If I Only Knew...

There is a verse I stumbled across a while back in Hosea that has really changed some things about my view of God:

"For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgement of God rather than burnt offerings." Hosea 6:6

Earlier in chapter 6 of Hosea, the Israelites are saying that they want to return to the Lord.  I suppose their attitude may seem authentic, but I think it's just a show.  They are certain, almost arrogant, of the fact that God will take them back as long as they acknowledge God and "as surely as the sun rises, he will appear."  Apparently, God didn't buy into their pitch because he isn't satisfied with their attitude in approaching him.  In verse 6, God is telling them that He wants the Israelites to do more than just know about him, he desires that they know him.  Simply put, information about God isn't enough.  They need to experience revelation of God in their lives so that they understand his heart.  

I need to experience revelation of God.  

We need to experience revelation of God.

This means that God wants more than "I'm sorry" from me.  He wants more than for me to feel guilty and make an unfulfilled promise.  He wants more than an act or a show.  He wants what is real.  He wants me to experience  what God is about.  He wants me to "taste and see that the Lord is good," as Psalm 34:8 says.  

To taste and see that the Lord is good, I must draw near to the heart of God.  Taste and See are not distant, abstract, and objective verbs.  To taste something is to intentionally consume it so that my senses can explode with excitement at its sweetness and complexity and texture.  To see is more than to simply observe, but it involves perception and understanding and contemplation and processing and analysis to draw a conclusion.  These verbs are personal.  They're part of an intimate sensory experience.  If I am to do these things to know my Lord, then it will take a lot more than simply claiming to lead a spiritual life.  It will take a lot more than listening to a message on Sunday morning.  Anything short of an intimate, personal relationship with God will only result in knowing information about God.  It isn't until I learn to taste and see what God is about, what his heart desires, that I will experience the revelation of God.  

Romeo knew something about revelations.  In act I Scene V of Romeo and Juliet Romeo has his own revelation.  As you may know, the play starts off in Act I Scene I with Romeo complaining to his cousin that the woman he loves, Rosaline, does not love him back.  Bonvolio tries to console Romeo by convincing him to simply forget about her and go on with his life, but Romeo will have nothing of it because to him, she is the most beautiful woman of all.  Skip ahead to Scene V at the Capulet's party.  Romeo sees a girl from across the room and his entire world changes, literally.  Her beauty surpasses anything he has ever seen.  She puts other women to shame.  Everything he thought he knew about beauty in women is thrown out the window and there is now a new standard of beautiful.  He says (in modern English):

"Who is the girl on the arm of that lucky knight over there? Oh, she shows the torches how to burn bright!  She stands out against eh darkness like a jeweled earring hanging against the cheek of and African.  Her beauty is too good for this world; she's too beautiful to die and be buried.  She outshines other women like a white dove in the middle of a flock of crows.  When this dance is over, I'll see where she stands, and I'll touch her hand with my rough ugly one. Did my heart ever love anyone before this moment?  My eyes were liars, then, because I never saw true beauty before tonight."

Upon seeing Juliet, true beauty is revealed to Romeo.  Everything he thought he knew about women changes in an instant.  His previous "love," Rosaline, is no longer even a thought in his mind.  

I hope the connection between Romeo's revelation and experiencing a revelation of God makes sense.  Romeo experiences true revelation upon seeing the surpassing beauty of Juliet.  I experience true revelation upon tasting and seeing and understanding the true beauty of God.  

This idea of having a revelation of God reminds me of what Christ prayed over Jerusalem before his triumphal entry.  Luke describes the scene in verse 42 of chapter 19 as Jesus prays "If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace--but now it is hidden from your eyes."  

If you only knew what would bring you peace.  If you only could see what is best for you.  

I can picture Jesus telling me this.  "Trey, if you could only see what would truly bring you peace, you would want nothing but to worship God.  If you could only look past whatever it is your concentrated on in the short term, you could see that the true beauty of God is where you need to be.  The stuff you're into now may seem important, but if you could only experience the revelation of God in your life, if you could taste and see that the I am good, then it would blow your mind.  The stuff you see now is rags compared to what is going to be revealed to you." 

If we only knew.  Information about God is not enough.  "You do believe that there is one God.  Good!  Even the demons believe that--and shudder." (James 2:19)  I need to know him.  To taste and see that he is good.  If I only knew that there is a righteousness waiting for me that is beyond comprehension, like Romeo seeing Juliet for the first time, everything that I knew beforehand would pail in comparison.  If I could only see the big picture of my insignificance operating in God's grand story.  The only way is to "taste and see that  the Lord is good."