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Our text for this, our seventh, article in our series on the attributes of God is one we have used before. Isaiah, in seeking to correct Israel’s journey into deeper and deeper apostasy with corresponding judgment, reminds the people of who God is and what He is like. This is a good place to begin, a good foundation for correcting anyone in any age who is on a false course, because, as we have said, the attributes of God are the foundation for everything else—how we should live in relation to Him and our fellow man. We have talked about the facts that God is invisible, a Spirit, eternal, the Creator, and omnipotent. He is “the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired (or, His power cannot be diminished but is infinite; He is omnipotent),” our text says, and then adds, “and his understanding no one can fathom.” No one other than God can fathom His understanding or knowledge because it is unlimited. The theological word for God’s limitless knowledge is omniscience (literally, “all-knowledge”), and although the word itself does not occur in Scripture, the concept that God knows everything certainly does. Our text uses the word “fathomless” to describe God’s knowledge, but even more decisive are two other words used in Scripture to describe it—“perfect” and “infinite.” Elihu, the one who answered Job the most accurately, said,

Be assured that my words are not false; one perfect in knowledge is with you. (Job 36:4, All Scripture quotations from the New International Version, NIV, unless otherwise indicated.)

To show that Elihu, meant not himself but God in referring to “one perfect in knowledge,” in the chapter following as he continued his speech, he said,

Do you know how the clouds hang poised, those wonders of him who is perfect in knowledge? (Job 37:16)

The other word signifying omniscience regarding God’s knowledge is found in Psalms 147:5 (King James Version, KJV):

Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite.

The New American Standard Version has “infinite” also; the NIV reads, “has no limit.” In the Hebrew, it is two words—ayin micpar. Ayin means “no,” and micpar means “measure, number, for account” (W.E. Vine). These same two words appear 13 other times in the OT where they are translated “without number” nine times and “innumerable” four times (King James Version). The Hebrew word translated “understanding” here is used often to denote knowledge. That it doesn’t refer to the faculty of understanding here is evident from the immediate context. Israel, God says, is complaining, “My way is hidden from the Lord; my cause is disregarded by my God.” And the answer comes—God does know what they are suffering, because His understanding, i.e., His knowledge, is infinite. We have already noted in previous articles that God’s omniscience is linked to the fact that He is the Creator. To create everything—the universe with its billions of galaxies with billions of stars in each, the earth with everything in it, all the elements and all living things, including man—would require infinite knowledge or omniscience. That God’s omniscience is displayed in creation is noted in a number of Scriptures:

To him who alone does great wonders, His love endures forever. Who by his understanding made the heavens, His love endures forever. (Psalms 136:4-5)

By wisdom the Lord laid the earth's foundations, by understanding he set the heavens in place; by his knowledge the deeps were divided, and the clouds let drop the dew. (Proverbs 3:19-20)

But God made the earth by his power; he founded the world by his wisdom and stretched out the heavens by his understanding. (Jeremiah 10:12)

That God’s knowledge is perfect and infinite means that it extends to all areas of understanding and excludes nothing. For convenience and in order to simplify and to illustrate this, we have consolidated some of the many Scriptures on God’s knowledge and divided them into these six major areas:

1) God knows everything about creation, and this knowledge is perfect, comprehensive, and infallible; 2) God sees and knows everything in the invisible spiritual realm as well; 3) God sees everything on earth at once; 4) God knows everything about every man: his thoughts and the secrets of his heart as well as his words and deeds; 5) God not only knows everything in the present, He knows everything in the past and everything in the future as well; and, 6) Above all, God knows Himself.

