(7-Minute Read)
I heard a pastor use a phrase once that I don’t think is correct. It’s not that their statement is false, it’s just not necessarily the full truth.
I’ll get to the phrase in a minute. But before that I want to share a word from the Old Testament I’ve recently begun to understand.
The word is “Yada”. It’s a Hebrew word found throughout the Bible, most often translated to English as, “knowledge of” or “to know”.
In our modern era, when we think of “knowledge” or “knowing” we most likely think of “information” about someone or something from an intellectual perspective. But that is far from what this word truly means.
“Yada”, or “knowledge of”, means “to know (in intimacy).”
This is not an intellectual form of knowing something or someone, but rather a relational and personal way of knowing someone.
We can all know facts, statistics, and information about someone intellectually, yet it’s a whole other thing to know someone personally, relationally, and intimately.
Yada-Knowing means you understand someone’s personality, their opinions, the depth of their heart (and they know yours) and you are affected by them emotionally, relationally, and even spiritually.
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To be honest, this might be the hardest, yet most necessary, realization the Western Church needs because of the time we live in. In our culture knowledge, from an intellectual perspective, is seen as the highest achievement. We have schools and businesses built around discovering the newest and fastest information, and this has led us to create and worship a god named, “Intellectual Knowledge”.
And Western Christianity hasn’t done much to distinguish ourselves from the culture. Often, our schools, and definitely our church meetings, are built around the pursuit of the knowledge (intellect) of YHWH (God) rather than the pursuit of knowing Him in intimacy.
I love education and knowledge, and I’m all in on discovering new ideas, especially when they are found in the Kingdom of Heaven. However, this form of knowledge (intellect) is vastly inferior to the knowledge (intimacy) of Him.
Intimacy is the main—dare I say, only—thing YHWH (God) desires from us.
We need to look no further than the timeline and storyline of the Bible to realize this. In Genesis, when YHWH (God) creates humanity all He wants is to walk with them throughout their day, and for them to represent (be like Him) on the earth. Both of those things are sourced in intimacy.
When YHWH (God) visits His people—Abraham, Moses, David, the Israelite Tribe—He does so by bringing His intimate presence (not the knowledge of His presence) to them.
And ultimately, this is what Jesus set out to do when He came to earth—to restore humanity back to intimately knowing their Creator, YHWH (God), again.
So back to my disagreement with what I heard that pastor say.
Here it is:
“Jesus was God’s ‘Plan A’ for humanity.”
This might be true, but there is a deeper truth.
And this deeper truth exposes the trap that we in the Western (Evangelical) Church have fallen into where the main “point” of Jesus’ life was to “save you from eternal hell”. That’s a vastly inferior truth.
Jesus didn’t come to earth to save you from hell. Jesus came to earth to reveal to the world who the Father (God) is, and to restore our relationship with Him.
That’s intimacy.
And when the knowledge found in the intimacy of YHWH (God) falls below the intellectual knowledge of YHWH (God) we start to create a culture that only cares about “getting saved” from hell—and doesn’t actually care about God.
We start to revert to a mentality that people just need to “get right” with Jesus to be “saved”—as if it’s a once-for-all type of exchange where we say “yes” to the salvation (apparently), but then never interact with God again.
That is, once again, an attempt at the knowledge of God from an intellectual pursuit rather than a relationally-intimate pursuit.
So here’s the deeper truth:
“Intimacy was God’s ‘Plan A’ for humanity.”— Seth Moerkerke.
Again, if you follow the storyline of the entire Bible this is the most common theme: YHWH wants to be close and know (intimacy) His people. And He wants to be known (intimacy) back.
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I was reading Hosea a few weeks ago and that’s when all of this clicked together.
Chapter 6, verse 6 says, “For I (YHWH) delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice, And in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.”
This “knowledge” that God desires is not intellectual.
This knowledge is intimacy.
The correction from YHWH (God) comes after hundreds of years of His people rejecting Him, then realizing they reject Him (because other nations begin to attack them), and then offering sacrifices again. But they didn’t offer sacrifices with the intent of having a relationship with or knowing YHWH (God)—they did it so they could “get back on His ‘good side’” and not be taken captive by other nations again. They cared more about protecting themselves, than they did about connecting to their Creator.
So YHWH (God) comes to them in confrontational love by saying, “I don’t even want your sacrifices, I want you and your heart!”
YHWH (God) longs for intimacy and loyalty to His heart, infinitely, eternally more than sacrifice and burnt offerings to “please” Him.
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Do you find yourself in a place like this?
Going through the religious motions so you can get rid of your feeling of guilt? Or praying and reading your Bible as a “task” to check off instead of a pursuit toward knowing Him? Or even sacrificing things in your life because you think it will bring you into right standing with Him? Maybe you trust life with God is better than anything else so you’re willing to serve Him, but you haven’t taken the time to know Him?
Today, God (YHWH) wants to confront you with love.
He doesn’t need your sacrifices, or your checked-boxes. He wants intimacy with you. That means your heart and His heart are connected, and you know Him, relationally.
If you find yourself in that place today, just pause. Rest from all of your work.
Ask YHWH (God) to reveal Himself to you, intimately.
Ask Him how you can have intimacy with Him.
Ask Him to penetrate your heart with His great love, today.
As Bishop Joseph Garlington sings,
“Knowing You, Jesus, Knowing You—there is no greater thing!”
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With wisdom and gentleness,
Seth
P. S. I’m exploring the idea of having a “sponsor” for this blog, and currently working out the details. If this is something you are interested in please email me so we can connect.
The Serpent Dove 