Is it possible to know the Word and not know God?

Is it possible to be a messenger of God and yet not know God intimately?  This is a weighty question to consider, but the answer to these questions is, “yes.”  

During the prophet Jeremiah’s day, there were priests that God condemned for this very thing. In Jeremiah 2:8, we read that the priests “handled the law” but they did not know God.  

Was it not the job of the priests to know the law and teach it? 

Malachi 2:8 says, “For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts.” 

This passage describes the responsibility that we have as pastors. We are the messengers of the Lord, and we are called to give our people instruction and the knowledge of God through the faithful exposition of God’s word.  

However, preachers today could be guilty of the very charge that God gave the priests in Jeremiah’s day. We can have the science and art of preaching down. We can do great exegesis, great hermeneutics, and have amazing sermon outlines, but we could miss the intimate relationship with God.  

Certainly, God’s word will not return void (see Isaiah 55:11), but God still wants His messengers to know Him intimately so that we as pastors can lead others to know Him intimately as well! 

How did the priests get to this spot?  

How could we as pastors end up just like these priests?  

We learn in Jeremiah 2:13 that the people of Judah forsook God as the fountain of living waters and chose to drink from their own hewed-out cisterns instead. Jeremiah used this metaphorical imagery to describe the spiritual condition of the priests.  

However, this was not just the description of the priests, but it was the description of the  spiritual condition of ALL the people and ALL the spiritual leaders – the priests, the shepherds (kings), and the prophets.

A cistern didn’t consist of a spring of water but rather a man-made basin that would catch rainwater. The fault of cisterns is that they would crack, and the water would leak out. Additionally, the water in cisterns becomes filled with bacteria that could cause sickness.  

Jeremiah’s point in this imagery was to portray the priests as drinking “water” that didn’t bring life but rather death. They weren’t meeting with God, the fountain of living water, in order to get their message and hear what God wanted them to say. Rather, they turned to their own cisterns. According to Jeremiah 1:16, their cisterns were other gods and the work of their own hands.  

Today, it is possible for pastors to know the law and not know God. We can get busy with life and ministry, building up our social media platforms, focusing on planning and church growth strategies, and all these things could easily become our modern hewed out cisterns. These things in and of themselves aren’t bad things. However, they could easily become the cisterns we are drinking from rather than drinking from the living water. We must carve out time to meet with God to know Him, learn from Him, and to have the Holy Spirit feed our soul. 

We must make it a priority not to have only the science and art of preaching down but also keep personal communion with God at the forefront of our lives and ministry. By drinking deeply from the fountain of living water, we can then bring others to this life giving stream! We need to experience Him and know Him if we want our people to do the same.  

Take your People to “Sky Pond”  

My family and I like to hike. In 2023, my wife and I hiked trails in Rocky Mountain National Park for our anniversary. While there, we hiked deeply for several miles into the mountains. There was one particular hike that intrigued me, but we just didn’t have time to do it. I added it to my future hike list if I returned to Rocky Mountain National Park.  

In May of 2025, I took my entire family to RMNP and the Sky Pond Trail was a top priority. Before we hiked it, I could tell you all the facts about the trail. I could tell you that on the scale of hikes, it was considered “hard” with a steady incline of elevation gain. The peak of the trail would take us to an elevation of 11,000 feet. The hike would take us past two other small lakes before reaching the end of the trail at Sky Pond. I also knew that since we were going to be hiking in May that we needed crampons for our hiking boots to hike through the snow and ice. One of the final challenges would involve hiking over a frozen waterfall in order to reach Sky Pond. 

Now, I could have done a presentation on this trail, discussing the facts before ever hiking the trail. However, my family made the steady, strenuous, and beautiful hike up the mountain and ultimately climbed the frozen waterfall to reach the 11,000 foot summit to see Sky Pond. In May, RMNP averages about 10,000 people per day in their park. Do you know how many people we saw at Sky Pond? 5. Do you know where everyone else was? Driving through the park and exploring leisurely trails.  

Very few people hike the Sky Pond trail, but it is breathtaking. We simply sat and soaked in the beauty of this amazing sight. And, as a result, I want to take people to Sky Pond! There are no words to describe that place. Having been to Sky Pond, I tell others who plan to visit RMNP not only what they may need for their trip, but also I encourage them to hike to Sky Pond because it will be unlike anything they will ever see!  

Fellow pastors, this is what we are to do in the biblical texts that we preach. We need to meet with God first and take in His goodness and glory. We need to experience the truths of God and then lead our people to “sky pond”, bringing them the truths we uncovered and putting God on display for the people to behold!  

Let’s do the work to meet with God and drink from the fountain of living water rather than hewn-out cisterns so our people can see, hear, and know the living God that transforms lives. So, brothers, let’s work at not just knowing the word, but let’s strive to know God through the Word and lead others to know Him as well.