God Incomprehensible.

Adapted from a Sermon by

George Burder

Can you find out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limit of the Almighty? (Job 11:7 ESV)

This morning we will consider how our infinite and eternal God is incomprehensible. Job 11:7 states it as follows: Can you find out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limit of the Almighty?

That there is a God, has been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. Perhaps there are some absolute Atheists. But reason compels us to believe that everything which we see had a maker---that it could not make itself; but who or what God is, has been the subject of numberless disputes among men.

History tells us that one of the ancient heathen philosophers was asked by his prince---"What is God?" He asked for a day to think of it, before he gave an answer: that day passed; he then asked for two days more: when the two days were passed, he asked for four. The king then demanded to know what he meant by such repeated delays. He replied---"Sire, the more I think of him, he appears to me still more unknown!" This was not a bad answer for a heathen: but we are not in his condition. God has made himself known to us by his word; indeed, he has sent us his Son; and he "who is at the Father's side, he has made him known."(John 1:18)

In the passage from which our text is taken, Zophar, a friend of Job, reproves him severely, as if he had pretended to a perfect knowledge of God. This charge, though not strictly true as to Job, implies a very great and instructive truth; namely, that

God is incomprehensible.

This is not to say that we can have no conceptions of his nature, but no adequate conceptions---not that we cannot "find him out" at all; but, as our text implies, not "to the limit." When we say, therefore, that God is incomprehensible, we must not infer that we need not search after God, or despair of finding him if we do; for indeed, the right knowledge of God is the sum of religion. We are commanded to seek the Lord---"Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near."(Isaiah 55:6) We are commanded to "press on to know the Lord."(Hosea 6:3) Indeed, it is the grand promise of the New Covenant---"They shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest;"(Hebrews 8:11) and "all your children shall be taught by the Lord."(Isaiah 54:13)

And yet, after all, it will be found true that "God is incomprehensible;" and the plain reason of this is, God is infinite; and we are finite; his glorious excellencies are without bounds; but our capacities are confined within narrow limits. A shell cannot contain the ocean; nor can the human mind comprehend the Almighty. And this will appear if you consider, that,

I. We cannot perfectly understand his works: though we see them with our eyes, and understand them in part, we cannot find them out to perfection.

It is our duty to observe them, and study them. "Great are the works of the Lord, studied by all who delight in them;"(Psalm 111:2) and we are directed to "remember to extol his work, of which men have sung."(Job 36:24) They are intended to preach their Maker; and they "so declare his glory,"(Psalm 19:1) that the heathen, who have no other instructor, will be left without excuse, if they do not glorify him as God.(Romans 1:19-32) But, though we may admire, we cannot comprehend his works.

A little child may imagine he can touch the moon, or reach a star; but an adult person knows better, and is aware of their vast distance: so, if our minds are rightly informed, we will perceive that the works of God are immensely great and glorious, as is finely expressed in the verse after our text:---"It is higher than heaven---what can you do? Deeper than Sheol---what can you know?"(Job 11:8) Of many of God's works we know neither the nature nor the design. Who can tell what is the furthest galaxy if there even is one, or who knows what is its use? Who can say for what purposes destructive animals and poisonous plants were formed? And where is the man who can explain the nature of the connection between his own soul and his body? Surely then, if the works of God are incomprehensible, their Maker must necessarily be so also.

II. The ways of God, in the course of his providence, are to us, frequently unsearchable.

Truly does the apostle exclaim---"How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!"(Romans 11:33)---and the Psalmist confess---"Your way was through the sea, your path through the great waters; yet your footprints were unseen!"(Psalm 77:19) Or, as it is expressed in another place, "Clouds and thick darkness are all around him."(Psalm 97:2) There is frequently, to our feeble minds, an obscurity in the Divine proceedings. The righteous are afflicted, while bad men prosper: the wicked govern, and the pious are oppressed: useful men are cut off by death; while those who encumber the ground grow old in sin. In all this, God is righteous; but his proceedings are, at present, incomprehensible.

