has given you

all of these things, then you may say to yourself

in verse 17, my power and the strength of my

hands have produced this wealth for me. That's

the yuppies boast, isn't it? It's all mine. I've

done it. I've achieved it. And it's for me. And

when we boast of these things, then the good

gifts of God can actually become pretty horrible

parodies of themselves. So wisdom can easily

fall into the temptation of becoming intellectual

arrogance, which Proverbs says actually becomes

folly. The idolatry of the glittering prizes,

the things that somehow... Prove how wise and

able you are when you boast of it. Or strength

when it becomes simply violence and oppression.

I was really struck just the other day reading

some interview with Stephen Miller, who is one

of the closest advisors to President Trump in

the White House. And this is what he said in

an interview with CNN. He said, we live in a

world in which you can talk all you like about

international niceties. Presumably meaning international

law, I presume he means, and everything else.

But we live in a world, the real world, Jake,

that is governed by strength, that is governed

by force, that is governed by power. And so he

went on. And that is clearly being shown in the

kind of way strength is being used and abused

by some in God's world. And riches, well, of

course, as we know, can easily lead to greed,

to exploitation, to misery, to the growing inequality

that we see in our world today. So good gifts

are also dangerous gifts. They're good in themselves,

but when we exalt them, when we idolize them,

they corrupt us. And I think the temptation in

all of these three areas is just as real when

we're thinking about Christian ministry and mission

and what God calls us into, especially if we

are in this world of theological education and

training for God's work. Wisdom, even in Christian

missions and ministry and organization in churches,

there's the wisdom of our strategic plans. and

our traditions and our excellencies and our consultancies

and so on. We can boast of those. Or we can boast

of our strength, the resources that God gives

to us, our management, our leadership, our wonderful

staff, our structures, our governance. Or we

can think of our riches, if we have them, fortunate

enough, with endowments and income and so on.

So gifts that are there, but when they're boasted

of, they themselves can become idolatrous and

indeed something that lack anything of the character

of god himself so what then does god through

jeremiah say is the fulcrum here what what really

matters well god says don't boast of those things

but if you're going to boast at all it should

be about that you have the understanding to know

me which is an interesting way of putting it

not just that you know me but you know what it

means to know me You understand that knowing

God is actually more important than anything

else. And so for the person who knows God, says

God, they need to also share what God himself

delights in. And what's that? Well, that's what

verse 24 tells us. Kindness and justice and righteousness.

Kindness in our Bible, of course, is one of the

many possible translations of that beautiful

Hebrew word chesed, which, yes, means mercy,

kindness. It also means faithfulness, committed

love, unfailing love. It's characteristic of

God, of course, as we were singing. No, we weren't

singing it. We were reciting in Psalm 103 all

the way through the compassion, the unfailing

love of God. But then it is practiced by those

who know God. And so we see it exemplified, for

example, in Moses with his committed, faithful

love for the crowd of stiff -necked rebels that

God entrusted to him, that God actually offered

to get rid of them. Say, you know, get rid of

this lot and I'll start again with you, Moses.

And Moses says, not a bit, God. You can't do

that. You've got to be faithful to your promise

to Abraham. And if you're faithful to that promise,

then I will go on looking after these people.

Or, of course, there's the faithfulness of Boaz

and of Ruth to Naomi, and, of course, the chesed

mercy, kindness, and love of Jesus himself to

outsiders, to the needy, to a Bartimaeus, a blind

beggar, to a Zacchaeus or the prostitutes. And

so this chesed love, that's characteristic of

God, and one who knows God should therefore be

characterized by that too. And then justice,

mishpat, the act of putting things right for

those who are wronged. The Old Testament often

speaks of the widow's case, advocating for those

who are otherwise on the wrong end of what's

happening in society. And that's what we saw

just a moment ago from Jeremiah 22, that Jeremiah

talks about Josiah. He was one who did justice

for the poor and the needy. And so, says God,

That's what it means to know me. And I was just

reflecting on this, that within our Anglican

communion, as you know, there's the thing called

the five marks of mission. I hope you've heard

of that expression. I was just discussing it

a bit with a few students earlier, that the theory

that within the church's mission, there is, of

course, evangelism, proclaiming the kingdom,

discipling and teaching new believers, but also

works of compassion and mercy, doing good, as

Jesus did, and seeking justice. as we are commanded

to do. And yesterday evening, in our prayer gathering

at All Souls Church, we were thinking of the

ministry of Tamar, which is the ministry of All

Souls among trafficked women, people in the sex

industry, which is not just showing compassion

for these women, but also seeking, wherever possible,

to act justly for them, to advocate for them,

to seek to give them the means of getting their

immigration status sorted out or be freed from

the influence of gangs and so on. So to be...