1) God knows everything about creation, and this knowledge is perfect, comprehensive, and infallible. As we have said, if God created everything then He necessarily understands everything about everything that exists. It is impossible that He should create something and only after having created it come to understand it. He would have to have known all about the laws that govern the existence and operation of matter and energy from the subatomic particles of the atom to each of the kinds of bodies of the largest galaxy, all about everything necessary for life and how all the things necessary for living organisms to function—the taking in of oxygen (in the case of animals) and the expulsion of carbon dioxide; the taking in of food, digesting it, and giving off waste; the capacity for motion, the senses, and, in the case of man, reason; the ability to reproduce, etc., etc. In other words, God would have to know everything about all the natural sciences and how everything would work together as a whole, which would require omniscience. I think it is safe to say that man’s knowledge of these things is anything but perfect, comprehensive, and infallible. And this is considering everything that all men together know about these things; any single man knows only a minute particle of all of it. But God’s knowledge of the physical creation necessarily includes all that there is to know about everything concerning the whole creation, and His knowledge of all this is perfect, comprehensible (or complete, total, thorough), and infallible. There’s not a single thing concerning it He doesn’t know and every bit of his knowledge concerning it is perfectly accurate without a single misconception. Think about it! This in itself is mind-boggling. And consider how prone to pride men are if they get to know anything about any of this as if they really knew a lot! God not only knows everything about all this, He caused it to exist and to work the way it does. Truly, “By His understanding He made the heavens,” and “His understanding is infinite.” God not only knows how it all works, He knows where it all is and what it’s doing at any given time. This is expressed in Scripture a number of ways. The Psalmist contemplates God’s knowledge of his own body, having been the Creator of it:

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. 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, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with you. (Psalms 139:12-18)

God not only knew or watched his unformed body take shape in his mother’s womb, He knew the number of the days of his then yet future life. God is now “mindful” of him with a vast number of thoughts toward him outnumbering the sands of the sea! In very practical, not abstract theological or philosophical language, he is asserting God’s absolute omniscience.

He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name. (Psalms 147:4)

Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing. (Isaiah 40:26)

To do this, we now know, is a feat far greater than to list each species of plant and animal on earth, which no one can do, even of the known ones, not to speak of those yet unknown. It is most interesting to note, considering that God told Abraham that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars of the sky and the sands of the seashore, that the best calculated number of stars in the universe and the number of grains of sand are approximately the same. There are an estimated 1022 stars in the universe, or 10 followed by twenty-two zeros, a number far too large to have a name, and this is the same as the total estimated grains of sand on all the world’s beaches. To put this in perspective, if the stars were divided up equally among the world’s population, each of the 5 billion people on earth would receive two trillion stars! God not only knows the exact number of the stars, He knows each of them by name! This suggests that He knows how each star differs from another in mass, diameter, brightness, heat, color, etc. We might also note that in this the Bible exhibits its scientific accuracy, which serves as an evidence for its being inspired by God as it claims to be, for if the Bible writers had written according to the scientific knowledge of their day, they would have said that there were hundreds or thousands of stars. Instead, they said the stars were innumerable (as far as man’s ability to count, Genesis 15:5; 22:17; Jeremiah 33:22), yet not an infinite number, as indicated by the fact that God not only numbers but names them. This is in perfect accord with modern scientific knowledge. God’s fathomless, perfect, infinite knowledge is also expressed in Scripture by His knowing how many clouds there are in the sky at any given moment and each bird in the mountains and every beast in the field:

Who endowed the heart with wisdom or gave understanding to the mind? Who has the wisdom to count the clouds?... (Job 38:36,37)

I know every bird in the mountains, and the creatures of the field are mine. (Psalms 50:11)

Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. (Luke 12:6)

These statements in God’s Word that He knows everything about the human body, the stars, the birds, and the animals are not meant to show that He knows about these things alone, but that He knows everything. If He names the stars and knows how they differ, you can be sure that He knows every person on earth and how each one of them differs from the others. Surely all this is pretty impressive, is it not? But we are just beginning!

2) God sees and knows everything in the spiritual realm. Sometimes we forget that God is the Creator of everything in the invisible, as well as the visible, worlds. This includes angels, demons, and the spirits of men, whether in heaven, on earth, or under the earth. He sees and knows everything in the invisible spiritual realm just as perfectly, comprehensively, and infallibly as He does everything in the physical, material realm. This is the import of Job 26:5,6—

The departed spirits tremble

Under the waters and their inhabitants.

