What does it mean to know the Lord? It could mean several things, but I have lately discovered, in Isaiah 11:9, one implication of the fear of God, that is very crucial.
They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the KNOWLEDGE of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.
To understand the context of this verse and that ultimate paradisiacal condition which the verse describes, we shall begin from verse 6.
6 The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf, and the young loin and the fatlings together; and a little child shall lead them.
7 And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
8 And the suckling child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’ den.
9 They shall not hurt nor destroy… for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord.
This scripture is prophetic description of that millennial future when the Lord Jesus shall rule as king of all, and shall establish His kingdom among men. However, the metaphor of the prophecy is very contemporarily instructive.
It says that when the knowledge of the Lord fills the earth, hurt and destruction shall be no more, and the natural enmity between species shall turn into natural love. The wolf, which is no friend of the sheep, shall live together with lambs, the tenoer babies of the sheep; and the leopard shall lie down with the kids of the goat and with the kids of the cow, both of which used to be his natural preys. The bear shall no more prey on the cow. They shall feed together .The lion shall no more sustain his own life by destroying weaker others. Like his neighbour the ox, he shall be transformed to begin to feed on grass, not flesh, others’ flesh.
In our age, a claim to the knowledge of the Lord often becomes the very excuse why the Bear would never feed wit h a Cow, nor a Leopard refrain from preying on lamb. One Bishop of a lion is so much of ‘a man of God,’ so full of the knowledge of the mysteries of God, that it becomes dangerous to draw nigh him. He does not feed together with big-for-nothing, fat but cowardly cows. He feeds on them. He lives by preying on the weak. In a different section of the ecclesiastical jungle, another Lady Evangelist Somebody is such a religious celebrity that nobody talks to her ‘any how’ without serous consequences.
Strangely, the more of God we claim to know, the more hurtful and destructive we become. Two churches cannot be side by side without going to court frequently over ‘sheep stealing.’ The children of one are never safe to "i.e. down together" with the children of the other.
The knowledge of the Lord, according to the millennial prophecy, does something in the life of a creature; so that the lion, for example, loses its natural disposition to roar, to tear, to be angry, to prey on the weak, then turn around thereafter to justify itself by claiming that it had merely acted according to it ‘true nature.’
One frequently hears people, even’ sound Christians,’ claim that they are given to temper; that it is in their nature not to feed together with those who are different from them; that it is their weakness to hurt and destroy the weak. And they claim that they have known the Lord. It is not true. The knowledge of the Lord is not merely in speaking in tongues or becoming a member of a reputable ‘ Pentecostal’ assembly (or whatever the acceptable labels might be).
She who gets so angry that she preys on the weak, hurts and destroys, has never known the Lord, for where the knowledge of God is, lions lose their ferocity, and leopards become tamed and transformed friends of lambs.
He who claims to have known the Lord, yet maintains that typical terror he has always carried with him, and justifies it as his own nature, has never known the Lord. He might be religious, but his religion is what James describes as "vain religion" (James 1:26); worthless religion (NIV); a worthless coin, which can buy nothing; a counterfeit.
When even the God of heaven describes a religion as "vain," it must be very, very vain. And those who practise it ought to sort themselves out urgently. If God calls their religious show worthless, it means that He does not reckon with it. That religion will not take anyone to heaven. The person who practises it might speak in tongues, yet be merely "a tinkling cymbal." They might be forceful preachers of the gospel, yet be assessed by God as merely "sounding brass;" as a clanging cacophony of metallic noise, which offends rather than pleases (1 Corinthians 13: 1-2).
What does "vain" or "worthless" mean? It means being without value or price. A genuine hundred-dollar bill or N10.00 note has worth. It can buy something. But the piece of paper which a school boy crayons in imitation of the hundred dollar bill can buy nothing. It has no worth as money. The boy may have spent ten years painting that dollar. It may be fanciful than the true hundred-dollar bill, but is is "vain." It may mean so much to the boy, but is means nothing to he society, the ultimate judge of his effort. Society rejects his ‘money,’ the decorated, fanciful effort of his many years. That is what the religion of several persons is.
The Christianity that merely changes your church membership but not your life style begs another name. If all that Christianity can give is the experience of speaking in tongues, the ability to recite a few Bible verses or speak some other new Christian jargons, then it is as powerless as any other religion. They speak in tongues in the cults, too, and they study their books more than you would ever know.
If the knowledge of the Lord has not changed the lion or the wolf or the leopard that is neighbour to the cow, the lambs, and "the sucking child," then it is not the knowledge of the Lord. If the knowledge of the Lord does not transform one into the nature of the Lord, then He had not been Lord at all, and it was not an encounter with or knowledge of Him. Merely claiming to have known the Lord does not mean having truly known the Lord, the master, the owner, the commander.
The knowledge of the Lord (as Lord) is not merely a matter of confessions. It is in the transformed life one lives, which life is clear to all who see, who draw close, and who relate with that person.
What is your religion wroth before God? How much can it buy for you in the market of the heavenly places where destinies are changed?
A people who hurt and destroy might be full of knowledge, but certainly not the knowledge of he Lord."
They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: FOR the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD…
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That I may Know HIM - A Devotional
SpiritualGod had said " This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night..., and then thou shalt have good success" (Jos. 1.8). Success in Life is found in God's word. This book is a collection of inspiri...
