The word according to Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary means, “…..impossible to comprehend…..unintelligible…..” (By permission. From Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary copyright 1991 by Merriam- Webster Inc., publisher of the Merriam-Webster (registered) Dictionaries.)
“…existential phenominology seeks to elucidate the existential nature of social structures by uncovering the surface institutional phenomena of the everyday, accepted world; by probing the subterranean, noninstitutional social depths concealed from public gaze, by interpreting the dialectic between the institutional and the noninstitutional…” (Sociology Of The Ubsurd. page 71)
Did you get that? Was it intelligible to you? That was a quote from a text book in a sociology class I took years ago. As time goes on and I reread this quote as an illustration, I find that I understand what it is saying — Scarrryy.
Tozer introduces his chapter on incomprehensibility with the thought that we cannot answer the question “What is God like?” “This book is an attempt to answer that question. Yet at the outset I must acknowledge that it cannot be answered, except to say that God is not like anything; that is, He is not exactly like anything or anybody.” (Tozer, A.W.; “THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE HOLY”; Lincoln, NE: Back to the Bible, 1961, p 31)
A man named Spenser stated “God is the great unknowable.” (The old song, “Getting To Know You” does not compute with God.) Someone reading Spenser said, “Spenser knows a lot about the unknowable.”
He, being an infinite Being Cannot be comprehended by finite beings. We mentioned Webster’s definition. It contains a term which does not apply to God. “unintelligible.” This implies something that can’t be understood because you can’t make sense of it. For example, the sound of computer data being transferred is unintelligible to the ear but with a computer you can understand it easily.
God is completely understandable when He communicates with us. The term incomprehensible has the idea that we can never comprehend all He is. Though we have been studying Him and His attributes we are doing so in our finite minds and we aren’t even smearing the surface of what there is to know about Him. We can never in our finite minds comprehend His being.
He is however knowable. Matthew 11:27,
All things are delivered unto me by my Father, and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, except the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.”
Through the Lord Jesus, we can know God in our limited capacity. (See also John 17:3, Philippians 3:10, 1 John 4:7.)
His greatness is unsearchable Psalm 145:3, “Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised: and his greatness is unsearchable.” We will take about one hundred pages, looking at God and we will only begin to study Him. If you studied God for the rest of your days, I am sure that you would never feel that you had studied God. You would not have totally searched out all the data concerning God.
His understanding cannot be searched Isaiah 40:28,
“Hast thou not known? Hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? There is no searching of his understanding.”
He can understand all things; He understands all things. We in our finite minds struggle with many things because we cannot understand all things.
His works are great and unsearchable.
Job 5:9, “Who doeth great things and unsearchable, marvelous things without number;”
His judgments are unsearchable Romans 11:33,
“Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out.”
I suspect that as the Lord begins judgment, we will stand confused as to why He does things as He will. He has perfect knowledge, perfect justice, and perfect understanding. We will falter before His use of such attributes. I trust that He will take time to help us understand things.
APPLICATION
1. If he is incomprehensible then we can have an eternal theology proper class and never run out of information to study. Would anyone care to sign up for it? I think that I will, because the Lord teaches it.
2. We should never become proud of how much we know of God, for even one that has studied God all his life is only beginning.
3. If He is unsearchable, and we now know that He is, then how can we ever think that we have nothing to study in our quiet times. Indeed, how can we be satisfied with only a few minutes of quiet time a day?[1]
[1] Stanley L. Derickson Ph.D. B.A. (n.d.). DERICKSON’S NOTES ON THEOLOGY: A STUDY BOOK IN THEOLOGY.
Truth2Freedom's Blog 