Naked is Sheol before Him

And Abaddon has no covering.
(New American Standard Version)

I have quoted from the NASV because it is more accurate than either the KJV or the NIV in these two verses. For “departed spirits” the KJV has “dead things.” In Hebrew it is nephaim, and here it undoubtedly denotes the spirits of the departed dead. Instead of “Sheol” which is the transliteration of a Hebrew word, the KJV has “hell,” the NIV, “death,” neither of which is accurate. In the Old Testament, sheol is the place of the righteous as well as the unrighteous dead, the two groups being separated by a gulf as described in the Lord Jesus’ description of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16. It was only after His resurrection that the righteous were taken up into paradise where the righteous who die now go. That sheol is not “the grave” or “death,” as the NIV so terribly mistranslates it, is evident from the fact that the Greek word hades, indisputably meaning the underworld, the place of departed souls, was chosen by the Jewish translators of the Hebrew OT into Greek to represent the Hebrew word sheol. Besides, there are other Hebrew words for death and the grave. “Abaddon” is another English transliteration of a Hebrew word that is used interchangeably with sheol; it means “place of destruc-tion.” The meaning of these verse is that God’s vision extends, unlike men on earth, into the unseen world of the dead, and if so, would include angels and demons as well. That God “sees” these things in the unseen spiritual realm means He observes them or knows them. He knows everything about every creature and every activity of theirs in this realm. That sheol and abaddon, i.e., the departed spirits there, are “naked” and “open” to God mean that He knows and understands who and what is there. This is offered in contrast to natural human knowledge, for in OT thought men were perplexed about and even fearful of the realm of the dead because it was invisible and thus unknown to them. Christ had not yet come and shined the light of life and immortality upon death by His resurrection (Matthew 4:16; 2 Timothy 1:10). It follows as a natural consequence that if Sheol and Abaddon are open before the Lord, He can also see into and know what is in the hearts of living men. In fact this is specifically expressed in Proverbs 15:11—

Sheol and Abaddon lie open before the Lord, how much more the hearts of men! (NASV)

3) God sees everything on earth at once.m Again, when we say “sees” everything on earth we mean He knows everything, as is evident from the following Scriptures:

For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him....(2 Chronicles 16:9)

"But where can wisdom be found? Where does understanding dwell? Man does not comprehend its worth; it cannot be found in the land of the living. The deep says, 'It is not in me'; the sea says, 'It is not with me.'...Where then does wisdom come from? Where does understanding dwell? It is hidden from the eyes of every living thing, concealed even from the birds of the air. Destruction and Death say, 'Only a rumor of it has reached our ears.' God understands the way to it and he alone knows where it dwells, for he views the ends of the earth and sees everything under the heavens.” (Job 28:12-14,20-24)

He rules by His might forever; His eyes keep watch on the nations; let not the rebellious exalt themselves. Selah. (Psalms 66:7, NASV)

4) God knows everything about every man: his thoughts and the secrets of his heart, as well as his words and deeds. Often I hear someone on “Christian” TV chide, “Some people, bound by tradition, are always going around condemning people and taking away their joy by giving them a false view of God. They sound like God is up there just watching to see if you do something wrong and is always ready to crush you if you do.” However, it is remarkable that many Scriptures tell us almost exactly this very thing—that God does indeed see everything we do and that He will certainly punish evil as well. So who has the wrong view of God after all?:

“Do not keep talking so proudly or let your mouth speak such arrogance, for the Lord is a God who knows, and by him deeds are weighed.” (1 Samuel 2:3)

“You gave me life and showed me kindness, and in your providence watched over my spirit. But this is what you concealed in your heart, and I know that this was in your mind: If I sinned, you would be watching me and would not let my offense go unpunished.” (Job 10:12- 14)

But God drags away the mighty by his power; though they become established, they have no assurance of life. He may let them rest in a feeling of security, but his eyes are on their ways. (Job 24:22-23)

Does he not see my ways and count my every step? (Job 31:4)

“His eyes are on the ways of men; he sees their every step. There is no dark place, no deep shadow, where evildoers can hide. God has no need to examine men further, that they should come before him for judgment. Without inquiry he shatters the mighty and sets up others in their place. Because he takes note of their deeds, he overthrows them in the night and they are crushed.” (Job 34:21-25)

From heaven the Lord looks down and sees all mankind; from his dwelling place he watches all who live on earth—he who forms the hearts of all, who considers everything they do.(Psalms 33:13-15)

For a man's ways are in full view of the Lord, and he examines all his paths. (Proverbs 5:21)

The eyes of the Lord are everywhere, keeping watch on the wicked and the good. (Proverbs 15:3)

