Articles
"I Don't Know You"
It is without question we would refuse to endorse, or vouch for, someone who was a complete stranger to us. For the same reason, we would not hand over the keys to our car to some stranger who walked up to us and asked to borrow it. In each of these cases, and many more similar scenarios we could imagine, we might likely refuse such requests with the simple but reasonable answer, “I don’t know you.”
This simple answer is, when honestly stated, sufficient to deny the unknown one potential benefits that might come with familiarity; no further explanation is necessary, and no one would question the refusal. Common sense and propriety would cause others to understand, and have no expectation that one should fulfill such requests. Lack of knowledge is reason enough to not grant any benefits to another.
It is this common practice among all civilizations that leads us to consider some situations wherein one does not know another, and the consequential exclusion from potential benefits or rewards. These situations are of much greater importance [or should be] because they have to do with cases where one did not know God, or God or Jesus Christ did not know the individual. In all cases, though, there is a distinct and indisputable loss of potential benefits and/or rewards because of this lack of familiarity. Let us consider these stories and then consider self and whether we might find ourselves in a similar condition.
Pharaoh. When God sent Moses back to Egypt to lead His people out of captivity, the first time Moses came to Pharaoh, he told him, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘Let My people go, that they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness.’” It is then Pharaoh replied, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, nor will I let Israel go” (Exod. 5:1, 2). Clearly, Pharaoh did not know the Lord — but he soon would know Him, and so would all of Egypt. Well into the plagues, God sent Moses to tell Pharaoh, “Let My people go, that they may serve Me, for at this time I will send all My plagues to your very heart, and on your servants and on your people, that you may know that there is none like Me in all the earth” (Exod. 9:13, 14), and then noted how He had not completely destroyed the land, “But indeed for this purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth” (Exod. 9:15, 16).
Let us here point out that Pharaoh’s claim of having no knowledge of God [at least the true God, and not one of the many the Egyptians worshiped] might have been true initially, but after the plagues made it clear who the true God was, Pharaoh could not honestly make that claim any longer. From that point forward, any ignorance of God would be a willful ignorance, and outright rebellion against Him. It cost him his country, its abundance, and its place of power in the world. There is a lesson in this for us, is there not?
The Sons of Eli. During the latter years of the judges in Israel, when Eli was both judge and priest, it was said, “Now the sons of Eli were corrupt; they did not know the Lord” (1 Sam. 2:12); it is not coincidental that they were ignorant of God and, at the same time, living corrupt lives! It is precisely because they were ignorant of God that they were corrupt! But how could it be said that the sons of a judge and priest in Israel did not know the Lord?
Well, as is too often the case, it was a mixture of the failure of the parent [Eli] and the willful ignorance on the part of the sons [Hophni and Phinehas]. We may remember that the Israelites were instructed by God to teach the commandments “diligently to your children” (Deut. 6:6-9), and “teach them to your children and your grandchildren” (Deut. 4:9). Despite this, we find later, when the generation of Joshua had passed away, “another generation arose after them who did not know the Lord nor the work which He had done for Israel” (Jdgs. 2:10). Parents did not do what they should have!
But let us not forget there were consequences for their ignorance; for Hophni and Phinehas, we know they “were corrupt,” and the generation of Israelites that did not know the Lord or the work He had done for them “did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served the Baals; and they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt; and they followed other gods from among the gods of the people who were all around them, and they bowed down to them; and they provoked the Lord to anger” (Jdgs. 2:11, 12). Devoid of the knowledge of God also meant they were lacking a moral standard and they lived accordingly. But that was not the complete picture of the consequences of their ignorance!
For the corruption of Hophni and Phinehas and for Eli’s refusal to hold them accountable, God told Eli there would not be an old man in his household and then told him, “Now this shall be a sign to you that will come upon your two sons, on Hophni and Phinehas: in one day they shall die, both of them” (1 Sam. 2:31-34). For the generation of Israelites who turned away from God, He “delivered them into the hands of plunderers who despoiled them; and He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, so that they could no longer stand before their enemies” (Jdgs. 2:14). Their ignorance of God would cost them their positions, and their very lives.
God and Jesus Christ. So far, we have addressed those who were ignorant of the Lord and the consequences of their ignorance. Let us not think there will be no consequences for us if we, too, are ignorant of God and of Jesus, the Christ and Son of God. In fact, the apostle Paul reminded the believers in Thessalonica that they should not be concerned with those who troubled them, for when Christ returned, He would do so “in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Thess. 1:6-8). It seems the ones who did not know God were the ones who troubled the believers, but their punishment would be certain.
And let us not deceive ourselves into thinking we know the Lord when, in reality, we do not. Jesus Himself spoke of those who claimed to have a close, personal relationship with Him, but really did not, and the certain fate they would face when He told us, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’” (Matt. 7:21-23). How sad it will be when those who thought they knew the Lord will hear one final thing from Him — that He did not know them!
Friends and brethren, do you know the Lord? I don’t mean, “Do you know something about the Lord?”; I mean, “Do you truly know the Lord?” There is a difference, and that difference will determine your eternal destination. This is not something we may take lightly or simply dismiss, for there will be consequences, as with those we previously noted. Open your Bible and open your heart. He wants to know you as one of His! — Steven Harper
