Rudyard Kipling is one of my favorite poets. He is well known for this little ditty: “I KEEP six honest serving men (They taught me all I knew); Their names are What and Why and When and How and Where and Who.” Years ago, Howard Hendricks taught us to apply these six “serving men” to every Bible text we read. It is how we search for understanding and how good teachers train us to think. In the Book of Job, we meet Elihu, a thoughtful and observant voice among Job’s friends. He employs all six of Kipling’s questions, but not to provide Job with neat answers. Instead, his questions expose the limits of human understanding. He asks, “Do you know when God dispatches His wondrous works?” “Do you know how the clouds are balanced?” “Do you know who spreads out the skies?” The repetition gently builds a case: we do not know nearly as much as we think we do. Elihu’s purpose is not to shame Job but to remind him that God’s knowledge is complete, while ours remains partial.
That lesson carries over into our daily lives, whether we admit it or not. We like answers. We prefer explanations that fit neatly into our plans, preferably with bullet points and a conclusion we can file away for later use. I admit that I often approach life with a quiet expectation that things should make sense if I think long enough. Yet there are moments when life refuses to cooperate with our questions. We ask why, when, and how, and the answers do not arrive on schedule. Even with all our advances, we still struggle to explain much of the world around us, let alone the deeper matters of suffering and purpose. Elihu’s questions remind us that our understanding has limits, and that realization, though slightly uncomfortable, can also be strangely comforting. Annie Flint expressed it well: “I know not, but God knows; Oh, blessed rest from fear! … Each anxious puzzled ‘Why?’ … finds answer in this thought: I know not, but He knows.” There is a quiet peace in admitting what we do not know and trusting the One who does.
The New Testament brings this truth into clearer focus through Jesus. He affirms that our knowledge is limited, yet God’s is complete. Jesus said, “Your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (Matthew 6:8), a reminder that nothing escapes His awareness. He also taught that even the smallest details are known to God: “Even the hairs of your head are all numbered” (Luke 12:7). In Christ, we see that God’s knowledge is not distant or cold but personal and attentive. While we continue to ask our questions, Jesus gently redirects our focus from knowing everything to trusting the One who already does.