God Is Omniscient; He Knows Everything
I will not attempt to summarize in this chapter what we have learned about God in six preceding chapters, but will call attention again to this very important and deeply significant fact that we have discovered, that the Bible even in its earliest books, books written nearly thirty-four hundred years ago, presents a conception of God that is more profound, more lofty, more awe-inspiring and more heartening and gladden¬ ing than is to be found in all the profoundest philosophies of the past or even of the present day, except in so far as the philosophies of the present day have formed their conception of God from this old, old Book, the Bible. And we have also discovered that there is not to be found in all of the literature outside of the Bible of all the nations and of all the ages any¬ thing that even approaches the Bible statements in beauty, simplicity, grandeur, splendor and sublimity of expression. And I call your attention again to the only explanation of these unquestionable facts that has even the slightest semblance of reasonableness; and that is, that the Bible even in its earliest portions is a revelation from God, and that these earliest Bible writers wrote these very words as the Holy Spirit moved them
and impelled them and empowered them to write, and that beyond any honest question these earliest portions of the Holy Scriptures are really, as Paul declared they were, “God-breathed” (II Tim. 3: 16).
In our last chapter our particular subject was, “The God of the Bible: God is Omnipotent, He can do all things. There is absolutely nothing too hard for Him.” The special subject of this chapter is, “The God of the Bible: God is Omniscient. Pie knows all things.” I have seven texts. You will find the first text in Job 37: 14-16:
“Hearken unto this, O Job:
Stand still, and consider the wondrous works of God.
Dost thou know how God layeth His charge
upon them.
And causeth the lightning of His cloud to
shine?
Dost thou know the balancings of the
clouds.
The wondrous works of Him who is perfect
in knowledge?’’
You will find the second text in Ps. 147:4:
“He counteth the number of the stars;
He calleth them all by their names”
You will find the third text in Ps. 147: 5:
“Great is our Lord, and mighty in power;
His understanding is infinite”
You will find the fourth text in I Jno. 3:20:
“If our heart condemn us, God is greater
than our heart, and knoweth all things”
You will find the fifth text in Matt. 10: 29, 30:
“Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? and not one of them shall fall on the ground without your Father: but the very hairs of your head are all numbered.”
You will find the sixth text in Acts 15^ 18:
“The Lord maketh these things known from
of old.”
And you will find the last text in Rom. 11:33:
“O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past tracing out.”
/. God is Omniscient.
Let me ask you to reflect upon, to ponder and to meditate long upon these passages. No mere cursory reading of any verbal statement, no matter how simple, lucid, exact and complete it may be, will enable you to take in all the marvelous wealth of meaning that there is in these brief but wondrous statements of Gods Word. They must be pondered long under the personal illumination of the Holy Spirit if we are to see and to feel the glorious truth that there is in them. They, however, clearly teach us that, God ‘’is perfect IN knowledge”; that, “His understanding is infinite”; that, God “knows all things.” The Hebrew word translated “perfect” in the first text, Job 37: 16, means, absolutely whole, entire, complete, finished, that to which nothing can be added. The thought is that from all eternity God’s knowledge of all things is entire, complete, so that nothing whatever can be ever added to it. He knows everything about everything. He knows everything in all its height and depth and length and breadth, and in its every detail. There is nothing on earth or in heaven, nothing in those five hundred million inconceivably vast stars, nothing in the minutest of the most infinitesimal atoms or electrons of the animalculas and bacteria, that even the most power¬ ful microscope cannot reveal, that God does not already fully know in its every detail.
How the astronomers have labored in the last twenty-five years and made discoveries that make the astronomy of earlier generations look like child’s play! How the bacteriologists of the last ten years have perfected their apparatus, and dug, and dug, and dug, and dis¬ covered, and discovered, and discovered, until the most advanced bacteriology of only a few years ago looks like kindergarten work! But God knew it all an eternity ago and knows infinitely more than either astronomers or bacteriologists have discovered even up to the present day. Our great God, Jehovah, is ^’perfect in knowledge.”
