A Greater Vision
Perhaps you’ve heard the old East Indian tale of the five blind men and the elephant. It goes
like this: Five blind men are put in a room with an elephant and told to describe the beast as best
they can. The first stumbles across the trunk and, after feeling it for a while, exclaims, “the elephant
is much like a snake!” The second runs into the pointed tusk. “No,” he replies, “the elephant is like a
spear.” The third feels the beast’s belly. “The elephant,” he argues, “is more like a wall.” The fourth
grasps the animal’s leg. “This elephant is like a tree.” The final man grabs the tail. “The elephant,”
he decides, “is very much like a rope.”
Who was right? Who was wrong? It is safe to say that all five were right, and yet all five
were equally wrong. Rather than having the truth, these blind men each had a partial truth, and
partial truth is never enough to draw a conclusion from.
It works that way with Jehovah as well. One person can be experiencing a wonderful time
of emotional healing from the Lord and decide that God is “the Great Physician”. At the same time, a
different person can receive expert direction from the Lord and decide that He is the “Great
Shepherd”. Simultaneously a third person can be receiving correction from God and decide He is
the “perfect Father”.
Who is right? Who is wrong? All three are looking at a true aspect of God’s character, but
none of them would be speaking true if they claimed that their view of God is exclusively right.
After all, God is more than all of those things. He is the Great Provider, the Creator, the Wonderful
Counselor, the God of Blessings, the Righteous Judge, the Savior and more.
We cannot draw a conclusion about what God would want or do based on our own opinion
of who He is and what He is like. Let me give you an example. A person who sees God as one who
rewards those who diligently seek Him, has trouble accepting that God would bless, much less
forgive a repeating sinner. A Christian, who sees God as a God of order and not disorder, might
disregard the notion that God would interrupt a church service to deliver an unrelated word of
wisdom. A believer who sees God as loving those who trust not in worldly riches might struggle
with the idea that God wants to bless you financially.
Each of those examples and their counterparts are found in scripture. From the wrong
angle it would look as though God is contradicting His own character. But that’s the problem: each
of those people looked at God through a limited viewpoint, a partial truth. Like the blind men, they
saw a part of God as the entire being, and God is so much bigger than we can possibly imagine.
Thus, their conclusions were incorrect.
Naturally, you can take this concept too far. After all, the blind men would never have
concluded that the elephant looked like a bear, a person or a space-ship. Similarly, Christians
cannot throw out all limitations of God’s character. After all, God will never lie, tempt anyone or
change His mind. We know this because His Word, the Bible, says so.
My point is this: we must be very careful in assuming God’s will in any given situation.
Rather than base our opinion on our own limited understanding of His character, we should adopt a
greater vision of God based on His Word in which He reveals Himself. That way we will not limit
Him in our own minds and He will be free to use us however He deems necessary.
That means when someone tells you what God is doing in their life, don’t judge based on
previous experience. Judge by the ENTIRE counsel of scripture. Don’t take bits and pieces of text
but leave room for the Holy Spirit to guide you into greater truth. Don’t throw out a new idea or a
challenge to an old idea until you know what God has to say in His Word. Get a greater vision of
God first, before you draw a conclusion.