“This is what the LORD says: ‘Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts, boast about this: that he understands and knows me.'” – Jeremiah 9:23-24
Yada. In Hebrew it means, “to know.” It’s one of the most interesting words in the Bible and appears almost 1,000 times in the Old Testament. Literally, it means to know by observing and then by experiencing it with our senses. It points to achieving understanding by investigation and then seeking to prove it.*
Yada encourages one to literally get right up next to the object of our attention, as close as possible, and examine it from many angles. The goal is to lead to a deeper and intimate knowledge. God says that if we will get that close to Him, we can even boast about it when we do!
Charles H. Kraft, in his challenging book,Confronting Powerless Christianity, shares this understanding of this process of knowing:
“There are at least three kinds of knowledge: intellectual, observational and experiential. As Westerners we tend to understand knowledge as an intellectual thing. But the consistent emphasis of both Old and New Testaments is on knowledge based on and validated through experience.”
To know God, our goal should be all three. It’s like a three-legged stool; it’s more stable, functional, and reliable than one with only one leg or two.
For example, when we learn a promise from God’s word, we can trust it, intellectually. We can say it’s true because other scriptures tell us God’s word is true (John 8:31-32, 17:17). But as good as that is, it doesn’t prove to us that it’s totally accurate because that’s only one leg of knowledge, intellectual truth.
However, when we see the promises of God’s word being demonstrated in other lives, through their testimony and actions, it helps confirm for us the truth that we already hold intellectually. Now we see that it really works, at least for someone else. That’s observational truth.
But when we experience personally in our own lives the truths we’ve learned intellectually and by observation then we know they’re true. It should be a done deal. That’s experiential truth.
I don’t know about you but I want to personally know God like that. Yada. I want to know all about Him that’s humanly possible while I am still here on this earth, not only as He has revealed Himself in His word and in His creation, and in the person of His Son Jesus Christ, but I want to experience Him and His power intimately, as up front and personal as I can get.
God, through the prophet Jeremiah also tells me where to start: “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13).
Yada. Here I come, God, with my heart wide open. How about you? Maranatha!