The Hebrew word translated ^‘knowledge” in this passage is in the plural and should be translated ^‘knowledges” and the verse declares not only that God “is perfect in knowledge” but that “He is perfect in knowledges,” that is, in all forms of knowledge. The same plural form is used in the Hebrew Bible in speaking of God in I Sam. 2:3:
“Talk no more so exceeding proudly;
Let not arrogancy come out of thy mouth;
For Jehovah is a God of knozdcdgesJ’
The Hebrew words translated “His understanding is infinite” in Ps. 147: 5 literally translated would read, ‘To His insight (or “discernment,” or “understand¬ ing”) there is no number,” i. e., God’s insight is beyond all the measure and comprehension of finite beings.
II. Some of the Details of What God Knows.
Now these statements that we have considered thus far regarding the Infinite Knowledge and Omniscience of God are of a more or less general character, and to appreciate and to feel all the inspiration and glory of this great truth we must go somewhat into the de¬ tails (which the Bible itself does).
What are some of the details regarding His own Omniscience which God reveals in the Bible?
I. First of all then, let us turn in our Bibles to Prov. 15:3:
“The eyes of Jehovah are in every place;
Keeping watch upon the evil and the good.”
Here we are told that God sees everything that occurs in every place and “keeps watch upon the evil and the good.” There is nothing that any one does in any part of the universe, there is not one slightest act, good or evil, that God does not see it and know it and “keep watch upon” it. We all do well to keep that solemn fact in mind day and night, and to remember that we cannot hide one thing we do from God, no matter how tightly we lock our doors against every intruder and how dark we make the room. As the Psalmist puts it in another place, Ps. 139:11, 12:
“If I say. Surely the darkness shall cover [or, ‘enshroud’] me, And the light about me shall be night;
Even the darkness hideth Hot from Thee,
But the night shineth as the day:
The darkness and the light are both alike to Thee.”
2. Turn now to two passages, one in the Psalms and one in Matthew, an utterance of our Lord Jesus Himself, and put them together. The passage in the Psalms is Ps. 147:4:
‘’He counteth the number of the stars;
He calleth them all by their names.”
The second passage is Matt. 10:29:
“Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? and not one of them shall fall on the ground with¬ out your Father.”
Here we are told that God knows everything in Nature from the remotest stars in their inconceivably stupendous magnitude, down to the most insignificant bird in our gardens, the sparrow, “not one (even) of them shall fall on the ground without your Father.”
3. Now turn to another Psalm and put alongside of it a passage from the Book of Proverbs. The passage from the Psalms is Ps. 33: 13-15:
“Jehovah looketh from heaven;
He beholdeth all the sons of men;
From the place of His habitation He looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth.
He that fashioneth the hearts of them all.
That considereth all their works.”
The passage from Proverbs to compare with this is Prov. 5:21:
“For the ways of men are before the eyes
of Jehovah;
And he maketh level all his paths.”
Here we are told that God “beholdeth all the sons of men” and “considereth all their works,” and we are further told that “the ways of men are before” His eyes, and that “He pondereth [or maketh level] all his paths [or goings].”
4. Now turn to still another Psalm. Ps. 139:2, 3:
“Thou knowest my downsitting and mine up¬
rising;
Thou understandest my thought afar off.
Thou searchest out my path and my lying
down.
And art acquainted with all my ways.”
Here we are told that God knows all mans deeds and experiences. Even the minutest and most insignificant details of our daily life (even our “downsit¬ ting” and our “uprising”) are known to God and are of interest to Him.
5. Read the next verse of the same Psalm, 5:4:
“For there is not a word in my tongue.
But, lo, O Jehovah, Thou knowest it altor
gether.”
Here we are told that, God knoweth all mans words. Not one single word do we ever utter that God does not know it and understand it in all its bearings. You can deceive your fellowmen in your words, but you cannot deceive God.
We shall come back again later to this Psalm, but let me call your attention now to what a wonderful revelation of the Omniscience and Infinite Wisdom of God we have in this old Book of inspired songs, written some of them twenty -nine hundred years ago, and all of them nearly that long ago. Where did these Psalmists learn these wonderful truths so far beyond their time, so far beyond any time (including our own time) except in as far as men have learned from this old Book? There is but one rational answer to that question, namely, God supernaHirally revealed them to them; these Psalms are ^’God-hreathedP
6. Now turn way back to the second book in the Bible to Ex. 3:7:
“And Jehovah said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people that are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their task¬ masters; for I know their sorrows,”
Here we are told that God knows the sorrows of His people. It oftentimes seems as if God did not know and did not care. It must have seemed so some¬ times to Israel in Egypt. But God did know and God did care; and in due time He proved that He knew and that He cared. And just so to-day, there is not a sorrow that any one of us experiences (no matter how hidden it may be from the eyes of men) but God knows all about it and God cares. I wish we had the time to dwell upon all the comfort and the encouragement that there is in this thought; but we must pass on.