III. The word of God is not perfectly understood.

Many parts of it, indeed, are perfectly plain. Everything necessary to salvation is so easy, that "he may run who reads it;"(Habakkuk 2:2) yet there certainly are other things "hard to understand;"(2 Peter 3:15) "deep things of God;"(1 Corinthians 2:10 NKJV) "solid food"(1 Corinthians 3:2) for strong men, as well as "milk" (Hebrews 5:13) for children. There are, especially, prophecies yet unfulfilled, which to us are obscure, as probably those already accomplished were, formerly, to the church of God in ancient times. The word of God is an ocean, a vast abyss; which, with our feeble line, we cannot fathom; it is like its Divine Author, incomprehensible.

IV. But it is of God himself, in his glorious attributes, that we mainly want to consider. Who by searching can find out God? Who can fully conceive of his Divine Perfections?

i) Do we speak of his eternity?

Who can comprehend it? How can we conceive of a Being, self-existent, independent, self-sufficient, who existed before a creature was made, who had no beginning---suffers no change---will have no end---one who was from all eternity---an eternity past---who will remain unchangeable through an eternity to come? We believe that men, that angels, that the world had a beginning, for God willed them to exist; everything we are acquainted with was made; but who can conceive of self-existence?

ii) We ascribe to God infinite power---our text styles him "The Almighty;"

but who can conceive of power that has no limits? We perceive that the power of creatures is confined within narrow bounds. The powers of man are extremely limited; in some qualifications he sees himself exceeded by surrounding animals; some have more strength, greater swiftness, keener scent than himself, though reason exalts him far above them, and enables him to dominate over them for his own pleasure or profit; but after all, he finds himself weak and feeble, and, compared with the Almighty, a helpless worm. For "who can utter the mighty deeds of the Lord?"(Psalm 106:2)

And when we have stretched our thoughts to the utmost, in the contemplation of his greatness, we can only say with Job, "Behold, these are but the outskirts of his ways, and how small a whisper do we hear of him! But the thunder of his power who can understand?"(Job 26:14)---Compared with this reality, all our conceptions of it are but as a few drops compared with the ocean, or a gentle whisper compared with a tremendous peal of thunder. How noble, how sublime are the scriptural descriptions of his omnipotence, in the prophet Isaiah!---"Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens with a span, enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance?"(Isaiah 40:12)---"Behold!" said Elihu to Job, "God is mighty, he is mighty in strength of understanding," (Job 36:5)and then he proceeds to produce various proofs of it in the dispensations of his providence. God himself then takes up the mighty theme, and refers to the marvelous work of Creation, and his dominion over it. The effect upon the mind of Job was wonderful, and he cries out---"I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know."(Job 42:2-3) Thus he confesses that the power of God is incomprehensible!

iii) Again, we believe that God possesses infinite wisdom and knowledge.

He perfectly knows all things that ever passed in the world, from the first day of creation; he knows all things that are now passing in all the countries of this globe, as well as in heaven and in hell too. He foreknows all things which will come to pass, in all future generations, to the end of time. But here we are lost at once, and are forced to exclaim, with the prophet, when he had been considering the universal presence of God, "Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it."(Psalm 139:6)

We are conscious of our own ignorance; every day convinces us that we know next to nothing; men of the greatest talents, who have studied books all their lives, and have attained far more knowledge than their plainer neighbors, will be the first to confess their ignorance, and confess that their knowledge is very limited.

Who then can conceive of a Being from whom nothing is hidden; who knows the hearts of men; who "discerns our thoughts from afar;"(Psalm 139:2) who is perfectly acquainted with all that we call accidental, or contingent, and which it is impossible for the wisest men to foresee! We must readily own that the wisdom of God is incomprehensible to us; we can only stand on the shore of this vast and immeasurable ocean, and exclaim with the apostle Paul, "Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!"(Romans 11:33)

iv) We are constrained to speak in the same manner of the infinite holiness, the infinite justice, and the infinite goodness of God.

