A God We Don't Fully Know

Then Manoah inquired of the angel of the Lord, “What is your name, so that we may honor you when your word comes true?”

He replied, “Why do you ask my name? It is beyond understanding.”

Judges 13:17-18

When Samson's father asks the angel who foretold his son's birth what his name is, he doesn't realize he is speaking to no ordinary angel but to the angel of the LORD... to God Himself. So when the angel answers that his name is "beyond understanding" it actually tells us something about God. 

The phrase for "beyond understanding" is sometimes translated "wonderful" or "secret." That's an interesting assertion since God had already told Israel that His name was Yahweh which is sometimes translated as "I am the I am" or "I will be who I will be." So what does this passage mean? Is Yahweh not God's name? Is God's true name a secret? Is it beyond our understanding? Or is His name Wonderful?

Well, let's look at the only other time this Hebrew phrase is used in Scripture for help. In Psalm 139:6 the same phrase is used. That verse says "...such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain." I think that helps us understand what God is saying about His name in Judges 13:18. His name is too wonderful for us to fully understand. It is too lofty for us to attain.   

This is a powerful reminder that every facet of who God is, even down to His name, is beyond our ability to grasp fully. There is no single truth about God that we understand fully. I have a Master's degree from seminary. I have served full-time in church ministry for over a decade and in a very real sense it could still be said that I don't yet fully understand a single thing about God. I'm not saying I don't know anything about God. I'm saying that even the things I do know about Him, I only know in part. 

1 Corinthians 13:12 puts it this way. "For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known."

There are things we know to be true about God with certainty and confidence, but we must remember that even those things we only know in part. There is a depth to who God is and what He is doing and what He has done that we simply cannot plumb. There is always more of God to know, always more to love, always more to discover and worship Him for. This is part of what makes an eternity spent in Heaven possible. There will always be more to God.

Who could claim to fully comprehend God?! Who has apprehended His love? Who has mastered His justice? Or who could claim to have grasped His perfection or beauty? No one! There is no single truth about God that we comprehend fully or understand completely. And this is cause for praise! 

I praise God that I do not know Him fully, that He will always provide a joyous mystery for me to revel in unfolding. That there are greater depths still for me to plumb. And there is joy upon joy in knowing Him more.