Knowledge of God

Theology is the discipline of knowing God. For most of us, theology means reading, studying, writing, in other words, dedicating oneself intellectually to seeking knowledge of God. Although this intellectual exercise has its value, it doesn't seem that in biblical thought the knowledge of God has anything to do with it.

The book of Jeremiah, unlike other prophetic books, presents much of its content as a kind of debate with other prophets, scribes and the priestly elite of Judah who were in the temple and palace in Jerusalem. In practice, the debate is about whether there will be salvation or destruction for Judah and its people. On one side, Jeremiah prophesies that destruction is at hand; on the other side are the other prophets, scribes and priests, saying that God will save them. But at the heart of this debate in the book of Jeremiah is a very profound question: what is truth and how can we know it?

Both truth and falsehood, in the course of Jeremiah’s debate with his opponents, are more than a matter of ideas and concepts; that is, truth and falsehood are not mere words. It is, in fact, a matter of true life and false life. A good example of this is in Jeremiah’s prophecy at the temple in Jerusalem in chapter 7. He seems to be speaking only about false words when he says, “Do not trust in false words, saying, ‘The temple of the Lord! The temple of the Lord! This is the temple of the Lord!’” (v. 4). But notice what comes before and what comes after: “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place” (v. 3); “But if you will indeed amend your ways and your doings, if you will indeed practice justice each one with his neighbor, “If you do not oppress the foreigner, the fatherless, or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place or follow other gods to your own hurt, then I will cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, from of old and forevermore” (vv. 5-7). What seems to have only to do with words is actually about a way of life. False words are the result of a false life. But what makes this life false? In verse 8, Jeremiah says something very important: “Look, you trust in false words that do not profit.” What makes a life false or true is whether it has any benefit. This seems subjective and even too pragmatic, but it is not.

Here we can begin to answer the two fundamental questions: what is truth and how can we know it? Part of the first answer is that truth is something that generates benefit. With this part of the answer we already know that Jeremiah doesn't understand truth as an idea, an essence, but as something concrete about life.

We need to dig a little deeper to qualify this first part of the answer. In theology, knowledge of the truth and knowledge of God are interdependent, if not the same thing. The same thing happens in Jeremiah, but it's not about abstract knowledge about the essence of the divine being. It's about knowing God's way of acting, his justice and his commandments. Look at this comparison. In chapter 5, Jeremiah says: "They know nothing. They do not know the ways of the Lord, they do not understand what God's justice requires" (v. 4). In chapter 9, we get a clue as to what it means to know God, his ways, his justice and his commandments. Jeremiah says this: "... to know me and to know that I am the Lord, and that I do mercy and judgment and justice on earth; for these things I delight in, says the Lord" (v. 24).

So, a provisional answer to our two questions would look like this: Truth is that which brings some benefit, and we know it by paying attention, by perceiving, by recognizing God's just and merciful way of acting. With this foundation, we can deal with a text that compacts our discussion so far and leads us to a few more fundamental qualifications:

"He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Isn't that what it means to know me? declares the Lord" (Jeremiah 22:16).

This prophetic speech by Jeremiah is pointing to the life of Josiah, king of Judah, famous for his renewal of the covenant and observance of the law, as appears in 1 Kings 22-23. Jeremiah's prophecy here is an exhortation to Josiah's son, Jehoiakim, who broke with his father's ways, and preceded the defeat of Judah and the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians.

The three parts of this verse point exactly to the three parts I've been trying to develop so far: truth has to do with something that brings some good ("all was well"); knowledge of the truth has to do with knowing God's ways ("isn't that what it means to know me?"); and this knowledge is concrete and practical, and not at the level of ideas and essences ("he defended the cause of the poor and needy"). But the form and context of this prophecy will help us reach a more accurate conclusion.

