Week Six - Day Two: All-Knowing

“Lord, You know all things; You know my downsitting and my uprising and are acquainted with all my ways. I can inform You of nothing and it is vain to hide anything from You. In the light of Your perfect knowledge I would be as artless as a little child. Help me to put away all care, for You know the way that I take and when You have tried me I will come forth as gold. Amen.”¹ – A.W. Tozer

Hold on there, A.W. What do you mean by “when You have tried me”? Are you suggesting that God is behind our trials? If so, how so? And why?

Well, today we pick up the trail again of acquainting ourselves with God and the next part of our trail might get a bit tricky. So, at the very beginning I want to remind us that there is nothing more fruitful that we can do than to try to think rightly about God.

I have heard it said that the one of the keys to good health is exercise – any kind of exercise. You can lift weights, you can walk, you can swim, you can ride a bike … it doesn’t matter as long as you move and burn calories and get the blood flowing.

Thinking about God is very similar. Trying to think rightly about Him is almost always a fruitful exercise. Sometimes it is difficult. At times, it can even engender doubts in the short run. We talked about this in our first few days together. Sometimes it can confuse. But it is almost always fruitful.

We need this reminder especially next week when we walk into a discussion of God’s sovereignty. But first, let’s lay a foundation of understanding God’s knowledge, His power and His goodness.

Let’s begin today by looking at God’s omniscience and then let’s look at how that attribute intersects with our lives.

The attribute: God is all-knowing

Isaiah 40:13-14

(13) Who has understood the mind of the LORD, or instructed him as his counselor? (14) Whom did the LORD consult to enlighten him, and who taught him the right way? Who was it that taught him knowledge or showed him the path of understanding?

Isaiah doesn’t intend for anyone to really answer his question. It’s rhetorical, of course. It goes without saying that the answer is “no one.” No one has given direction or counsel to the Lord. No one needs to explain anything to God. He is not surprised; He does not forget and He does not need to learn. The technical term for this is omniscient. This means: God knows everything perfectly. A. W. got it exactly right.

“God knows all that can be known. And this He knows instantly and with a fullness of perfection that includes every possible item of knowledge concerning everything that exists or could have existed anywhere in the universe at any time in the past or that may exist in the centuries or ages yet unborn.

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 feelings, all desires, every unuttered secret, all thrones and dominions, all personalities, all things visible and invisible in heaven and in earth, motion, space, time, life, death, good evil, heaven, and hell.”

God is able to hold it all in His mind. What has happened, what will happen and why … all of it … nothing escapes Him. He understands how energy and matter are related and He knows and understands my thoughts and desires. He knows that 2 + 2 = 4 and He knows how I feel about my wife Diane.

The application

So how does God’s omniscience intersect with my life?

God knows me – completely, personally, intimately, warmly and compassionately. I cannot surprise Him; I cannot shock Him. He will not discover some horrible secret about me that is as yet unknown. He knows me thoroughly and still He loves me.

It is amazing how often the Biblical account of God’s knowledge of us includes and assumes the idea of His absolute favor toward us. “The Lord said to Moses, ‘I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name.’” “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” “Nevertheless, God’s solid foundation stands firm, sealed with this inscription: ‘The Lord knows those who are his.’”²

And, by the way, all that I have said about myself, it’s true of you as well! God knows you and He loves you. A. W. has a concluding thought for us.

“And to us who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope that is set before us in the gospel, how unutterably sweet is the knowledge that our Heavenly Father knows us completely. No talebearer can inform on us, no enemy can make an accusation stick; no forgotten skeleton can come tumbling out of some hidden closet to abash us and expose our past; no unsuspected weakness in our characters can come to light to turn God away from us, since He knew us utterly before we knew Him and called us to Himself in the full knowledge of everything that was against us.”

Before You Start Your Day

1. Read through Psalm 139:1-16 as a prayer to launch you on your day.

   (1) O LORD, you have searched me and you know me.

   (2) You know when I sit and when I rise;
         you perceive my thoughts from afar.

   (3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
         you are familiar with all my ways.

   (4) Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD.

   (5) You hem me in—behind and before;
         you have laid your hand upon me.

   (6) Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.

   (7) Where can I go from your Spirit?
         Where can I flee from your presence?

   (8) If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
         if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

   (9) If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
         if I settle on the far side of the sea,

   (10) even there your hand will guide me,
         your right hand will hold me fast.

   (11) If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me
         and the light become night around me,"

   (12) even the darkness will not be dark to you;
         the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.

   (13) For you created my inmost being;
         you knit me together in my mother's womb.

   (14) I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
         your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

   (15) My frame was not hidden from you
         when I was made in the secret place.
         When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,

   (16) your eyes saw my unformed body.
         All the days ordained for me
         were written in your book
         before one of them came to be.