All these are clearly revealed and beautifully displayed in the gospel of our salvation; but who can comprehend them? Adoring angels, in their heavenly worship, veil their faces while they cry "Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord God Almighty!"(Revelation 4:8) We see no beings around us on earth, even of the most pious and good, who are perfectly holy; "there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins;"(Ecclesiastes 7:20) how then can we conceive of Him who never did evil, who is "righteous in all his ways and kind in all his works,"(Psalm 145:17) who is of "purer eyes than to see evil?"(Habakkuk 1:13)

We see no perfect justice in our world; the wicked often escape deserved punishment, and the pious are defrauded and oppressed; but God's throne is established in righteousness, and the Judge of all the earth always does right.

The goodness of God is also unsearchable; the earth is full of his goodness; but who can comprehend it? God loved the world and gave us his Son; but who can say how much he loved us in bestowing such a gift?----it was an unspeakable gift! And, if we survey the wondrous cross, and try to estimate the love that brought down the Savior from his throne to the cradle, and carried him through all the labors, and sorrows, and sufferings of his residence below, and fixed him at last on the cursed tree, we may try our skill, and endeavor to measure the dimensions of his love; we may, with all saints, examine its breadth, and its length, and its depth, and its height; but we must admit that, after all, it "surpasses knowledge."(Ephesians 3:19) Such being the fact---the works, the ways, the word, the perfections of God being all incomprehensible, what are the practical lessons which we ought to learn from this acknowledged truth? These we will now consider:

1. We should learn to be humble.

It was for this purpose that the words of our text were spoken to Job: and Job was humbled, by the dispensations of God's providence, and especially by the display of his infinite greatness. At the conclusion of this book, we find this holy man thus expressing his contrite feelings: "I had heard of you (he says to God) by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes."(Job 42:5-6)

Before this great, glorious, incomprehensible Being, will man be proud? No; rather let him say, "Lord, what is man that you are mindful of him?"(Psalm 8:4) Will man venture to boast of wisdom? Hear how he is reproved in the 12th verse of this chapter---"a stupid man will get understanding when a wild donkey's colt is born a man."(Job 11:12)---What do we know? Let a good man of ancient times answer, "Surely I am too stupid to be a man. I have not the understanding of a man. I have not learned wisdom, nor have I knowledge of the Holy One;"(Proverbs 30:2) and let the apostle Paul reprove the boaster, "If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know."(1 Corinthians 8:2)

And this should make religious people modest in their inquiries, and in their decisions, let them not be too curious, or too positive; dogmatic, or censorious. The men of Bethshemesh were punished for looking into the ark:(1 Samuel 6:19) and let us be careful "not to go beyond what is written."(1 Corinthians 4:6) "Secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children."(Deuteronomy 29:29)

2. We may infer from this truth, how base a thing is idolatry, or image worship!

Is the great God incomprehensible, and will we dare to make a likeness of him and pay it homage! Has he "measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens with a span, enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance? Are all the nations as nothing before him, and accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness? To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him? says the Holy One?"(Isaiah 40:12, 17, 25) O how dishonorable to God, and how disgraceful to man is it thus to "exchange the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things!"(Romans 1:23) Even Pythagoras, a heathen philosopher, forbade his disciples to make an image of God---and shall any who call themselves Christians do it? By no means!

3. Is God incomprehensibly glorious? Then how should we admire and adore him!

What high and honorable thoughts should we have of him! Let us also worship him with reverence and godly fear, for "among those who are near him he will be sanctified;"(Leviticus 10:3) and let us imitate him who, though he was called by the familiar name of the friend of God,(Isaiah 41:8) thus addressed the Majesty of heaven:---"Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes!"(Genesis 18:27)

4. Let us calmly submit to all his dispensations in providence;

they may sometimes seem to be obscure, and even severe; but they are always wise, and holy, and good. He does all things well. We may not be able to discover the reasons of his dealings with us; as a child is unable to judge of his father's management of the family; as the subjects of a king may not always know the reasons behind public measures, so we may be at a loss to conceive why the great and blessed God permits certain apparent evils to befall us; yet, let us bow to the sovereign disposal of heaven, remembering that what we do not know now, we will know in the future.(John 13:7) If God himself is incomprehensible, is it any wonder that his proceedings should be so too? Our business is, not explanation or objection, but submission; Let the will of the Lord be done.(Matthew 6:10) "The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord."(Job 1:21)

