How can we come to know God? We can come to know of him through intellectual means; reading Scripture and memorizing verses. But is that really what it means to know God, by knowing of him? There is a profound difference between knowing God and knowing of him. To know God is to know of him and to personally experience a relationship with God.
But how does one come to know God at a real personal level? Many say that it is only through Scripture that we can come to know who God is as for many Scripture reading is the epitome of what it means to come to know God at a personal level. The study of Scripture has evolved to systemized theology; the Bible is categorized into themes and adjoined with footnotes filled with commentaries mixed with opinions and facts.
No doubt Scripture is important; it certainly is foundational in the life of any Christian who seeks to know more of God. Scripture is likened to a love letter written by the Father to His Children, to instruct us on how to walk in this life, pleasing to Him. In this love letter, we find our Father telling us about some of His Children, Saints who had a real personal relationship with Him, and some even responsible for having written portions of this letter to us.
These Saints, the Old Testament Saints in particular, catch my attention when I think of what it means to become sanctified and to be holy. How did they come to know God if there was no 'love letter' to systematically study from? What was their foundation if not Scripture as we know it today? It is obvious from Scripture that these Saints knew God at a personal level. They had a relationship with God and experienced him in such a depth that almost seems unattainable. And yet there was no love letter to go by.
Holiness was important to these Saints. And it's obvious by how recurrent of a theme holiness is in Scripture, both in the Old and New Testament. They practiced holiness and underwent through sanctification. But how were they able to acquire this state of being? By being immersed by God, as testified by their writings in God's Love Letter to us.
My question is how did they immerse themselves with God? True, they had the Law of Moses to go by. But they had no way to systematically study it as many Christians today study the Bible. At the point of their lives, there wasn't a compilation of holy books to study intently and come to their own conclusions of what it means to be holy. These Saints knew God and many times experienced him in ways that are truly unfathomable.
But how did they immerse themselves with God, experience him with all their being, and achieved such intense sanctity without the book we as Christians know as the Holy Bible?
While not at all diminishing the value of Scripture, to me it is clear: knowing God is much more than just reading Scripture.
The Prophet Elijah
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