Knowledge of the facts beforehand would lessen the need, which in turn would lessen the meeting of that need. Gone would be that wonderous experience of God’s power in the extremity of your need. Gone would be the marvel of watching provision come in ways unforeseen, the thrill of receiving the delivery of the promise. The script takes that away, and you would be left with less reason to glorify Him as you do walking for years by faith and finally experiencing deliverance.

Do you ever wish God would tell you beforehand all you are supposed to do?

I remember having this desire 10 years ago as a senior about to graduate college. The road ahead looked like a tree branching into a thousand offshoots. Where was I to go? What was I to do? Who was I to marry?

I wished then that God would send me a book from heaven: Daniel’s book. It would describe in every detail my life from that moment to my death. It would tell all I would do and achieve and become. The confusion of the immediate would be erased. The frustrations of the murky present would be gone. All I would have to do would be to follow the book: move back home, take this particular job position, fall in love with this girl…etc.

Easy as.

But God does not work this way and you don’t have to be an expert in theology to deduce this. All throughout the Bible we see God intentionally withhold key information from individuals, leaving them to walk in the dark. The greater context, the purpose, the details, the whys and the hows are all hidden from the human agents; information that would have done much to alleviate anguish and pain in the moment is purposefully obscured.

Abraham and Isaac is a key example of this intentional withholding. God could have told Abraham from the outset, “What we are going to do is a performative rehearsal; an acting out of something to come. Take your son, your only son to Mount Moriah and sacrifice him there, but don’t worry! In the nick of time I will provide a substitute. And you and your son will be fine.” But no, Abraham is entirely left in the dark and given as little information as possible. Go and sacrifice your son.

God did not need to learn anything about Abraham through this ordeal. It is not that He was unsure of the Abraham’s faith beforehand and needed to test him to discover the quality. God knows all things. Why then the unnecessary anxiety? Why hide key information from this special friend of God?

Joseph could have used some information from the start as well: “Your brothers are going to sell you into slavery, you will be falsely accused as a servant, and sent to prison. But stay with me. At the right time I will raise you up to interpret Pharaoh’s dream and thereby save multitudes from famine. You will also be the second in command.” But no, Joseph has very little to go on throughout his drawn out trial.

Or consider Job. Little did he know he was part of a heavenly contest. His mind and suffering could have been greatly eased if only he knew a little more about what God was doing and why He was doing it.

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