People's questions after tragedies indicate a lack of knowing God. Most people have only shallow knowledge of God. This lack of knowledge leads to destruction as recorded in Hosea 4:6. Doubts about God's judgment, love, goodness, and wisdom should not arise in His children's minds. Understanding of God's actions should confirm that they are rightly allowed by Him and will ultimately result in good. God is love and His every thought, attitude, word, plan, and judgment stems from love. His wisdom is of such magnitude that it far excels all others. He knows the end from the beginning. His judgments and ways are unsearchable as described in Romans 11:33. No one has a complete understanding of His mind on specific events. Jesus advises that those hearing of tragedies are responsible to repent. Judgment begins at the house of God.

Knowledge about God stands at the very foundation of a person's conduct, character, and ultimate destiny, forming the central thread that ties together every aspect of the covenant relationship. Conduct is always motivated by one's conception of God, whether that conception is accurate or mistaken; the Purpose-Driven Church movement, the Catholic Church, and Islam each illustrate how false beliefs about God's nature and desires produce corresponding, often destructive, behavior. Because belief is the foundation of conduct, it is essential that one's concept of God be as close as possible to what is true of Him, since a wrong notion of God is the very starting point of idolatry. This danger did not vanish with ancient Israel's Golden Calf; a modern Baylor University survey reveals that Americans hold four vague, largely self-constructed images of God, drawn more from media and imagination than from Scripture, demonstrating that most people are not truly seeking the God who has revealed Himself but are instead worshipping fabricated conceptions. Both Isaiah and Amos address people who had already made a covenant with God yet had drifted from Him, showing that seeking God is not merely a pre-conversion activity but the primary occupation of the sanctification process; the repeated command to "seek Me and live" ties directly to John 17:3, where eternal life is defined as a quality of life gained through knowing God. Paul's warning in Romans 2 confirms that this seeking must continue after conversion, since resting on a shallow, "baptized" knowledge of God leaves one vulnerable to spiritual decline. Abraham exemplifies the opposite of vague, invented belief: his intimate, tested knowledge of God's character and faithfulness allowed him to act decisively even in offering Isaac, trusting that God would either resurrect his son or provide a substitute. Romans 1 explains why so many fail to reach such clarity: although God has made Himself knowable through creation, people who possess this knowledge often fail to glorify Him, becoming futile in their thoughts and sliding into idolatry and moral corruption, a pattern beginning with Adam and Eve's hiding from God after sin severed their contact with Him. Since eternal life depends on knowing God, and no one comes to the Father unless drawn and revealed to by the Son, true knowledge of God is never self-generated but must be sought earnestly once God initiates the relationship. Romans 3:11 stresses that, apart from God's revelation, no one truly seeks the true God, for Satan's deception has left mankind with only fragmented, distorted ideas of Him. Yet Romans 11:33 assures that although God's wisdom is ultimately unsearchable, much can still be learned through devoted, continual seeking. Jeremiah 9:23-24 and II Corinthians 4:6-7 affirm that knowing God is man's highest glory, surpassing all worldly riches, while II Chronicles 15:2-4 confirms the covenant principle underlying the whole discussion: nearness to God depends entirely on whether His people actively seek Him, for when seeking ceases, sin increases and contact with God is lost.