>God wants us to be both. You can’t very well do right unless you understand what is right first.
This is true. But there is something you are overlooking: justice, morality, and legality CAN be known, absolutely. In this sense there is a right and a wrong that are quite knowable.
On things like the details of ‘how’ God created, we really DON’T know absolutely; this is confirmed by God’s reply in Job which, paraphrased, was: “Were you there when I created the universe?”
Job, who we are told again and again, was righteous and blameless in God’s sight. We are encouraged to have his patience (in James), that is a big and sometimes hard order. If this righteous man was basically given the “And who are you to question me?” treatment, then shouldn’t we be a bit more cautious on these questions?
I’m not saying that the questions of how old the universe is or how old the Earth is aren’t valid... They are. (We just need the humility to see that as we strive to answer these questions, our answers are dependent on incomplete understandings and possibly fallacious assumptions.)
Great post on Job angle, a most difficult book.
Apples and Oranges! - - Job had questioned God's motives, while we, on the other hand, are being obedient in studying his ages and appointed times as he commanded us to do. If you do not understand his times, how can you do the job that he has set forth for you to do? How can you watch for his coming on the day that he told us he would come, if you don't examine the evidence he gave us, and declare it to be irrelevent?