lovers of mercy and seekers of justice and righteousness

tzedakah righteousness which means that which

is straight and true and honest the word for

that i think would be integrity in a personal

sense one of john stott's favorite verses in

the bible was first chronicles 29 verse 17. where

1 Chronicles 29:17

David, in the moment of his great, very successful

fundraising opportunity, when he raised all the

money for the building of the temple, says to

God, I know, my God, that you search the heart

and you are pleased with integrity. And John

Stott used to say that that was such an important

verse, that people who are serving the Lord should

be men and women of integrity on the inside and

the outside. So, says our text, these are the

things then that God delights in. They're not

just, in a sense, part of his character only.

They're not just, as it were, attributes of God.

They are actually things that bring a smile to

his face. God says, this is what gives me pleasure.

When I see on earth, not just in heaven, but

on earth, when I see acts of kindness and justice

and righteousness, integrity taking place, God

is pleased. And of course, we see that from not

just Psalm 103 that we quoted earlier, but from

Exodus chapter 34, God's name tag, as it were.

Exodus 34 · chapter mention

I had one here. I took it off. But when God gives

his name tag, he says he's the Lord, the Lord,

the compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding

in love. And even before that, when he called

Abraham to follow him, he said, I have chosen

Abraham. I've chosen him so that he will direct

his household to keep the way of the Lord by

doing righteousness and justice. even before

the law had been given so that the lord can bring

about what he has promised him which was blessing

for all nations so this is what god delights

in and therefore this is what it means to be

a people who know the lord god the mission of

israel in the old testament was supposed to be

to be the people of yahweh the god of israel

a people of chesed and righteousness and justice

and mercy in a world going the way of solomon

gomorrah which is precisely when God called Abraham

and gave him that commandment. That's what it

means to know God, and that's what it ought to

be, to be boasted of. So for us then to claim

to know God, if that's what we want to do, means

to know this God, the God who calls for and longs

for and delights in love and justice and righteousness.

Those are his priorities. And I think Jesus would

say, and if you seek those things, As part of

the kingdom of God, this is the way God exercises

his kingship. Then these other things will be

added to you. So you need wisdom? Well, says

James, if any of you lacks wisdom, you should

ask God because he gives it generously to all

without finding fault and it would be given to

him. Or you need strength? Well, remember Paul

who says, God said to him, my grace is sufficient

for you. My power is made perfect in weakness.

So Paul says, therefore, I will boast all the

more gladly about my weakness. Maybe he was thinking

of Jeremiah 9, 23, when he wrote that, so that

Christ's power may rest on me. For when I'm weak,

then I'm strong, says Paul. And you need money,

you need resources. We all do one way or another.

And we remember Paul saying that I have learned

what it is to be content, whatever circumstances.

whether well fed living in plenty or in want

and my god will meet all your needs according

to the riches of his glory in christ jesus so

wisdom strength riches resources they're all

ours in christ as long as you don't boast and

corrupt them so that's really all i wanted to

bring with these two verses and to suggest that

As you're here in some form of training or another

for some kind of ministry and service that God

wants you to do, some of you, I'm sure, will

go on to become pastors and leaders in God's

church. You'll be wanting to lead others to come

to know Christ. That's what you want to do, isn't

it? And those who already know Christ, to know

him more and to grow in their discipleship. But

I trust that you yourself will be someone who

knows God in this way and what it is as God to

know him. that you delight in the things that

bring delight to God himself. Let's pray together

as we move on to our communion. Heavenly Father,

we thank you for your word. We thank you for

the surprise that it sometimes brings to us in

the midst of the words of doom and judgment and

darkness that are there in the book of Jeremiah,

that we have this little gem of showing us what

it means to know you. We ask that you help us

to take these things to heart, that we will indeed

trust you for the wisdom and the strength and

the riches that we need, but that we may rather

know you by being people who are characterized

by loving kindness and by justice and seeking

justice, walking humbly with you, and men and

women of integrity and righteousness in all that

we do. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.