Cry After Knowledge

A man staggered up out of the ocean as lightning crashed all around him, briefly illuminating his surroundings. In front of him stretched a swampy bog with no visible path, and behind him, the gray ocean stretched into the unseen distance. A vague feeling of having been briefly dead washed over him as he stood dripping with salt water, undecided about the next move. A strange warmth and clearness of mind settled upon him as another flash of lightning revealed a craggy castle looming in the far distance. Somehow, he knew this castle was his destination, and in it, he would be safe. The only question was, how was he to get there? The next flash of lightning revealed a shimmering sword lying on the beach off to his right. He stumbled over to it and hefted it in his right hand. Scratches on the blade caught his eye, and he tilted it to get a better look at them. The scratches morphed into words as he peered at them, faintly glowing in the dark. I am the way, the truth, and the life. My words are a lamp to your feet and a light to your path. He looked up and was startled to see a faintly glowing path stretching off through the bog that had been invisible moments before. 

Fat drops of cold rain smacked the earth around him, and a chilling wind picked up that seemed to have no direction except directly in his face. He felt a menace behind him, and he turned just as a flash of lightning illuminated a dark and somehow malevolent being rising from the sea where just minutes ago, he himself had staggered. He couldn’t see the eyes of this man, but he felt them pierce straight through him, and the gaze was icier to his bones than the freezing wind. A terrible fear gripped his innards, and he turned back to the bog, knowing that he must get as far from this evil as he could. He rushed to the faint path and stumbled along it for a few minutes hurrying as fast as he dared. A few minutes later, he paused to catch his breath and glanced behind him, expecting to see the inky figure still standing on the shore. To his surprise, the beach was already out of sight; to his horror, the dark figure flew down the path behind him and swiftly reached him within moments. Mere feet away, he noticed details that had been invisible before. The features of this man were eerily familiar and felt like what he himself should look like should he gaze into a mirror. Despite this familiarity, there was something dark and twisted about them, like this was his own face wholly consumed by evil. The face gave off the impression of an ancient hollowness, though the flesh was as full as any other man’s should have been, and he appeared as young as the one who fled. A ghoulish grin that chilled the soul split his face, and his eyes jumped out, glowing red, yet the very absence of light themselves. “Who are you?” the young man screamed out and staggered backward. The ghoulish figure answered no word, just grinned wider and drew his hands from beneath his billowing black cloak. 

The rain began to fall harder, and for a moment, it concealed what this dread figure held in his hands. Once the young man could see clearly again, he recoiled in horror and instinctively brought his sword up before himself. In his left hand, the dread figure loosely held a lasso composed of darkness and misery, and in his right hand, he held a black sword with unmentionable acts and temptations written upon it. Swift as the next flash of lightning, the dark one whirled his lasso at the young man, and the sword the young man held almost seemed to command itself as it leaped forward and deflected the deadly coil. The dark figure opened his mouth in a soundless laugh, and a smell of death rolled over the young man as the dark lord thrust his sword suddenly forward. Once again, the young man’s sword seemed almost to act independently as he deflected the thrust. Unfortunately, he failed to see the dark one’s back-slash, and he received a deep gash across his chest. He cried out in surprise and pain as he staggered back, and the figure held off momentarily, watching him with evil mirth. 

Clutching his bloody chest, the young man turned and fled deeper into the bog. The going suddenly became rough as he stumbled in and out of potholes and knee-deep water. Confused, he staggered to a stop and looked around for the path. It was nowhere to be seen, and panic filled his heart, and he cried out for help, not knowing to whom he cried. At this moment, he remembered the sword and peered at it intently, hoping for an answer. The words again glowed faintly, and suddenly, off to his right, the path appeared. He staggered towards it and then stopped so suddenly that he almost fell over. The black figure stood revealed in a flash of lightning, positioned between himself and the path. He began to despair, knowing deep in his heart that he could never defeat this figure alone. Once again, he cried out for help to the one who sent him his sword, and the next flash of lightning revealed a brilliant figure clothed in white standing behind the dark figure. The figure in white raised a gleaming sword high in the air as darkness suddenly hid the spectacle from his view. The next flash showed nothing more in front of him than the dark bog and, a little further, the glowing path. He hurried towards the path sending a silent prayer of thanksgiving to the one who had delivered him from the evil being, and upon reaching the path, he paused to catch his breath.