First, an important foundation that appears in this prophecy is the term "knowledge" (Hebrew, daʿat). It's no secret that this term, like the cognate yādaʿ, when referring to people, is not about acquiring and processing information. Getting to know someone, here, means having a deep relationship and a personal commitment to the other. It is especially this second element, personal commitment, that explains why knowing God is not about information about his essence, but about his way of acting. As limited human beings, we don't have access to the essence of the divine, nor is that what God proposes to us. Our access to the person of God is through observing his relationship with creation, his actions and his way of walking. And our relationship with God takes place in this action and in this journey. This is why knowing God has to do with our relationship with him. This is also why knowing him and having a relationship with him comes about when we follow his path, in a practical commitment to actions that correspond to his way of acting.

Secondly, an important foundation about God's ways, that is, about who he is in relation to creation, appears in this text. In Jeremiah's prophecy, Josiah knew God because he defended the cause of the poor and needy. If we follow the logic we are proposing here, then God's ways have to do with defending the cause of the poor and needy. See how true this statement is: "Sing to the Lord! Praise the Lord! For he has saved the life of the poor from the hands of evildoers" (Jer 20:13). Notice how a personal relationship with God here, even at the level of worship, is grounded in his actions of justice and mercy. Much of what we find in Jeremiah's prophecies, in his dispute with his opponents over the salvation or destruction of Judah, has to do with the way God cares for the poor and needy.

Thirdly, and finally, we have to think about how the truth or knowledge of God, in Jeremiah, is defined by a beneficial result, that is, something that generates benefits. This text from Jeremiah 20:13 and the context of Jeremiah 22:16 will point us towards an answer. There are two important details in Jeremiah 20:13. The first is that God is to be praised for saving the poor man's LIFE. So the knowledge of God, and what truth is, must have something to do with life. The second is that the poor man's life was at risk because of the actions of certain people called evildoers. With that, we can turn to the context of Jeremiah 22:16. As has been said, this is an exhortation to Jehoiakim, Josiah's son. If Josiah knew God by defending the cause of the poor and needy, what did Jehoiakim do that showed he didn't know God? Jeremiah says: "Woe to him who builds his house in injustice and his chambers contrary to law! Who makes his neighbor work for free without paying him wages. Woe to him who says, 'I will build myself a very large house with spacious rooms. Then he puts windows in the house, lines the walls with cedar, and paints it red" (Jer 22:13-14).

From Jehoiakim's point of view, his actions are beneficial, aren't they? It's a good result for him and for the few around him. However, not only do his actions bring nothing good to the multitude of people who live under his reign, but his actions are a threat to their lives. The knowledge of God, the truth, cannot generate injustice and death. The benefit generated by the truth can be defined as what is necessary for everyone's life. The basic resource for life is water. For this reason, right at the beginning of the book of Jeremiah, the dispute between truth and falsehood, or between God and the idols of the other nations, is established through a metaphor involving water: "they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and have dug cisterns, cracked cisterns that hold no water" (Jer 2.13). In a way, therefore, the benefit generated by the truth or the knowledge of God is for everyone's life and well-being. This is why Jeremiah emphasizes the issue of justice for the poor and needy against evildoers or oppressors like Jehoiakim, because such people put the lives of the poor and needy at risk. Instead of generating resources for everyone's life, they generate scarcity, insecurity, injustice and death.

So we can think about why the knowledge of God is linked to the knowledge of truth, which is linked to justice for the poor and needy. Truth has to do with how things are, in other words, with reality. If what we know of God is that he acts justly so that there may be life, then he must have created reality in a way that follows this logic. That's why this pursuit of wisdom, strength and wealth (Jer 9:23), following human logic, causing injustices that put the lives of others at risk, is considered by Jeremiah to be falsehood. Such a way of living in the world does not match reality. What does match reality is defending the cause of the poor and needy, because the world was created by the one who acts with "mercy, justice and righteousness on earth" (Jer 9:24). This is why truth, for Jeremiah, is that which results in some good. That good is the life of everyone, especially those whose lives are threatened.

Now, therefore, we can answer the two questions more precisely: what is truth and how can we know it? Truth is everything that is capable of generating life, especially for those whose lives are most at risk. We can know the truth when we know God and walk with him in his commitment to mercy, justice and righteousness on earth, because this is what generates life. That's why Jeremiah says: "He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Isn't that what it means to know me? declares the Lord".