Who Knows?
I feel like these words are an answer more than a question these days. What is this generation thinking with their music? Who knows. What is up with all the changes happening in our world? Who knows. Are we really going to relive 70s fashion? Who knows. Was the groundhog serious about six more weeks? Who knows.
In our weekly Wednesday night devotional we heard a famous use of these words, but as a question. In the book of Esther, evil Haman has gotten the king to sign a decree basically sentencing all Jews to death. While encouraging Esther to be brave and go to the king on behalf of her people, Mordecai says, “For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14)
Several times in Ecclesiastes the wise man, Solomon, ponders the question of “who knows?” Consider the following:
I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me, and who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity. (Ecc. 2:18-19)
For who knows what is good for man while he lives the few days of his vain life, which he passes like a shadow? For who can tell man what will be after him under the sun? (Ecc. 6:10)
Who is like the wise? And who knows the interpretation of a thing? (Ecc. 8:1a)
The interesting thing to me is that both as an answer, and as a question, “who knows” can always refer to the same Being. There is One who is omniscient. He always knows. The Bible tells us several specific things God knows including what we need (Matt. 6:32), “that day and hour” (Mark 13:32), and who are His (1 Tim. 2:19).
We may live in a state where we often wonder who knows. But the resounding answer is always, He knows … and He cares.
“By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.” (1 John 3:19-24)
AUTHOR: Amber Tatum
