When the Lord says, “The ox knows its owner, the ass its master’s stall, but Israel does not know; my people are insensible: (Isaiah 1:3), what does he mean? And when he also says, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says Jehovah. But as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts [higher] than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8–9), does he mean we can never really know God—that he is beyond us?
Because the context of both passages is that his people should repent in the midst of wickedness, however, perhaps there is hope we truly can—and, in fact, are invited to—know God. Indeed, as Jesus says, “This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent” (John 17:3); “For behold, in my name are they called; and if they know me they shall come forth, and shall have a place eternally at my right hand” (Mosiah 26:24).
Of Enoch and Jesus’ beloved disciples, the scriptures attest that they knew God in times of wickedness: “Forasmuch as thou art God, and I know thee, and thou hast sworn unto me, and commanded me that I should ask in the name of thine Only Begotten; thou hast made me, and given unto me a right to thy throne, and not of myself, but through thine own grace” (Moses 7:59); “There are none that do know the true God save it be the disciples of Jesus” (Mormon 8:10).
John said of knowing God, “We know we are of God, and the whole world lies in wickedness. And we know the Son of God has come and given us an understanding that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and life eternal” (1 John 5:19–20). Said Jesus, “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch can’t bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine, no more can you except you abide in me” (John 15:4).
Abiding in Christ, or being in him, however, comes with extraordinary faith and diligence. Of this, each of those translated persons who knew God could testify. The higher law they kept led directly into God’s presence. Certainly, they didn’t go through life simply hoping someday God would exalt them on high. Rather, they were men of purpose, who made it their goal to inherit all that the Father has, covenanting with him that they would pay any price to know him.
Jesus offered two starting points: “If you love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever . . . If a man love me, he will keep my words, and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him” (John 14:15–16, 23). As that “other Comforter” is Jesus himself, and as the Father comes after, Jesus’ “commandments” and “words” are the key to knowing God.
Isaiah predicts that certain covenanters in the land of Egypt—a codename of end-time America—will indeed “know Jehovah” in that day. Keeping the higher law of serving as saviors to the house of Israel in a time of wickedness, they offer up an acceptable sacrifice: “Jehovah will make himself known to the Egyptians, and the Egyptians shall know Jehovah in that day. They will worship by sacrifice and offerings, and make vows to Jehovah and fulfill them” (Isaiah 19:21).