7. Now turn back again to Ps. 139: i, 2:
“O Jehovah, thou hast searched me, and
known me.
Thou knowest my downsitting and mine up¬
rising;
Thou understandest my thought afar off/^
Couple with this I Chron. 28:9:
“And thou, Solomon my son, know thou the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind: for Jehovah searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts/^
From these two passages we learn that, God understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts’’ and that He ‘‘understandeth our thoughts afar off.” There is not one single thought or imagination in the minds of any one of us that God does not thoroughly understand, and He understands our thoughts even be¬ fore we form them ourselves.
8. Now put together a verse from this same Psalm and an utterance of our Lord in Matt. 10. Read Ps. 139:3:
“Thou sear chest out my path and my lying
down,
And art acquainted with all my ways.”
Now read Matt. 10: 29, 30:
“Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? and not one of them shall fall on the ground with¬ out your Father: but the very hairs of your head are all numbered.”
In these two passages we are brought face to face with the great truth that, God’s knowledge of us as individuals extends to the minutest particulars. He is “acquainted with all our ways” and the very “hairs of our head are all numbered.” There is in these declarations of God’s Word much food for reflection, there is in them both warning and comfort; but we cannot stop to dwell upon it now.
9. There is a remarkable passage regarding God’s knowledge in Isa. 46:9, 10:
“Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me; declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done”
Here we are told that, God knows from all eternity what shall he to all eternity. The same marvelous truth is indicated in the New Testament in I Pet. i: 20, where we are told regarding Jesus Christ that He “was foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world, but was manifested at the end of the times for your sake.”
10. But the Bible goes even beyond that in its detailed statements regarding the Omniscience of God. It tells us over and over again that, God knows from the beginning what each individual man will do. This we see, e. g., in Matt. 20: 17-19:
“And as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, He took the twelve disciples apart, and in the way He said unto them. Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be delivered unto the chief priests and scribes; and they shall condemn Him to death, and shall deliver Him unto the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify: and the third day He shall be raised up.”
Here our Lord Jesus declares with minute detail exactly what various individuals are going to do in connection with His own sufferings and death. We find the same remarkable thought way back in the Old Testament in Ex. 3: 19, 20:
“And I know that the king of Egypt will not give you leave to go, no, not by a mighty hand. And I will put forth my hand, and smite Egypt with all my wonders which I will do in the midst thereof: and after that he will let you go/^
We see the same thing again in H Kg. 7:1, 2, in a still more remarkable passage as revealing the detailed knowledge of God as to what each individual will do and what each individual will experience in the future.
“And Elisha said. Hear ye the word of Jehovah: Thus saith Jehovah, To-morrow about this time shall a measure of fine Hour he sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria. Then a captain on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God, and said. Behold, if Jehovah should make windows in heaven might this thing be? And he said. Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof.”
Way back in Ps. 41:9 we see the action of Judas Iscariot in the betrayal of his Lord, foreknown by God and definitely predicted a thousand years before it was actually done. Here are the words:
“Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I
trusted.
Which did eat of my bread,
Hath lifted up his heel against me.”
Paul declares the same fact regarding God’s knowledge of himself in Gal. 1:15, 16:
“But when it was the good pleasure of God, who separated me, even from my mother’s womb, and called me through His grace, to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles; straightway I conferred not with flesh and blood.”
And the same thing is declared regarding God’s knowledge of each one of the elect in I Pet. 1:2:
“According to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace be multiplied.”
