There was a season when our children were young and seemed to have a very limited vocabulary for people they did not like. The word they reached for most often was “stupid.” We worked to correct that habit, though I must admit I have not always been innocent of using it myself. It stings when spoken and lingers longer than we expect. Yet Jeremiah records a moment when God uses language that feels just as sharp. In Jeremiah 4:22, He says, “For my people are foolish; they know me not; they are stupid children; they have no understanding. They are ‘wise’—in doing evil! But how to do good they know not.” The issue is not a careless insult but a serious diagnosis. God’s people had become skilled in wrongdoing while remaining unfamiliar with what is good. It is a sobering reversal, and it reveals how far they had drifted from Him.
At the heart of this condition is a simple but weighty truth: they did not “know God.” In the Old Testament, to know God is not merely to gather information about Him but to live wisely in relationship with Him. Sin clouds that understanding. As Constance observed, sin “blinds the intellect” and draws the mind into folly, making wrong choices seem reasonable. That pattern is not confined to ancient Judah. It appears in our own lives when we become clever at justifying what we know is not right while struggling to practice what is good. We may pride ourselves on insight and experience, yet still miss the mark in simple acts of kindness or fairness. Jeremiah later explains what it means to know God through the example of King Josiah: “He defended the cause of the poor and the needy, and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me? Declares the LORD” (Jeremiah 22:16). Knowing God shows up in how we treat others. When our actions turn selfish and harsh, it is a sign that something deeper is out of place.
The New Testament brings clarity to this idea by centering it in Jesus Christ. To know God is to know Him. Jesus said, “And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3). This knowledge is not abstract; it transforms how we live. The apostle James writes, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God” (James 1:5), pointing us to a wisdom that reshapes the heart. Paul adds that Christ has become for us “wisdom from God” (1 Corinthians 1:30). In Him, the confusion of sin gives way to clarity. What once appeared wise is exposed, and what once seemed difficult becomes possible through His work within us. Through Christ, knowing God moves from distant concept to living reality, and foolishness begins to give way to true understanding.