His wound was healed, and his strength restored, and he set out down the path once again, sometimes stumbling off to one side or the other when he forgot to look at the writing on the sword, but as soon as he brought the sword up, the path once again lay revealed before him. 

The full extent of this young man’s journey would be far too long to tell here and may someday be worthy of a much longer book. In his journey, he learned from the sword that the writing was put there by the master of the castle, and from the writing, he learned the name of the dark figure. The dark figure’s name is the Old Man, and he was once part of the young man, but he got separated during the young man’s brief death in the ocean. This old man is not content to go about his own life, for nothing will satisfy him, but he must be joined to the young man once again. That is the purpose of his lasso, but he cannot again be joined unless the young man desires it. So, the Old Man is determined to wear him down through attacks with his sword until the young man gives up and allows him to return. 

The Old Man cannot be entirely slain until the young man reaches the distant castle where he will forever be safe, but he can be defeated repeatedly. Sometimes the young man can fend him off on his own; sometimes, by going off the path, he is too weak and must have the aid of the figure in white. More often than not, it requires them to fight side by side to defeat the dark lord and his minions. Minions? Oh yes! As time goes along, the Old Man draws recruits to himself to aid him in his attempts, for he himself is not his own master, but he is in the service of a greater evil that only the master of the castle can defeat. The master of the castle is the one who created this path and scattered about swords and set warriors along the path so that weary travelers might have a chance against the evil one. With the sword as his guide, he can stay on the path, but when the traveler loses focus on it, he begins to stray. 

Along this path, some Old Ones have gotten more creative than blunt-force attacks. Somewhere they happened upon white cloaks, and they masquerade as the helpers in white. They offer aid to these young men to interpret the writings on the sword, but instead of helping them, they send them off further into the dark bog until, out of desperation, they invite the Old Man to help them and are consumed forever. Many travelers are lost along this narrow and dangerous path, but some make it to the castle and are free of the Old Man forever.

The entire world is enclosed by the darkness of its own creation. The world stumbles about blindly with an open mind that is blind, unable to discern truth and falsehood, always seeking something greater than themselves and settling for sad counterfeits. They learn and learn, consumed by the gathering of knowledge, but they never come to the truth, the only source of truth, which is the Word of God. Stumbling around in the darkness of this world can easily be cured by turning your ear towards God, for the light of wisdom comes from the Father. We have an entire book of pure wisdom from God for our benefit. 

Wisdom and knowledge have only to be sought from the proper source for them to be achieved. If we cry after knowledge from God through prayer, then He will give it to us. God is faithful and just to give us what we need and what we ask for. Understanding the truth starts with seeking godly wisdom and going right to the source, which is recorded in the Bible. God has stored up wisdom for us through this book, and by it, He has a personal relationship with all of us who seek Him. It is His primary method of personal communication. These words give us a light in the darkness to finding and maintaining our walk on His path as it says Thy law is a light to my path. 

Perhaps the greatest piece of knowledge is how we come to God in the first place. We receive His Spirit at baptism, portrayed as a brief death in the ocean in this story. This takes place at the beginning of our understanding and our journey. We are separated from our Old Man through this death, yet he always wants his home back, and he will pursue us to the end of our lives. We are given a sword that is also our light to show us the path to walk. When we forget to use our swords, we end up stumbling around in the mud of sin and separation from God. The wisdom to walk the straight path isn’t hidden. As in our story, it’s lying in the open; we just have to take advantage of it and ask for it. We do this through prayer and reading our Bibles. With the receipt of the Holy Spirit, this becomes all the more powerful, and we have helpers along the way, whether human or angelic, to give us aid as we need it. The way is open; we just have to walk it according to the instructions on the sword. The Old Man also has a sword, and as in the story, his sword is composed of all manner of evil temptations and thoughts that can only be parried by the sword that we hold. This is the most important part of our battle, thought control and thought replacement. It’s not enough to simply not think evil thoughts; we must also think good thoughts. Whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, I must think about these. 

