"If You Only Knew What I Know"

  Recently while listening to one get caught up in the thinking and "special insight" about our nation and the direction it is headed, the person was ranting and raving about calling to arms and preparing for a "civil war like we have not seen or experienced!" (Those were their words.) Each time I brought up something about Scripture, it was easily pushed aside to continue to give me this "special insight" so I too could prepare. Then came the words: "If you only knew what I knew, you would be preparing!"

  "If you only knew what I knew..." seems to be a statement of secretive knowledge. No one else understands but that individual. That is self-deception. Here's the charge from heaven: "Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction." (II Tim. 4:2) God doesn't withhold knowledge from us or make us think we are special above others. Jesus shared God's insight for life with us and expects that insight to be preached. Insight doesn't come from the world, from those who are running around stirring others up to some level of fear or by intimidation. True insight comes from the Lord Himself and is expressed in His word.

  When people begin to push aside the word and follow something else, they are headed down a road that will not end well. They will start finding "teachers" that will teach what they desire to hear (II Tim. 4:3)! The result is they will turn their ears away from the truth as given from God (II Tim. 4:4).

  I can hear Jesus, standing on the brow of the mountain before Jerusalem saying, "If you only knew what I knew..." and yet He spoke that (Matt. 23: 37-39). But it wasn't some man's idea or radical statements but it was spoken in light of the word that was already spoken, made known to them and they rejected it. The only result was ruin for the people. How Jesus wants to gather people together, not to fight but to bring them close so that when the proper time arrived, He would bring them home. Never put the word of man over the word of the Lord. Man scatters! Man doesn't know the future. God unites and has only one goal for us: to bring us home as He alone knows the future.