Great are your purposes and mighty are your deeds. Your eyes are open to all the ways of men; you reward everyone according to his conduct and as his deeds deserve. (Jeremiah 32:19)

There’s an old song entitled “[There’s An All-Seeing Eye] Watching You.” Of course the very idea of it would be ridiculed today—not only by unbelievers but also by today’s “up-beat,” “no condemnation,” “God is a good God,” but unholy, church. The message of the song is quite true to the view of God expressed so plainly in the Scriptures above. Where did we go wrong? Considering how far we have drifted away from any concept of the fear of God and the looseness in morals that has become commonplace in the church, even in the pulpit, as well as the world, maybe we ought to bring this old song back:

It is on the grounds of His omniscience by which He knows every deed men do that God is and will be the Judge of every man’s actions. It is not with keeping track of inanimate or animate things in creation such as stars and birds that God’s omniscience is primarily employed, but with keeping track of men’s deeds whether they be good or evil and to keep a watchful eye on His children. This is evident from the number of Scriptures in the Bible that relate, respectively, to these things. Stephen Charnock writes:

Thus we find God often in Scripture calling to men’s minds their actions, upbraiding them with their ingratitude, wherein he testifies his remembrance of his own past benefits and their crimes. His knowledge in this regard hath something of infinity in it, since though the sins of all men that have been in the world are finite in regard of number, yet when the sins of one man in thoughts, words, and deeds, are numberless in his own account, and perhaps in the count of any creature, the sins of all the vast numbers of men that have been, or shall be, are much more numberless, it cannot be less than infinite knowledge that can make a collection of them, and take a survey of them all at once....What a terrible consideration is it, to think that the sins of a day are upon record in an infallible understanding, much more the sins of a week; what a number, then, do the sins of a month, a year, ten or forty years, arise to!...What an infinite number is there of them, all bound up in the court rolls of God’s omniscience, in order to a trial, to be brought out before the eyes of men! (Ibid., pp.420,494)

All sin is, in effect, either a practical denial of God’s omniscience or His readiness to punish sin. This also is explicitly expressed often in Scripture:

In his pride the wicked does not seek him; in all his thoughts there is no room for God....He says to himself, “God has forgotten; he covers his face and never sees.” (Psalms 10:4,11)

Woe to those who go to great depths to hide their plans from the Lord, who do their work in darkness and think, “Who sees us? Who will know?” (Isaiah 29:15)

While [the angels of judgment] were killing and I was left alone, I fell facedown, crying out, “Ah, Sovereign Lord! Are you going to destroy the entire remnant of Israel in this outpouring of your wrath on Jerusalem?” He answered me, “The sin of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great; the land is full of bloodshed and the city is full of injustice. They say, ‘The Lord has forsaken the land; the Lord does not see.’” (Ezekiel 9:8,9)

The Scriptures are abundantly clear that not only does God know men’s deeds, but the very thoughts of their minds and hearts as well:

But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7)

“And you, my son Solomon, acknowledge the God of your father, and serve him with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches every heart and understands every motive behind the thoughts. If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will reject you forever.” (1 Chronicles 28:9)

If we had forgotten the name of our God or spread out our hands to a foreign god, would not God have discovered it, since he knows the secrets of the heart? (Psalms 44:20,21)

If you say, “But we knew nothing about this,” does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who guards your life know it? Will he not repay each person according to what he has done? (Proverbs 24:12)

Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon me, and he told me to say: “This is what the Lord says: That is what you are saying, O house of Israel, but I know what is going through your mind.” (Ezekiel 11:4,5)

In order to judge perfectly the actions of men, God would have to be able to know what was in their hearts. It is not that sin is not sin unless one acts deliberately—all sin is evil and involves an act of the will. However, some sins are more willful than others, with less enticement involved, and are therefore more evil and deserving of greater punishment. But God sees not only men’s sins, He sees their supposed good words and deeds and acts of worship. And because He is able to see men’s hearts, He is eminently qualified to judge the relative worth of and reward these as well:

“And when a prayer or plea is made by any of your people Israel— each one aware of the afflictions of his own heart, and spreading out his hands toward this temple—then hear from heaven, your dwelling place. Forgive and act; deal with each man according to all he does, since you know his heart (for you alone know the hearts of all men).” (1 Kings 8:38-39)

The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? “I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve.” (Jeremiah 17:9,10)

