The Ineffability of God

From Saint Augustine – Confessions: Book 1 (Chapter 4)

What, therefore, is my God?
Most high, most excellent, most potent, most omnipotent;
most merciful and most just;
most secret and most truly present;
most beautiful and most strong;
stable, yet not supported;
unchangeable, yet changing all things;
never new, never old;
making all things new,
yet bringing old age upon the proud, and they know it not;
always working, ever at rest;
gathering, yet needing nothing;
sustaining, pervading, and protecting;
creating, nourishing, and developing;
seeking, and yet possessing all things.
He does love, but without passion;
He is jealous, yet free from care;
He is angry, yet remains serene.
He recovers what he has never really lost.
He owes humans nothing,
yet pays out to them as if in debt to His creation.
Yet, O my God, my life, my holy Joy,
what is this that I have said?
What can any man say when he speaks of You?
But woe to them that keep silence—
since even those who say most are dumb.

Some things just cannot be described with words. Such is the case with God. There is an ineffable (indescribable) quality to God. As one professor continually reminded us, “All language about God is metaphorical.” We cannot properly describe God. Our brains are not big enough. Words cannot properly capture God. Words fail, falter, and crack under the pressure of trying to describe God. And strangely enough, though we cannot capture God with our language, he still desires for us to attempt it.

Most of us have an image of God that is valid, but it is not full. It is very simplistic like “God is great. God is good. Thank you God for this food.” The problem is that we don’t do any further searching and investigating. We stay with this view without delving into the mysterious reality that God is bigger than we have ever imagined. God cannot be possessed. God is unknown. God is a mystery. And yet, God but wants to be made known.

“It is the glory of God to conceal things but the glory of kings to search them out.” Proverbs 25:2

To really come into contact with God, we have search him out. At some point we will have to wrestle with Him. Not physically like Jacob, but mentally and spiritually. Part of wrestling with God is the possibility of breaking something. As you really consider the mystery God it might shatter your simplistic, preconceived notions and understandings about who God is. God cannot be possessed, but he can be struggled with. And in the struggle, we go deep into the mystery of God’s character and what he is doing in this world. Because though we can never fully grasp God, he gives us clues and hints along the way. Meister Eckhart put it this way: “God is like a person who clears his throat while hiding and so gives himself away.”

Isaiah 55:6-9 encourages us to,
“Seek the LORD while he may be found,
call upon him while he is near;
For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

God is Mysterious but not unsearchable. We should be completely blown away by who God is. This is the God of the universe we are talking about. Who can create with a word. Destroy with a word. But we should not for that reason stop the search. Part of growing in faith involves the exercise of wrestling with the mysteries of God – not necessarily solve them but to come to a better understanding of them. And by doing so reflect God’s mysteries to this world. You cannot proclaim or make known the mystery unless you yourself have discovered it. It is obviously not obvious. At the same time, it is not meant to remain hidden.

"The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them.” Matthew 13:11

The mystery of God and His kingdom has been disclosed and made available to those who seek. Let us begin to unravel the mystery of God.