God is --- All Knowing

 

The technical term that is often used to speak of God’s knowledge is the word omniscience, which simply means, “all knowing”.  The Bible is filled with passages which speak of God’s unlimited knowledge, “His understanding is infinite” (Psalm 147:5); “The Lord looks from heaven; He sees all the sons of men” (Psalm 33:13); “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!  How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!” (Romans 11:33); He is “The only wise God” (1 Timothy 1:17).

 

The God of Knowledge:  1 Samuel 2:3 “For the Lord is the God of knowledge.”

In the Hebrew the term translated “knowledge” is in the plural.  God is the expert in every field of knowledge.  “This is a knowledge that cannot be measured, has no bounds; we can no more comprehend it than we can measure spaces that are without limits, or tell the minutes or hours of eternity.”  This means that God knows all subjects perfectly; therefore His teaching concerning relationships, marriage, parenting, civil government, forgiveness, work, morality, church organization, and worship are perfect and need no improvement. 

*** God’s commands are based on all His knowledge and wisdom and are therefore in our best interest (Deuteronomy 4:6-8; Psalm 19:8).

            --- To rebel against God’s commands is not only foolish but also arrogant – It is like saying I know better than God.  The laws of God are highly rational (John 17:17; Romans 12:1-2); they are drawn from the depths of the Divine understanding.  There is nothing unclear to God and no defect in His understanding of things.  His laws are derived by His wisdom for the happiness of man.  God’s desire is for man to be happy and  who better could  know and understand what is best for man and how to achieve such a happiness that the one who created man.  God understands and His knowledge far surpasses that of men or angels. 

*** Thought*** “This is what the Lord spoke, saying:     ‘By those who come near Me, I must be regarded as holy; And before all the people I must be glorified.’” (Leviticus 10:3). 

“They profess to know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work.” (Titus 1:16)  God’s knowledge also knows what is best in our worship toward Him.  To deviate from true worship as designed by God is not only showing our disregard and reverence for God but also showing a lack of respect for the knowledge of God  When men introduce new rules and modes of worship, different from Divine instruction, it is claiming that God is not wise enough to provide for His own honor, but stands in need for our directions.  Worship that deviates from God’s original instruction does not honor Him

 

God’s Knowledge:  Past, Present, and Future

In another lesson we will study further the subject of God’s foreknowledge.  At this time I want to confine our discussion to the subject of His past and present knowledge.  God has a perfect knowledge of the past (Isaiah 41:26; 44:7; Malachi 3:16), including human history,  “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.” (Romans 1:18)   The Lord has perfect knowledge of How the universe was created and how everything should work, “The Lord by wisdom founded the earth, by understanding He established the heavens.” (Proverbs 3:19).  “The lesson here is that if God used wisdom to make and run the world, how much we really depend on that knowledge for our lives everyday.   God’s wisdom is essential to our survival! Wisdom is behind the weather of this planet and the watering of the earth. (Proverbs 3:20)  “Only God would know how to lay out and operate such a vast, continual system”.  

*** Thought*** If you want to see the value of wisdom, just look at the design and complexity in the physical universe!  If you want to know anything about the origin of the universe and creation, what better place to go than to the One who gave a first hand account of His work rather than giving our ear and attention to ideas and thoughts of unbelieving skeptics.  He counts the number of the stars, He gives names to all of them.” (Psalm 147:4).  “He knows the stars by name, He knows their places and everything about them, and God knows their different degrees of light and heat and motion and order.  His knowledge is based on the fact that He created them with a purpose in mind, and they will follow that purpose and order.  It is all based on His knowledge. 

           

            God’s wisdom is so vast that He knows all the precise details about every single object in the universe.  He knows about the birds of the air, the flowers in the fields, in fact Jesus noted, “But the very hairs of your head are all numbered” (Matthew 10:30).  Thus, God knows not only all the big things, but also all the little, insignificant things as well.  

 

            God is aware of everything that is presently happening, including all the things that people are doing in secret, “For My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from My face, nor is their iniquity concealed from My eyes” (Jeremiah 16:17).  Through the prophet Zephaniah God said, “That I will search Jerusalem with lamps” (Zeph. 1:12).  “God follows our deeds and actions – both good and evil step by step, with His eye.  God not only knows our deeds but Scripture repeatedly stresses that God knows the very thoughts of our hearts, “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. 13And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.”  (Hebrews 4:12-13). 

***Thought*** If God can see perfectly into the realm of the dead – both spiritual and physical (this includes those who live in the realm apart and separated from His blessings), then God can also see into the heart of every human being on this planet (both the righteous and unrighteous). There can be no doubt, God knows the secrets of the world beyond the grave, and even greater He knows the secret thoughts of men on earth. 

            ---Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? (Psalm 139:7)

The verse also infers that God reigns supreme in the spiritual realm.  Even the devil cannot keep God from seeing everything he is doing.  David declares, “You understand my thought from afar” (Psalm 139:2). 

