God Can’t Learn

  

Did you know that God cannot learn? He does not have the ability. 

 

That may sound like blasphemy. When we speak of a person’s inability to learn, it is usually an offensive, even if honest, assessment. When a person is unable to learn, there is usually some mental explanation as to why. Some people cannot learn, period. Some people cannot grasp certain subjects (like me and algebra. OK, like me and math in general). We throw up our hands in desperation when someone cannot learn. 

 

And yet God cannot learn. Many times we say things like “God can do anything,” or “There is nothing that God cannot do.” In reality, there are several things that God cannot do. He cannot die or lie, for example. It is also true that God cannot learn. 

 

God cannot learn because there is nothing He does not already know. Learning implies a person is lacking in some knowledge, but that cannot be said of God. As A.W. Tozer so simply put it in his classic work The Knowledge of the Holy, “To think of a God who must sit at the feet of a teacher, even though that teacher be an archangel or a seraph, is to think of someone other than the Most Hight God, maker of heaven and earth.” Tozer continued, “He never discovers anything. He is never surprised, never amazed. He never wonders about anything, nor…does He seek information or ask questions.” 

 

Even when God asks questions of people, it is for the benefit of the one He is asking (“Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?”), not so that God can learn. 

 

We refer to this attribute of God as His divine omniscience. Isaiah posed this rhetorical question: “Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD, or as His counselor has taught Him? With whom did He take counsel, and who instructed Him, and taught Him in the path of justice? Who taught Him knowledge, and showed Him the way of understanding (40:13-14)?” The answer is nobody.

 

David once wrote, “Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You, but the night shines as the day; the darkness and the light are both alike to You (Psalm 139:12).” God is never in the dark about anything, because to God, the dark is the same as the light. Teachers often speak about that lightbulb coming on in the minds of their students when they finally catch on to a new concept, but for God, that light has been on even before He said “Let there be light.”  

 

Every time we learn something, it should be a comfort to remember that God never has.  

 

 

Absorbing the Bible

LifeWay Research recently conducted a survey that found only thirty-seven percent of regular churchgoers said reading the Bible has made a significant impact on their lives. This was not a survey of people who merely identified as being Christian and attend church on Easter and Christmas; by regular churchgoers they mean people who attend multiple times a month. In other words, two-thirds of the people who attend on an average Sunday morning are reading their Bible, but they do not see a benefit from it. 

That number is troubling. It isn’t the Bible’s fault if people are reading it and not gaining from it. The Word of God is living and powerful, sharper than a double-edged sword; it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes. It contains the answers to life’s dilemmas; it introduces us to God, and like a mirror, it reflects who we really are. The Bible should be read, but those who read it should find that it is always making a difference in the lives of the readers. 

I believe the problem is that many people merely read the Bible. That is important, but it is not enough. Reading gives us exposure. That which we have not been exposed to cannot impact us. However, I propose that we need to move from exposure to absorption. We do this through meditation, not just reading. 

I could give you a paper with the words to something familiar, like the pledge of allegiance, and you can read the words in your head while your mind wanders. If we can do that with the pledge, can we not do that with the Twenty-third Psalm? In some cases we have the “problem” of over-exposure, so we need to force our minds to engage the text through meditation. Ask questions: Who said that? Who is he talking to? How can I avoid that mistake? Am I guilty of that same sin? Is that a promise for me too, or just that person? These types of questions move us from mundane reading to beneficial meditation. We must continue to read God’s Word, but we should also take a verse, thought, or phrase and meditate on it throughout the day. Chew on it. Mull it over. Become intimately familiar with the idea, and you will find that reading the Bible does make a significant impact because you remember it longer, understand it better, and apply it properly. 

The Bible never says to read it, but we often see the idea of meditation:

“Blessed is the man…[whose] delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night (Psalm 1:1-2).”

“I will also meditate on all your work, and talk of your deeds (Psalm 77:12).”

“I will meditate on your precepts, and contemplate your ways…for your testimonies are my meditation (Psalm 119:15, 99).”

If you want the Bible to impact your life, then don’t just read it, but absorb it.