By Mark Hunnemann
True knowledge of God and of the spirit realm cannot
be acquired via ourselves; it must come from the infinite-personal God who is
really there, revealing Himself to us. The bible speaks of the radical
corruption of human beings (total depravity), and there is no part of us that
is not tainted by sin—including our minds or consciousness. Looking ever deeper
or higher within ourselves for certain knowledge of ultimate realty, is to
overlook the severely corrupted nature of the human heart/mind (Jer. 17:9).
Besides, as we have noted several times before, Rom.1:18ff states that we have
exchanged the glory of the Creator God for a lie, and have begun to worship the
creation instead of the Creator. Embracing an energy-centric worldview—energy
is seen as ultimate reality—obliterates the Creator/creature distinction. What
hubris to think that finite and sinful creatures can auto-generate pure and certain
knowledge of God by a flight into higher consciousness. That is a Satanic
reversal…we make God in OUR image.
Let me say it again—the vertical memory is alleged
to be able to give us sure and accurate knowledge/answers to all of the
profound questions raised earlier. An autonomous epistemology, like vertical
memory, cannot accurately identify spirit beings either. Starting from
ourselves, what is the basis for certainty regarding anything in the spirit
realm? Earlier today I saw a thread on Facebook that was discussing Josh Gates
and crew (Destination Truth),
regarding an episode in which they re-visited a haunted forest—their camera guy
had been thrown. Several people were intensely discussing what kind of entity/s
were present there…the option most folks were espousing was that they were
elementals—spirits which protected the forest. What struck me was how
speculative the whole discussion was…one or two readily admitted they were left
to mere guesswork…the truth would out when they died, was their contention. I
could not refrain, and so I jumped in and, as gently as I could, pointed out
that, with their epistemology, guessing was all they could do. There is a
better way…
In contrast, in the book of Numbers,
God in His infinite kindness and love has REVEALED Himself to us….when God “revelates”
there is no need to speculate! In the ancient world, tassles were worn by
nobles and other high class people. In Israel they are to be worn by everyone
as a sign of being God’s chosen people. In observance of this requirement,
Jesus would have worn these tassels. In Matt.9:20; 14:36 it clear that the
“fringes” touched for healing by the sick would have been these tassels (same
Greek word in Septuagint for “tassle” is used in Matt. for fringe…kraspedon)
Blue was used in the tabernacle, and
so the blue threads reminded the Israelites that they were “a kingdom of
priests and a holy nation (Ex. 19:6).They served a two-fold purpose (v.39): to
bring to memory all the commandments of the Lord and do them; and the
blue-laced tassles were a memory aid to not follow after their own hearts.
There is a play on words with the expression “to follow” because this verb (tur in Heb.) means both “to spy” (an
allusion to the disastrous results of the spies giving a bad report in ch.13)
and “to follow”. Hence, this is a warning of the danger found in following
their own whims rather than being absolutely loyal to the divine commandments
or revelation.
But how many times have we said, “I
will follow my heart to find God’s will? How many of us have
walked through a forbidden relational door because that is what our hearts
directed? When we come to our senses, it feels like death to put an end to what
should have never happened. Verse 39 tells NOT to follow after our hearts
because we are listening to our speculation and not God’s revelation…and He
calls that whoring. My marriage and
the unity of my family was destroyed due to a spouse who did not heed these
words.
In Numbers 1:1 we read, “The Lord
spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tent of meeting, on the first
day of the second month, in the second year after they had come out of the land
of Egypt, saying…” This seemingly insignificant verse (the Lord spoke to Moses)
is pregnant with epistemological meaning! Five words which should send us to
our knees in worship and wonder. How often do we thank God for having revealed
Himself to us in the bible? In a culture drowning in subjectivism and evil, we
have a sure word from the Creator Himself!
A fairy tale begins, “A long time ago,
in a faraway place…” or, ancient myths are a-historical regarding the bizarre
stories of sexually heated gods and The Fates (one never knows which is
ultimate). However, the book of Numbers is replete with verses like the one
above. The revelation of God to us was done in space and time! Space: in a specialized tent which was
located in a real geographical location…the wilderness of Sinai. Time: the precise date is given when
Yahweh spoke to Moses, presumably in Hebrew, as He did to Saul on the road to
Damascus. The simple but profound point is that God’s revelation to us took
place within the space-time continuum. Thus, our epistemology is certain fact,
and not some airy fairy flight of fancy, nor imagination dreamed up by a
drunken monk, nor some subjective state called vertical memory or higher states
of consciousness. No, God has revealed Himself to us in space and time.
God wants us to be holy as he is holy
(v.40),
and the key is to remember and do all his revelation tells us to do.
Christianity is a system of truth; it is more than a system of content and
truth, but it is not less. Meditating on the content of truth is biblical
meditation, as opposed to content-less eastern meditation, which may open the
door to the demonic—as can “ascensions” into higher states of consciousness. In
v.40 He is revealed as the God who saved them by grace out of Egypt, which is a
type/symbol of the coming greater Exodus through the Person and work of Jesus.
The commandments are set firmly in the foundation of God’s gracious dealings
with us!
V.37..”The Lord said to Moses…” About 2,000 times in
the Old Testament we have that cosmos-shattering epistemological utterance
(thus saith the Lord). The first sin of Satan in the Garden was to question the
veracity of God’s word…”did god really say…?” But these words regarding the use
and meaning of tassels was a direct revelation from the Living God—now THAT is certain knowledge! Whether it is the
nature of God, the true identity of spirit beings, our eternal existence in
heaven or hell, and grace (as opposed to karma and reincarnation) we have true
objective truth. His revelation is certain, true truth OUTSIDE of us…concerning
things impossible for a creature to know without divine revelation. The reason
we can have confidence in what we believe regarding these vital matters, is
that the Creator God has lovingly and truly revealed Himself to us: regarding
what He is like, who dwells in the spirit realm, true wisdom, and that history
is truly His-story…culminating in His imminent Second Coming.
“Thus saith the Lord” versus “thus feeleth the
heart/higher consciousness”—that is the issue facing us and our culture. When
the heart takes primacy it is an invitation for disaster due to its
deceitfulness. Let us not forget that the Lord views following our whims as
whoring. If the Father ever has to choose between our whims and the singular
honor and dignity of His beloved Son, He will always choose the honor and
dignity of His Son…He has made that abundantly clear.
