It is not for you to know

It is not for you to know

And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority.” (Acts 1:7)

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. (Hebrews 11:8)

That I may know Him … (Philippians 3:10)

This morning we wake up in a world of uncertainty. It is a frightening place. We can be overwhelmed by not knowing what’s going to happen next. As Christians, we like to be able to explain what is happening. And, like the disciples in Acts 1, we want to know what God is going to do and when He is going to do it. But Jesus gave them an answer we don’t like to hear: “It is not for you to know” (Acts 1:7). It is important for us as Christians to understand that we don’t know everything. Paul makes this clear at the end of 1 Corinthians 13: “For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known. And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love” (verses 12-13).

Abraham had times when he wanted to know. He waited years for a promised son and wondered what God was doing. But Hebrews 11 records two occasions when Abraham’s faith was victorious: first, in verse 8 he followed God, not knowing where he was going; later, in verses 17-18 Abraham believed God when He told him exactly where to go – the land of Moriah. God used Abraham’s utter trust to foretell, through Abraham’s and Isaac’s experience, the death and resurrection of the Son of God.

Paul, in the five simple words “that I may know Him” (Philippians 3:10), expressed the overarching spiritual desire of his life. They remind us that it is not what we want to know but Who we need to know that is fundamentally important. Paul started his relationship with the Lord Jesus by asking who He was. The rest of his life was a journey of deepening knowledge of the Son of God, who loved him and gave Himself for him. That knowledge transformed him from a brutal, vicious man who tried to destroy the church of Christ, into the suffering, selfless, loving, and most practical saint of God who the Lord Jesus used to build His Church. He writes in Ephesians about being rooted and grounded in love and “to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge” (Ephesians 3:19).

Today, I need not be afraid of the unknown, but I need to know the One who knows all things. I need to abide in Christ and be transformed by His grace. I need to draw from Him the strength to trust Him when the way is not clear and to do the same when my pathway is clear, and always to rest in knowing the love of Christ.