Or … Another Old Song – I Don’t Know Enough about You

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
    for they will be filled.

• Matthew 5:6

“I have testimony weightier than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to finish—the very works that I am doing—testify that the Father has sent me. And the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me. You have never heard his voice nor seen his form, nor does his word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent. You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.

• John 5:36-40

He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.

• Deuteronomy 8:3

Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

• 1 John 4:8

“I know a little bit about a lot o’ things
But I don’t know enough about you
Just when I think you’re mine
You try a different line
And baby, what can I do?

I read the latest news
No buttons on my shoes
But baby, I’m confused about you
You get me in a spin
Oh what a stew I’m in
‘Cause I don’t know enough about you

Jack of all trades, master of none
And isn’t it a shame
I’m so sure that you’d be good for me
If you’d only play my game!

You know I went to school
And I’m nobody’s fool
That is to say until I met you!
I know a little bit about a lot o’ things
But I don’t know enough about you

I know a little bit about biology
And a little more about psychology
I’m a little gem in geology
But I don’t know enough about you

I guess I’d better get out the encyclopedia
And fresh up on from “shmer” to “shmoo”, mmmm
‘Cause I don’t know enough about you”

• Dave Barbour and Peggy Lee, I Don’t Know Enough about You

I am not going to dissect the song line for line.  I really could care less what is in the encyclopedia between “shmer” and “shmoo”.  It might depend on the encyclopedia.  It might depend on the language.  But beside the title of the song that is often repeated, I will bring up a few lines.

This song by Dave Barbour and Peggy Lee hit me like a ton of bricks.  I was convicted of my sin.  I picked up my Bible and started reading.  I did not think of my late wife and wanting to know more about her.  My biography of her was spotty.  I only thought of knowing God better.

Can we really know God?  The Jewish Aristotelian philosopher Moses Maimonides (1135-1204) would say that it is impossible to understand a single trait of God.  His issue was for every box we place around Love, Hope, Joy, Strength, Presence, Holiness, etc. God is bigger still.  Maimonides thus considered that God was indefinable and thus had no attributes.  But God just has such a supply of each of those attributes, we can only express what we can comprehend and then tag that definition with “infinity.”

Okay, let’s take one attribute about God.  God is love.  Okay, so, how do humans equate love?  Even in non-physical relationships, such as next-door neighbor or best friends, there is a biological connection.  Something within the hormones of our body change when we are around someone who we like or love.  There is the psychological affect.  They tell the jokes we like.  They have this look on their face when we say that we are hurting that we don’t hurt quite as much because we can tell they share our burden.  Peggy Lee’s inclusion of psychology and biology was meaningful in that regard.  I think the little “gem in geology” was just a play on words.

That’s the point, like Jesus said in John 5, we are looking for the physical when God is a spirit.  But we can study Scriptures as Jesus said.

So, what holds us back?  Why do we not know more about God?

The weakness in many Christians is that we want God to play our game.  God does not play our game.

I repeat.

God does not play our game.

We must lay down our game as well as all our other issues at the feet of Jesus and do God’s will.  That leads us back to Bible Study to figure out God’s will.  If you think God spoke to you in a dream and you were meant to be served without ever having lifted a finger, you will not find that in the Bible.  That was someone else telling you that.  And if it was not God? …

Okay then, we can study the Bible and know a lot about God, but still do we know enough?

We could recite the entire Bible, but if we do not accept Jesus into our heart, trusting Him with everything, yes, even with life itself, then we do not know enough about God.  It is not what we know, but what we hold in our hearts, that deep relationship, that matters.

Only then do we “know” enough about God.

Here is Peggy Lee singing the song.

I know a little bit about a lot of things.

I will never know as much about God as I want to know here on earth because I know I will be spending eternity with Him.  If you live your life with that in mind, this world is quite tolerable, no matter how bad the pain and burden might get.  And the good times?  Wow!  Nothing is better.

Do you know enough about God?

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.