 

            God knows everything about us, even the little details or things that we might consider to be trivial, the Lord knows our every move.  “The Lord knew David penetratingly.  God knew not only David’s actions, but also his motivations. In light of such truths, we need to be completely honest with God, for nothing escapes His notice, nothing can be hidden from Him, and nothing is forgotten by God.  God never makes errors in His judgment or actions.  God never changes, and never overlooks anything.  “God knows instantly and effortlessly all matter and all matters, all mind and every mind, all spirit and all spirits, all being and every being, all creaturehood and all creatures, every plurality and all pluralities, all law and every law, all relations, all causes, all thoughts, all mysteries, all enigmas, all feeling, all desires, every unuttered secret.”  

            --- Read Psalm 139 --- This book is persuasive, convincing and undeniable in its descriptions of how close God wants to be to us.  He is not satisfied to be simply the reigning King, exalted in heaven, enthroned before a sea of angels.  He desires to have a personal relationship with us on the deepest level.  God’s eye follows our course through the day and is upon us when we retire.  God knows what we think about people.  He knows our motives as we talk with them and make promises to them.  He knows the path we take through the day, each pause, each detour we make. God is so aware of our inner thoughts, that He knows what we are going to say before we say it (Psalm 139:4).  This does not mean that what we say has been predestined, but rather, God knows our thoughts before those thoughts are spoken to others. 

*** Thought*** People sometimes feel that thinking God has the ability to know our thought before we even speak them is taking the all-knowing power of God a little too far – Jesus had the ability to do just that – see Mark 2:8.  For the person who is not honest, this is a scary thought, because it means that we  cannot fool God; but for the sincere believer, such knowledge is comforting, for it means that we can appeal to God with a pure and honest heart and know that He will be there to hear our requests (see Psalm 19:12).

Knowing that God is all-knowing should be a great motivation for us to take our thoughts and lives seriously, God does!  He just does not notice motives, rather He inspects them thoroughly and He sees every trend and tendency and every move towards righteousness and unrighteousness.  Other verses to study that  will be helpful in our understand ---  Job 31:4; Proverbs 5:21; 16:2; 1 Samuel 16:7; 2 Kings 6:12 ;

1 Corinthians 4:5 Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of the hearts. Then each one’s praise will come from God.”

 

 

God and “What If’s

God knows not only what men do, but also what they would have done, had He not had mercy and removed the opportunity to do wrong. (Genesis 20:6).  God knew that the men in the city of Keliah would hand over David to Saul (1 Samuel 23:12), yet this never happened because David departed from this city.  Jesus said that the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah would have repented in sackcloth and ashes if the preaching and miracle working He had done in Galilee had been performed in those cities instead (Matthew 11:21-24) 

*** Please note*** This does not mean that the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah are thereby saved (2 Peter 2:6,9; Jude 7 “they are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire”).  Jesus is not excusing the downplaying of the evil in these cities in Matthew 10:21-24, rather He is demonstrating the complete inexcusability of His own generation to acknowledge God and His ways! 

*** Note*** God also has the ability to know all the random or chance acts that happen in this world.  God predicted the death of Ahab in battle (1 Kings 22:28), Ahab was killed by a random shot by an archer (22:34).    

 

*** Carefully note*** If God knows all the “What if’s (and He does), then the commands we find in Scripture (God’s inspired word), were given after God considered all the possibilities.  There are all sorts of human speculations given by those who want to avoid the command to be baptized, such as the person stranded in the desert and desires to be baptized, or the suppose what would happen to the person who dies on their way to be baptized.  My answer to all the hypothetical situations that man can conjure up is simply this.  God is God and His commands are clear.  God still gave the clear command to be baptized for the remission of sins (Mark 16:16).  All the hypothetical situations that man can envision do not alter or change this command.  The God who is all-knowing, can obviously see far beyond the “what if’s”.  God has far superior knowledge than man can imagine, and the command is still the same without any exceptions.  This is true for every command that God has ever given.  God’s commands are correct and true concerning what Jesus taught concerning the question of divorce and remarriage.  There are many “what if’s” that surround this issue, but God already knew about all the possibilities – every possibility and yet He still gave the legislation that is found in Matthew 19:9 that mentions one exception. 

God knows what people would have done if they had been born in different time periods, to a different family or in a different culture – He has placed us in the right place at the right time and according to His knowledge has given us all we need to make it to heaven.  But God still holds man accountable for what he does with the life that he is given, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad” (2 Corinthians 5:10). 

 

It should be reassuring to know that God knows all things, and has all power and authority.  It then becomes clear that God never places a human being in a situation where they must fail or where they can not know about Him or serve Him (1 Corinthians 10:13; Romans 2:14).  God knows all those who are searching for Him, and will make sure they receive exactly what they need to find hope and salvation

            *** The examples are clearly in front of us --  Phillip was sent to the Ethiopian Eunuch --  Acts 8 ; Ananias was sent to tell Paul about the need to be baptized – Acts 9; Peter was sent to Cornelius –Acts 10; Paul was sent to the Roams to declare the Unknown God – The One True And Only God – Acts 18

 

 God’s omniscience is extremely comforting and reassuring, for it means that everyone who wants the truth will get his or her chance to accept or reject it. 

 

God will provide the way and all you need to make it.

            --- The question is Will You Accept God gift of Love ,Grace and Mercy