We are filling the hollow left by the removal of the Old Man at baptism with the Word and ways of God. It’s a spiritual heart transplant that is vital to our spiritual survival. God is the surgeon, and we are the patient, and like every good doctor-patient relationship, we have our part to do to ensure the surgery is effective. We have the necessary rehab to perform, and the first place to begin is by seeking knowledge. 

Where does true knowledge start? Very simply, by fearing God. The search for knowledge leads without fail to fearing God first and foremost, which in turn leads to Him giving us wisdom. Once we have the wisdom that comes from above, we have to act on it. We can’t just allow it in our heads and not do anything with it because then it is useless. Knowledge and wisdom are only useful if we put them to good use. Simply by using them, we begin to push the wrong elements out of our minds, meaning we have to walk the walk.

There is a way [that seems] right to a man, But its end [is] the way of death. There is a way, but what is this way? An easy answer is any way that isn’t God’s way since God’s way is the only one leading to life. This statement isn’t quite so simple, though, because even walking a way that one presumes to be God’s way can lead to death. The path one assumes to be the safest, whether because of self-righteousness and pride or because of ignorance, is, in actuality, the most dangerous. If you presume yourself safe, watch out because you might be walking the path to death, stumbling through the bog. When we look around at the world's Christians, we see an abundance of walking in a way that seems right to them. They ignore God’s laws or, at best, pick and choose which ones to keep. On the opposite side of the path, you have those who accept God’s laws on their own terms but then pull scripture out of context to allow themselves the liberties and yokes they choose. Both paths are equally dangerous to one’s spiritual life. One path stems mainly from ignorance, and the other from a foolish pride that says they have the only answers, and the answers they have are the only correct ones. 

Proverbs 12:15 The way of a fool [is] right in his own eyes, But he who heeds counsel [is] wise.

The correct path is down the middle road, the one where we follow the laws God has set forth. Nothing more, nothing less. We live life according to His terms and His standards. He gave us principles and standards that can be applied to everything. This isn’t about His way, though. There are plenty of other opportunities to address how to live His way. We are going to look at the way that seems right to a man, the very phrasing of which implies self-righteousness. We have already talked about the two main options, but let’s dig a little deeper. 

Proverbs 26:12 Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? [There is] more hope for a fool than for him.

There is more hope for a fool than for someone who is self-righteous. Why? Well, if you are self-righteous, you won’t be able to recognize your own errors and mistakes. If you have all of the answers, no one will be able to tell you anything. If no one can tell you anything, then you won’t be able to learn, which will leave you wandering around in circles out in the bog.

Proverbs 3:5-8 Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; 

In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths. 

Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the LORD and depart from evil. 

It will be health to your flesh, And strength to your bones.

Leaning on our own understanding is the somewhat normal state of humans. We see ourselves in a perfect light and make excuses for what we do as we judge others for doing the same exact things. Our view of our own beliefs is the same. We judge our beliefs far less harshly than we judge the beliefs of others, or we see ourselves as only having the truth and no lies. As unpleasant as it is to think about, we all have some portion of our beliefs that are untrue or mistaken. A teachable and humble attitude will make it possible for these beliefs eventually to be corrected, even if it’s not until when Christ returns. This is where true knowledge is born because when we are teachable and trust in God, that’s when we find true wisdom and knowledge. 

Finding our way down the bog road is not possible without the illumination of the Word of God. This statement is true in two ways. Christ is the Word, and He went before us to clear a road in the first place. He is the way, the truth, and the life. The Bible is also our map to eternal life and our guide to making it through the bog without wandering off and drowning in the mud. We are men in a storm, a storm of confusion, temptation, and evil. We have a long way to go through the dark in order to make it to the light, but the only way we can find that path is by following the Word of God. With the guidance of the Word of God, we can navigate through the darkness and find our way to the light. Though the road may be long and treacherous, we can be confident that we will reach our destination if we stay true to our faith.