Thus says the Lord, let not the wise man boast in his wisdom. Let not the mighty man boast in his might. Let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.
– Jeremiah 9:23–24
These verses are some of the most important verses I would say in the whole Old Testament, and obviously all of Scripture is important. But DA Carson said about this verse, “There is nothing in the universe more important to human beings than to know the Lord.” Just think about that statement, and I believe it’s true.
Jeremiah 9:23–24 teaches us knowing God is our highest priority.
There’s nothing in the universe more important to human beings… To what it means to be human than this, knowing the Lord. And obviously there are other words that we see in Scripture that we could put that go with knowing the Lord, fearing the Lord, loving the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength.
These are all words that describe the significance, the eternal significance, and the daily significance, the significance today for you above all things to focus on knowing God and fearing God and loving God, that this would be your boast today and 10 trillion years from now. I know God, fear God. I love God. This is the most important thing for our lives. So I just want to encourage you today and each day to look at everything else in your life from this perspective, that your boast is not in wisdom, might, riches, or anything else in this world, that your most important boast above everything else is that you know God, the Lord who practices steadfast love and justice and righteousness in the earth.
Jeremiah 9:23–24 encourages us to lay aside all boasting apart from knowing God.
Oh God, we praise you for the privilege of boasting in knowing you. God, we have sinned against you. We have turned aside from your love. God, we have broken your laws. We have not been righteous. We don’t deserve to know you, to be in a relationship with you marked by love. God, we praise you for making this possible through the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Jesus, we praise you for your life, your death, your resurrection from the grave. Oh, glory be to your name, oh God, for making it possible to know you and so we pray that you help us to grow today in our knowledge of you and our understanding of you, in our fear of you, in our love for you. And God, we pray that this would be our daily pursuit to boast in deeper and deeper knowledge of you, love for you, fear of you by your grace in our lives, by the work of your Spirit, through your Word.
Prayer for the Balinese People
God, help us to pursue You and knowledge of You above everything else each day of our lives. And God, we pray for people who don’t know you. We pray that you’d help us to lead people to know you today around us. Help us to introduce others to you by the power of your Holy Spirit in us and, God, we pray for people groups around the world like the Balinese of Indonesia, where most of the 4.2 million of them don’t know you.
God, we pray that you would draw them to know you, that you would bless the believers who do live among the Balinese right now, the Balinese brothers and sisters we have, that you would empower them for the spread of the gospel, for more disciples to be made in churches to be multiplied among the Balinese and that you would send laborers to help them toward that end, that the Balinese might boast in knowing you, Jesus. We pray all of this in your name according to Jeremiah 9:23–24. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
