God is Omniscient
Psalm 139 1-18 "Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I stand up; You understand my thoughts from far away. You observe my travels and my rest; You are aware of all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue, You know all about it, Lord. You have encircled me; You have placed Your hand on me. This extraordinary knowledge is beyond me. It is lofty; I am unable to reach it"...
"For it was You who created my inward parts; You knit me together in my mother’s womb. I will praise You because I have been remarkably and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful, and I know this very well. My bones were not hidden from You when I was made in secret, when I was formed in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw me when I was formless; all my days were written in Your book and planned before a single one of them began....God, how difficult Your thoughts are for me to comprehend; how vast their sum is! If I counted them, they would outnumber the grains of sand".... HCSB
Job 28:24 For he looks to the ends of the earth and sees everything under the heavens. HCSB
Proverbs 15:3 The eyes of the LORD are in every place, watching the evil and the good. HCSB
God can see our thoughts: He sees directly into our hearts; knows our intentions and motives and desires. These things, being fully revealed to Him, make Him a perfect judge of our actions and motives:
Jeremiah 17:9-10 The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; Who can understand it? “I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give to each man according to his ways, according to the results of his deeds.” HCSB
Hebrews 4:13 “there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. HCSB
Job 34:21-23 For His eyes are upon the ways of a man, And He sees all his steps. There is no darkness or deep shadow Where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves. For He does not need to consider a man further, That he should go before God in judgment. HCSB
God can see what "would" happen
God can also see all events in the future, and any possible alternative future events in any possible scenario. He knows what "would" happen and what "could" happen, and what "will" happen. "Middle Knowledge" is a term used in theological literature about this attribute of God. This concept was written about at length by a Spanish Roman Catholic priest in the late 1500's named Luis de Molina. His name bears the thesis that God both knows what actually "is" and what "could" possibly have been or would be given different circumstances and difference decisions made by humans.There are other instances in the Scripture where there is inference of a possible alternative series of events known to God that did not come to pass, including:
- Exodus 13:17
- Isaiah 5:4-5
- Ezekiel 12:3
- Jeremiah 3:6-7, 3:19:20, 7:31, 19:5, 26:3, 32:35
- I Samuel 13:13
- 1 Chronicles 2:15
- Matthew 26:39
God already knows all possible circumstances and outcomes of our actions, because He cannot learn. No events are ever unforeseen. Therefore, any free moral choice we make does not surprise Him or frustrate His Will. A detailed examination of this topic and competing perspectives on God's Foreknowledge can be found here: The Mystery of Divine Foreknowledge
Job 21:22 “Can anyone teach God knowledge, in that He judges those on high?” HCSB
Romans 11:33-36 Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became his counselor? Or who has first given to him that it might be paid back to Him again? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen HCSB
Why God's Omniscience should gives us comfort
First, God’s omniscience is a basis for total trust in God’s guidance in your life. God, because he is all-knowing, never makes a mistake. He never changes his mind because of a lack of foresight. He never overlooks anything; nothing catches him by surprise. Therefore we can be fully confident in his guidance for our lives.Proverbs 3:5-6 “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your paths.” HCSB
So based on God’s being all-knowing and infallible, we can trust him to guide us, to direct our paths as we make our way through life. In fact, his way and his will for us are perfect.
In Romans 12:1-2, Paul tells his readers that they should present their bodies as a living sacrifice, pleasing and acceptable to God, and to be transformed by the renewal of their minds. Why? He says, “so that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” That is the description of God’s will for your life. It is good; it is acceptable, both to you and to the Lord; and it is perfect. That means that anything you do to try to improve upon God’s will can only damage it. It is perfect, and you don’t tamper with the perfect. So, on the basis of God’s omniscience, we can trust him totally for his guidance in our lives, even when this takes us through deep waters and the valley of the shadow of death.
Second, we often we find ourselves in situations where we may be unjustly accused of something. Or others misunderstand us and mistake our motives. They may malign us and speak evil of us, even though our intentions were good. In situations like this we can take comfort in the fact that God knows our heart.
1 Samuel 16:7 “For the LORD does not look on things as a man looks on them; man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” HCSB
God knows the motives of your heart, even when others misunderstand and malign you. God understands when we fail.
Psalms 103:13-14 “As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.” HCSB
God knows that we are mere dust and fallible creatures, and so when we fail, he understands us. Also when our devotion seems low at times, God knows the truth. He knows our hearts.
In John 21:17, Peter is confronted with the risen Christ, who asks him three times, “Peter, do you love me?” John records that Peter was hurt because Jesus asks him for the third time, “Do you love me,” and Peter said, “Lord, you know all things. You know that I love you.” Even when our devotion seems low, when perhaps our lives aren’t all that they should be, God knows our hearts. He knows that we love him, and he understands. This is a source of comfort to us.
Third, this means that when God makes a promise, He can keep it! This gives us assurance the God's plans cannot be thwarted or obstructed. His promises are certain to come to pass; in fact God often describes future events in the past perfect tense "as if" they have already happened. "Done deal".
Isaiah 46:10 I declare the end from the beginning, and from long ago what is not yet done, saying: My plan will take place, and I will do all My will. HCSB
Finally, God’s omniscience is a source of security in God’s love. There is no new information about you that could affect God’s love for you. There are no skeletons in your closet that he is unaware of. There is no future fall that you might commit that he doesn’t already know in advance that might affect his love for you. God knows us entirely and thoroughly; he knows us better than we know ourselves. He knows us warts and all – he sees things in us that are so evil and fallen and depraved that we don’t even recognize them ourselves. And yet he loves us unfailingly. He knows us thoroughly, and yet he loves us unfailingly.
1 John 3:19-20 says, “By this we shall know that we are of the truth, and reassure our hearts before him whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.” HCSB
Even at those times when we look at ourselves and think what spiritual failures we are and how we let the Lord down, God is greater than that, and his love is consistent. Therefore, that means that there is no need to try to hide from God. That is futile anyway; we have seen that God knows everything, even the secret motives of our hearts. Therefore, there is simply no point to try to hide from God and hide our failures and sins from him.
There is simply no reason to hide from God. It is futile anyway! He loves us anyway, and therefore we have security in him and in his love and his knowledge of us. We can bring our failures openly to him, be delivered of our guilt, and have security in his love for us.
God's omniscience also requires that God must also be “all present”, not just in the physical realm, but He has understanding of the hearts and minds of men and angelic beings and the deep wisdom finite beings cannot even grasp. To know what is "happening everywhere", He has awareness and "presence" everywhere.
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