Just as this ability of God to know the hearts of men eminently qualifies Him to judge, our lack of this attribute utterly disqualifies us to do so. Judgment in the fullest sense of the word belongs only to God. Charnock writes:

It pertains to him, as a Judge, to know distinctly the merits of the cause of which he is to judge; and this excellency of searching the hearts is mentioned by himself with relation to his judicial proceeding, “I will give to every one of you according to your works.”...Justice cannot be exercised without omniscience; for as justice is a giving to every one his due, so there must be knowledge to discern what is due to every man; the searching the heart is in order to the rewarding the works....We sin against this attribute by censuring the hearts of others. An open crime, indeed, falls under our cognizance, and therefore under our judgment; for whatsoever falls under the authority of man to be punished, falls under the judgment of man to be censured, as an act contrary to the law of God; yet, when censure is built upon the evil of the act which is obvious to the view, if we take a step farther to judge the heart and state, we leave the revealed rule of the law, and ambitiously erect a tribunal equal with God’s, and usurp a judicial power, pertaining only to the Supreme Governor of the world, and consequently pretend to be possessed of the perfection of omniscience, which is necessary to render him capable of the exercise of that sovereign authority....In an action that is doubtful, the good or evil whereof depends only upon God’s determination, and wherein much of the judgment depends upon the discerning the intention of the agent, we cannot judge any man without a manifest invasion of God’s peculiar right....’Til the true principle and ends of an action be known by the confession of the party acting it, a true judgment of it is not in our power. Principles and ends lie deep and hid from us; and it is intolerable pride to pretend to have a joint key with God to open that cabinet which he hath reserved to himself. Besides the violation of the rule of charity..., we invade God’s right...and thereby we become usurping judges of evil thoughts (James 2:4). It is, therefore, a boldness worthy to be punished by the judge, to assume to ourselves the capacity and authority of him who is the only Judge. (Ibid., 468, 478)

Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 4:5,

Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to ight what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men’s hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God.

The practical denial of God’s omniscience is also at the root of all supposed secret sin and hypocrisy:

You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence. (Psalms 90:8)

“But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” (Matthew 6:3-6)

But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” (Matthew 6:17,18)

For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open. (Luke 8:17; also Matthew 10:26; Luke 12:2)

The sins of some men are obvious, reaching the place of judgment ahead of them; the sins of others trail behind them. In the same way, good deeds are obvious, and even those that are not cannot be hidden. (1 Timothy 5:24,25)

God’s omniscience is also a great comfort to the righteous, because it means He is ever watchful of them to hear their prayers and to care for them. The tears we shed in our trials andprayers are known and recorded, as well as the number of the hairs on our heads:

But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold. (Job 23:10)

Record my lament; list my tears on your scroll—are they not in your record? (Psalms 56:8)

O Lord, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord. (Psalms 139:1-4)

“Go and tell Hezekiah, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will add fifteen years to your life.’” (Isaiah 38:5)

“And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.” (Matthew 10:30)

Another good use the righteous can make of God’s omniscience is to have Him to search our hearts and try our thoughts and motives and show us what is defective in them. He knows us far more accurately, completely, and thoroughly than we know ourselves. Our knowledge of ourselves is often prejudiced in our own favor, but His knowledge of us is infallible, and He will share it with us if we ask Him. This is a great blessing, for otherwise we might remain self-deceived. We can also trust Him to judge us rightly when others have judged us wrongly, or when we simply do not know whether we should have done what we have done or in the manner in which we did it:

Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. (Psalms 139:23,24)

I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself. My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me. (1 Corinthians 4:3,4)

God knows everything about every man on earth. He knows everything about us, for—

Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account. (Hebrews4:13)

5) God knows not only everything in the present, He knows everything in the past and everything in the future as well. His knowledge of things present is sight; His knowledge of things past is memory; and His knowledge of things future is foreknowledge. It is clear from the considerations that have gone before in this article that God knows everything present. But He also knows everything past, since He has always existed in the past (He is eternal), and He never forgets, even though the wicked act as though He did. Men are prone to forget, thus God often exhorts us to remember; but His knowledge is as perfect, infallible, and comprehensive of the past as it is of the present. Again, if it were not so, how could He judge the world? And His memory includes just as minute details as His knowledge of the present, which is illustrated by His “putting our tears into his bottle” (Psalms 56:8). Charnock writes:

