I was recently invited to take part in an ‘Escape Rooms’. For those of you who haven’t heard of it, it’s a game in which a team of players crack puzzles and accomplish tasks in order to be set free from a room in which you are trapped. It’s a concept very similar to the Crystal Maze, that TV programme that featured prominently in my 90s childhood!
And much like the Crystal Maze, the game acknowledges that there are different kinds of wisdom – some people are amazing problem solvers, other are great at brain-teasers and riddles, some have fantastic spatial awareness, others have excellent physical know-how – and all of these types of knowledge are needed for humans to progress.
God has given humanity huge insight and access to knowledge, and we must wield this with caution. We are particularly aware of this in our current age of unprecedented technological development and the advent of Artificial Intelligence.
We see this idea represented in the bible in the book of Genesis, in the story of the garden of Eden, as Adam and Eve eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil – illustrating that humankind has peculiar insight, beyond the rest of creation, for good and for ill.
But, despite all the knowledge that humanity has accumulated, it is only a drop in the ocean compared to the wisdom of God. In this week’s Bible passage, which we will look at together on Sunday, the man called Job is questioned by God:
“Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?
Tell me, if you understand.”
In this passage God is reminding Job of the limits of his understanding. And this is posture of humility that we must keep hold of as Christians, remembering that we are created beings and not the creator.
But as Paul says in his first letter to the Corinthians: “Now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.’
The amazing promise of the New Testament is that one day we will ‘fully know’. Such is the generosity of God, as he continually draws us closer and closer, deeper and deeper into the mystery of the Trinity, that one day we will be able to join all the dots and understand some of life’s mysteries that for now evade us.
So whether you have all the answers this week, or feel totally clueless (as I do most of the time!) take comfort that God knows the beginning from the end, and one day everything will make sense.
With love and blessings
Revd Jemima