What God Knows

"Knowledge," they say, "is power." If that's true, what can we conclude about God?

God is greater than our heart and knows all things (1 John 3:20).

He counts the number of the stars; He gives names to all of them (Psa 147:4).

"But the very hairs of your head are all numbered" (Matt 10:30).

Great is our Lord and abundant in strength; His understanding is infinite (Psa 147:5).

You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar. You scrutinize my path and my lying down, and are intimately acquainted with all my ways (Psa 139:2-3).

That's just a light sampling. What do we get from these? He knows "all things", which excludes any missing data. Beyond knowing all things, He is intimately familiar with all things. He numbers and names stars and even numbers the hairs on your head. There are no limits to what He knows; His understanding is infinite. And, beyond stars, hair, sparrows, and events, God is "intimately acquainted" with everything about each of us -- our ways, our thoughts, our feelings, every nuance.

Now, no one who reads the Bible and accepts it as truth can conclude that God is not Omniscient. There are those who hold that, while His knowledge is perfect, He doesn't know what doesn't exist because, well, it doesn't exist. He doesn't know what cannot be known. "And," they assure us, "the future hasn't happened, so God cannot know it because it doesn't exist yet." But I think the Bible is abundantly clear that God knows before our timeline what will occur.

Even before there is a word on my tongue, behold, O LORD, You know it all (Psa 139:4).

Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; and in Your book were all written the days that were ordained for me when as yet there was not one of them (Psa 139:16).

"But behold, the hand of the one betraying Me is with Mine on the table. For indeed, the Son of Man is going as it has been determined; but woe to that man by whom He is betrayed!" (Luke 22:21-22).

We have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will (Eph 1:11).

"Remember the former things long past, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things which have not been done, saying, 'My purpose will be established and I will accomplish all My good pleasure'" (Isa 46:9-10).

Before you speak a word, He knows it. Before my days even began, He wrote them down. Jesus knew who would betray Him from the start -- even referred to it as "determined". The Bible is not shy about using the word "predestined", an impossibility if the future does not exist and cannot be known. Without doubt, God declares the end before it occurs -- at the start.

What then? There are two quick applications of God's Omniscience, one negative and one positive. The obvious is that you aren't going to get away with anything. But we knew that, didn't we? This application, in fact, makes justice possible. Only a Judge who knows everything intimately and personally and perfectly can be trusted to judge fairly. He does. But the Bible most often uses His Omniscience as a positive, a good thing. Not something to fear, but something to rely on. If He knows everything, we have nothing to fear. Nothing is going to get by Him. "Oh, my, didn't see that coming!" is something God will never say. "Hadn't thought of that" won't occur to Him. He sees it coming, plans for it, and will handle everything as needed. If He can take care of sparrows and lilies, Jesus tells us, we have nothing to worry about (Matt 6:25-34). God's Perfect Omniscience is Jesus's remedy for worry. Try it; you'll like it.