“Only if your God can say things that outrage you and make you struggle . . . will you know that you have gotten hold of a real God and not a figment of your imagination.” – Timothy Keller

Sometimes when we’re reading a Bible passage, we just have to stop and say, “What?” I feel that way when I read about God asking Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac, who was supposed to be the one through whom God would fulfill all the promises he had made to Abraham. What could God be thinking?

Then I realize that the fact that we don’t know what God was thinking reinforces his deity. His thoughts are way beyond any we could think. His purposes are often hidden and we don’t understand what he’s up to. He is far beyond our human ability to imagine or understand.

God has revealed a lot about himself in the Bible. But not everything – not even close.

We read about other gods like those in mythology. These are gods that are like exaggerated humans, with human characteristics and idiosyncracies. We can see how a human could imagine a Zeus or a Hercules.

The God we know is different from gods of human imagination. He’s not like a giant or exaggerated human. He is, as the theologians say, totally “other” – different from us in every way. And because mere humans could never have dreamed up a god like our God, that makes his reality more trustworthy. Not being able to understand him completely is part of our assurance that he is the real, the revealed, the only God of the universe.

So, instead of objecting to his decisions or direction, I am learning to trust that he is God. And he is good. That may be enough to know for now.

“. . . great things he does, which we cannot comprehend.” – Job 37:5