Never Meant To Be Pioneers

Mankind loves to pioneer.  We are always pursuing something, trying to get to new places, attempting to discover the next big thing. We are especially pioneers in our striving for more knowledge through such avenues as science, philosophy and astronomy. Pioneers, in a historical sense, give thought to those who were the first to explore and settle a new country or area. As our world has gotten smaller and we’ve run out of physical space to explore, pioneering has become increasingly focused on being the first to research and develop a new level of knowledge. 

Historically, when pioneering into new frontiers we found a way through that may have been no more than a narrow dirt path. We did not necessarily know where our exploring would take us. When we got to a point that we were satisfied with, we would stop and develop it.  Eventually we would go back to where we came from and make a wider path to allow for easier travel by those who followed after us. Today we have skillfully made highways and expressways that allow large amounts of traffic to get from point A to point B as quickly as possible. We have become very talented at creating these paths.

Man’s pursuit for knowledge began a long time ago when, in Genesis 3:6-7, we chose the desire of gaining wisdom over the desire to be in an intimate relationship with God. When that fruit passed into the body of man it opened up our eyes to knowledge that we were never meant to concern ourselves with.  Mankind began our journey away from that place of relationship with God, both physically and spiritually. We were never meant to be pioneers.

Our path of the pursuit of knowledge has become a series of wide and well paved roads. It has become very easy to pursue information and to come to theoretical and/or practical understanding of that which we seek. The issue with these roads is that they never come to a place that we are satisfied with. We keep building and developing these roads; and yet we never actually discover where they are leading to. We have come up with theories and hypotheses and we have tested them using the "knowledge" we have gained from our other theories and hypotheses. We boast, “Look how far we have come on our own! Look how much knowledge we have attained!” Science can come up with many theories of HOW everything we see and feel and are came to be. No form of science can even attempt to answer the questions of WHY we are here.  

I’m not saying that knowledge is bad. Knowledge is part of God’s creation and it includes the knowledge of good and evil. The issue is when knowledge has been vainly pursued after rather than given and when knowledge becomes an idol that we replace God with.  God gave Solomon “wisdom and very great insight, and a breadth of understanding” in 1 Kings 4:29 and it was good and Godly knowledge.  However, Ecclesiastes 1:16-18 describes the pursuit of understanding and wisdom as chasing after the wind and full of sorrow and grief. When we pursue wisdom and knowledge but fail to pursue the Creator of wisdom and knowledge then our path is a vain and endless one that leads nowhere.

If I am to have any knowledge and understanding, I want it to be from God and not found through my own pursuit. In Colossians 2:2-3, Paul says that it is in Jesus Christ that God has hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.  Those who are hunting for the treasures of knowledge and understanding anywhere else will never find what they are looking for. The roads may look nice and be easy to travel upon but they ultimately lead to darkness and despair.

Mike