God’s memory is no less perfect than his understanding. If he did not know things past, he could not be a Governor, or exercise any judicial act in a righteous manner; he could not dispense rewards and punishments, according to his promises and threatenings, if things that were past could be forgotten by him; he could not require that which is past (Eccles. iii.15), if he did not remember that which is past. And though God be said to forget in Scripture, and not to know his people, and his people pray to him to remember them as if he had forgotten them (Ps. 119:49), this is improperly ascribed to God. As God is said to repent, when he changes things according to his counsel beyond the expectation of men, so he is said to forget, when he defers the making good his promise to the godly, or his threatenings to the wicked; this is not a defect of memory belonging to his mind, but an act of his will....[S]o God in pardon is said to forget sin....It is not meant of a simple forgetfulness, or a lapse of his memory, but of a judicial forgetfulness; so when his people in Scripture pray, Lord, remember thy word to thy servant, no more is to be understood but, Lord, fulfill thy word and promise to thy servant. (Ibid., pp.420,421)

The aspect of God’s knowledge that has been for centuries in theology the object of the most controversy is His foreknowledge or knowledge of the future. We will deal with this fully in a separate article next month. But for now we will assume what the majority of Christians in all ages have held, whether they have given much thought to it or not, that God does know the future. This seems to be the natural and intended sense of a number of Scriptures, too many to cite in this article; but here are a few. The most notable are taken from God’s challenge to Israel’s false gods. None of them can compare with Him for this reason—only He is able to tell the future:

“Present your case,” says the LORD. “Set forth your arguments,” says Jacob's King. “Bring in to tell us what is going to happen. Tell us what the former things were, so that we may consider them and know their final outcome. Or declare to us the things to come, tell us what the future holds, so we may know that you are gods. Do something, whether good or bad, so that we will be dismayed and filled with fear. But you are less than nothing and your works are utterly worthless; he who chooses you is detestable. I have stirred up one from the north, and he comes—one from the rising sun who calls on my name. He treads on rulers as if they were mortar, as if he were a potter treading the clay. Who told of this from the beginning, so we could know, or beforehand, so we could say, ‘He was right’? No one told of this, no one foretold it, no one heard any words from you. I was the first to tell Zion, ‘Look, here they are!’ I gave to Jerusalem a messenger of good tidings.”(Isaiah 41:21-27)

“Who then is like me? Let him proclaim it. Let him declare and lay out before me what has happened since I established my ancient people, and what is yet to come—yes, let him foretell what will come. Do not tremble, do not be afraid. Did I not proclaim this and foretell it long ago? You are my witnesses. Is there any God besides me? No, there is no other Rock; I know not one.” All who make idols are nothing, and the things they treasure are worthless. Those who would speak up for them are blind; they are ignorant, to their own shame. (Isaiah 44:7-9)

“Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please. From the east I summon a bird of prey; from a far-off land, a man to fulfill my purpose. What I have said, that will I bring about; what I have planned, that will I do. (Isaiah 46:9-11)

Besides these and other rather straightforward claims by God that He alone can tell the future, there are many hundreds of instances in Scripture of God foretelling of persons and events. Indeed it is the very nature of prophecy to foretell the future, and by this not only the true God but also true prophets are identified (Deuteronomy 18:20-22). The famine in Egypt in Joseph’s days; Israel’s 70-year captivity in Babylon and their return; Daniel’s revelation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream; the Jews’ rejection, Peter’s denial, and Judas’ betrayal of Jesus; and countless other persons and events were foretold by God in the Bible, which seem to demonstrate beyond question His knowledge of the future.

“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." (Jeremiah 1:5)

This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. (Acts 2:23)

6) Above all, God knows Himself.

