Q. What does it mean when it says to “know the Lord?"

A. This is one of the most important concepts in the Scriptures to understand. In Jeremiah 9.23 it says that if we are to boast we are to boast in the fact that we know Him. So, I am going to develop this out some to give you a better understanding of what is to “know” the Lord. In Genesis 4.1 it says that Adam “had relations” with Eve and she conceived. The Hebrew word for “had relations” is “yada” and it is an intimate knowledge. It doesn’t get any closer than that physically speaking. Now,  in a spiritual sense how can this be applied? In Hosea 2.20 it says that the Lord is going to betroth Himself to His people and then they will “know” the Lord. But, the Hebrew word for know is “yada’at.” It combines “yada” with the another Hebrew word for knowledge “da’at”. So, this knowledge is intimate and deep. But what exactly is it and how do we know if we know the Lord. Now turn to Hosea 4.6 and you will recognize this verse because it is quoted by people all the time but they do not recite the whole verse. It says “My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge” and most people stop there. They say it in the context that you need to buy their book on health or prosperity because you don’t have this knowledge and need it, or some other contrived reason. But, is that what the Lord is saying? When you read it in Hebrew it says my people are destroyed for the lack of “the knowledge” or “ha da’at, so what is “the” knowledge. The rest of the verse tells you the answer. It goes on to say that because they rejected “the” knowledge the Lord was going to reject them as “priests” (Exo 19.6; 1 Pet 2.9), since they have forgotten the Torah commandments of God. Do you see what He is saying? The Torah commandments are “the” knowledge that the people rejected. When the New Covenant is in full force, which it isn’t right now, it says that God is going to write the Torah commands on our hearts and then we will “all know the Lord.”. So, in other words, the Torah commands are the knowledge we need to acquire and to obey if we are to know the Lord. It is the evidence that we really do know the Lord. In 1 John 2.3-4 it says that “by this (the keeping of the commandments) we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. The one that says “I have come to know Him” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar and the truth is not in Him.” In other words, if someone says they know the Lord and does not keep the commandments contradicts himself, his walk is inconsistent with his talk. You see, all this is the work of God, not just a rote, mundane ritual of observance void of any real intentions of the heart. When one becomes born again, the Spirit of God puts the desire to keep the commandments in that persons heart, also called the circumcision of the heart (Deut 30.6, Jer 31.31-34). Then you will have the desire to keep the Sabbath, to get away from paganism and idolatry, to observe biblical festivals and to love your neighbor and to follow the Torah because it is God who writes these on our hearts, and that is how we know we have truly come to know Him.