One of the theories most fixed and immovable in the minds of the so-called “modern Biblical scholars,” the “modern critical scholars,” the self-styled “historical school of Biblical Interpretation” (though its methods are in reality utterly unhistorical and unscientific), is that there is not a possibility of any such thing as detailed prediction in the Bible. But this theory loses sight utterly of two firmly established facts, each of them not only taught in the Bible but each of them also demonstrated by the indubitable facts in the case: first, that God is Omniscient; and, second, that the Bible in all its parts is a revelation from this Omniscient God. If it were not for the deep-seated prejudice of the natural heart against all things that are truly supernatural, these self-confident “modern Biblical scholars” would be the laughing stock of all fair-minded, really intelligent and clear-seeing men. They are rendered ridiculous by the clearly demonstrated facts in the case. But facts have no weight with these dreamers, theories are the only things that interest them; and, if the facts do not tally with the theories, so much the worse for the facts.
II. Just once more. The Bible teaches us that. The God of the Bible knows from all eternity the whole plan of the ages and each man’s part in that plan. This we are told time and time again. For example, in Eph. 1:9-12 we read:
“Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he purposed in him unto a dispensation of the fullness of the times, to sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens, and the things upon the earth; in him, I say, in whom also we were made a heritage, having been fore¬ ordained according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his will; to the end that we should be unto the praise of his glory, we who had before hoped in Christ.’’
In the third chapter of the same book, Eph. 3:4-11, we read:
“Whereby, when ye read, ye can perceive my understanding in the mystery of Christ; which in other generations was not made known unto the sons of men, as it hath now been revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit; to wit, that the Gentiles are fellow-heirs, and fellow-members of the body, and fellow-partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel, whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of that grace of God which was given me according to the work¬ ing of his power. Unto me whe am less than the least of all saints was this grace given, to preach unto the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; and to make all men see what is the dispensation of the mystery which from all ages hath been hid in God Who created all things; to the intent that now unto the principalities and the powers in the heavenly places might be made known through the church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eter nal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord,”
We find the same truth again more briefly expressed in Col. 1: 25, 26:
“Whereof I was made a minister according to the dispensation of God which was given me to you-ward, to fulfill the word of God, even the mystery which hath been hid for ages and generations; but now hath been manifested to his saints,”
We see clearly in these passages that. The whole plan of the ages and each man’s part in it has been known to God from all eternity. There are no after thoughts with God. He knows and plans everything from the beginning. Well may we exclaim:
“O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past tracing out!” (Rom. II: 33).
III, The Same Omniscience Thjat Is Ascribed to the Father Ascribed to Jesus Christ and to the Holy Spirit.
Before we leave this inexhaustible subject of the Omniscience of God as set forth in the Bible, let me call your attention to the fact that, The same Omniscience that is ascribed to God the Father, is also ascribed to Jesus Christ the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
1. We see this in regard to our Lord Jesus over and over again. We read, e. g., in Jno. 4:16, 19 that, Jesus knew men’s lives, even their secret history. We see from Mk. 2: 8 and Luke 5: 22 and Jno. 2: 24, 25 that, Jesus knew the secret thoughts of men; that He knew all men; that He knew what was in man.
We see from Jno. 6: 64 that, Jesus knew from the beginning that Judas would betray Him. Here is what John says, ‘’Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray Him.” Not only man’s present thoughts but his future choices were all known to Him. Simon Peter specifically declared in Jno. 21:17 that Jesus knew ‘‘all things” and the whole company of the disciples declared in Jno. 16:30:
“Now are we sure that thou knowest all
things.”
And Paul declares in Col. 2:2, 3, that “in Christ” “are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”
2. That the Holy Spirit also is Omniscient, that He knows all things, is plainly declared in I Cor. 2: 10, II; Jno. 14: 26; Jno. 16:12, 13.
O wondrous and glorious Triune God of the Bible; God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit! Thou knowest all things, Thou art “perfect in knowledge” and “infinite in understanding.” We worship Thee, and we also rejoice in Thee, and rest in Thee, knowing that Thou wilt never be taken by surprise, or meet any emergency which Thou hast not foreknown from all eternity and for which Thou art not fully prepared. We do not know the future, but Thou dost. Things look very dark to us and full of foreboding and overwhelming disaster in business, and politics, and in international affairs, but Thou hast known all these present perils from all eternity and hast fully provided for them all, and so we know that the ultimate outcome (however dark the present out¬ look may seem) will be full of blessing and of glory. Hallelujah! Surely it “is eternal life” “to know thee the only true God, and Him whom thou didst send, even Jesus Christ” (Jno. 17:3). Glorious God of the Bible!