5. Seeing that the nature of God is so wonderfully glorious, let us study to know him.

We observed before, that his being incomprehensible is no reason why we should not labor to know him; if we cannot comprehend all his excellencies, for they are infinite, yet let us attain what we can. To this most useful pursuit the word of God invites us; it declares to us, that "this is eternal life, that they know the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom he sent."(John 17:3)

Wise men do not decline the study of any science because of its sublimity or its difficulty. The astronomer applies himself to the study of the heavenly bodies, and labors to become acquainted with their magnitude, their distance, their revolutions, and, if possible, their uses; yet he does not expect to obtain a perfect and complete knowledge of them: and in like manner the physician, and the anatomist, and the botanist, pursue their many researches, while they yet remain far from being perfect in their acquaintance with the objects of their studies.

But let all our notions of God be regulated by his own word: it is only "in his light do we see light:"(Psalm 36:9) let us not presume to form our ideas of God by our own imagination, or the imaginations of other men; we may sin by making mental as well as material images of God; as it was the fault with which God charged some of old---"they thought that God was one like themselves;" but for this, he says, "I rebuke you."(Psalm 50:16)

And let us beware of abusing those familiar emblems and illustrations of his divine glory, which he condescends to give us: as where he is said to be vexed, to be grieved, to repent; these expressions are "in human terms,"(Romans 6:19) and intended to assist our feeble minds in their devotions. In short, let us pray for divine instruction, and seek the aid of the Spirit of Truth; while, with holy reverence, we search for God in his written word, which is "able to make us wise for salvation."(2 Timothy 3:15)

It is in the glass (the mirror) of the gospel that we obtain the clearest and the most gracious descriptions of God; there it is that "with unveiled face, we behold the glory of the Lord;"(2 Corinthians 3:18) for "he is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature,"(Hebrews 1:3) so that "whoever has seen the Son has seen the Father also."(John 14:9)

6. Also, we may learn from this the reasonableness of Faith.

"Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen."(Hebrews 11:1) Now, "no one has ever seen God."(John 1:18) He is "the invisible God;"(Colossians 1:15) but the Savior "has made him known;"(John 1:18) he has "manifested his name"(John 17:6) to his people: what is revealed, therefore, let us receive by faith, and act accordingly. Thus "Moses endured as seeing him who is invisible;"(Hebrews 11:27)---he had a clear and distinct view and awareness of God, in his omnipresence, power, and faithfulness; and a fixed trust in him at all times, and on all occasions, as much as if he had seen God working with him and for him, with his bodily eyes:---in this way let us also walk with God; and though we cannot comprehend him, let us admire, adore, love, and obey.

7. Finally, this view of the subject should cause the heavenly state to be exceedingly desirable;

for, in that state "we shall know fully, even as we have been fully known." At present, we "see in a mirror dimly,"----obscurely, or, as in a riddle---a parable, a dark saying---but in that holy world of light, "face to face;"(1 Corinthians 13:12) that is, clearly and fully. "Now (said the highly-learned apostle of the Gentiles,) now we know in part, and we prophesy (or preach) in part; but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away."(1 Corinthians 13:9-10) We will see the objects themselves, of which we have now but the shadows or the figures; the pure in heart will see God---God in our nature---Immanuel, God with us. The expectation of Job, and of every other believer, will be gratified---"in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not (as) another."(Job 19:26-27)

Sadly! What strangers are many, to all these thoughts of God! They do not wish to know him: the language of their hearts, and of their practice is, "Depart from us! We do not desire the knowledge of your ways:"(Job 21:14)---but woe be to the sinner if God should take him at his word; woe be to the man whom God forsakes: a time will come, when his favor will appear to be infinitely more valuable than life itself; when life, deprived of his favor, will be worse than death! And so if you possess one spark of reason; if you have the least degree of love to your own immortal soul, seek the Lord while he may yet be found; call upon him, in prayer, for mercy and grace, for as yet he is near; and those who ask shall receive; those who seek shall find.

Now, to this glorious and gracious, though incomprehensible God; to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the one great Supreme, be glory in all the churches, world without end!