Tuesday 24 October 2023
I was in deep thought while walking Luke in the early semi-darkness, thinking about all the forces and powers pressing on us. As I was considering forces and reactions, thinking about how we learn, how we come to some understanding of the world around us, the Lord spoke this direct statement to me:
I do not experiment.
That was all. It was for us to absorb and consider His authority.
His statement is powerful in its truth and simplicity. There is great comfort and absolute Peace in His words. The Lord is not conducting an ‘experiment’ with us. He does not ‘experiment’, because He is El Shaddai, the Lord God Almighty, and He Knows.
When we are taught, when we learn, we may learn by trial-and-error, by experimentation as part of the process of learning, but that is how He created us.
The absolute gift of free will is not an experiment.
Jesus is not an experiment, something, someone for us to “try”, to “see if He works.” God told Moses, “I am that I am” and Jesus tells us, “I am the way, the truth and the life.” There’s no ambiguity here, no scientific method required to understand.
For reference I am including two additional items.
From the etymology dictionary: experiment (n.)
mid-14c., “action of observing or testing; an observation, test, or trial;” also “piece of evidence or empirical proof; feat of magic or sorcery,” from Old French esperment “practical knowledge, cunning; enchantment, magic spell; trial, proof, example; lesson, sign, indication,” from Latin experimentum “a trial, test, proof, experiment,” noun of action from experiri “to try, test,” from ex “out of” + peritus “experienced, tested,” from the suffixed form of root *per- “to try, risk.”
“God has not been trying an experiment on my faith or love in order to find out their quality. He knew it already. It was I who didn’t. In this trial He makes us occupy the dock, the witness box, and the bench all at once. He always knew that my temple was a house of cards. His only way of making me realize the fact was to knock it down.”
― C.S. Lewis, “A Grief Observed”