God’s omniscience is demonstrated by the fact that He and only He (including of course the Son and the Spirit) knows Himself—

However, as it is written: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him”—but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. (1 Corinthians 2:9-11)

Charnock writes:

The knowledge of everything present, past, and to come, is far less than the knowledge of himself. He is more incomprehensible in his own nature, than all things created, or that can be created, put together can be. (Ibid., pp.416,417)

Let us now consider, as we have in all our studies, what other attributes of God are linked with His great omniscience. First, it is linked to His being the Creator, for it is impossible that He could make everything and yet not know how or what He had made. In Charnock’s words, “Doth any man make a watch, and yet be ignorant of its motion?” Creation required the exercise of His foreknowledge also—He had to know what beforehand, not by trial and error, what He was creating and how it would all function singularly and in harmony with the whole. His omniscience is linked with His providence or His care of the universe and every living thing, and His sovereignty or the governing of the universe and man. It is linked with His justice and His role as Judge of all men as well as with His love, as we have seen. Despite knowing all their sins, of heart and life, secret and open, God loves men. And His omniscience is linked with His eternity; He couldn’t know everything that has ever been unless He were there to observe it. What should our response be to this attribute? As with His other attributes, humility. Charnock writes:

There is nothing man is more apt to be proud of than his knowledge....[but] as our beings are nothing in regard to the infiniteness of his essence, so our knowledge is nothing in regard of the vastness of his understanding....We have a drop of knowledge, but nothing to the Divine ocean. What a vain thing is it for a shallow brook to boast of its streams before a sea, whose depths are unfathomable! As it is a vanity to brag of our strength, when we remember the power of God, and of our prudence, when we glance upon the wisdom of God, so it is no less vanity to boast of our knowledge, when we think of the understanding and knowledge of God. How hard is it for us to know anything! Too much noise deafens us, and too much light dazzles us; too much distance alienates the object from us, and too much nearness bars up our sight from beholding it....In what narrow bounds is all the knowledge of the most intelligent persons included! How few understand the exact harmony of their own bodies, the nature of the life they have in common with animals! Who understands the nature of his own faculties, how he knows, and how he wills; how the understanding proposeth, and how the will embraceth; how his spiritual soul is united to his material body; what the nature is of the operation of our spirits?...What a vain, weak, and ignorant thing is man, when compared with God! yet there is not a greater pride to be found among devils, than among ignorant men, with a little, very little, flashy knowledge. Ignorant man is as proud as if he knew as God. (Ibid., pp.474,475)

We should stand in awe of God because of His omniscience. We should also fear Him, for He is a Holy Judge that knows our every sin and will punish those sins except we obtain forgiveness through Christ. This should motivate us to both inward and outward holiness. But often people are much more concerned that someone else might see them than they are that God does. Charnock writes:

Doth not the presence of a child bridle a man from the act of a longed-for sin, when the eye of God is of no force to restrain him, as if God’s knowledge were of less value than the sight of a little boy or girl, as if a child only could see, and God were blind? He that will forbear an unworthy action for fear of an informer, will not forbear it for God; as if God’s omniscience were not as full an intelligencer to him, as man can be an informer to a magistrate....Open impieties are refrained because of the eye of man, but secret sins are not checked because of the eye of God. Wickedness is committed in darkness, that is restrained in light, as if darkness were as great a clog to God’s eyes as it is to ours; as though his eyes were muffled with the curtains of the night (Job 22:14)....Though God be invisible to us, we must not imagine we are so to him....It were a useful question to ask, at the appearance of every temptation, at the entrance upon every action, as [Israel] did in temptations to idolatry (Ps. 44:21): “Shall not God search this out, for he knows the secrets of the heart?”...Who durst speak treason against a prince, if he were sure he heard him, or that it would come to his knowledge? A sense of God’s knowledge of wickedness in the first motion, and inward contrivance, would bar the accomplishment and execution....We should as much blush at the rising of impure thoughts before the understanding of God, as at the discovery of unworthy actions to the knowledge of men, if we lived under a sense, that not a thought of all those millions, which flutter about our minds, can be concealed from him. How watchful and careful should we be of our hearts and thoughts! (Ibid., pp.479,480, 492, 495)

God’s omniscience should invoke in us a trust in Him. As Jesus said, the Father knows when a sparrow falls, and we are more valuable than sparrows (Matthew 10:29-31). He knows what we need before we ask Him (Matthew 6:8). He not only sees every sin, He hears and answers our prayers. His omniscience is the grounds of prayer. Only an omniscient Being can be prayed to, for only He can hear those prayers, contrary to the practice of Roman Catholicism with its prayers to the saints and Mary. We may ask others on earth to pray for us, it is true, but this is only in the case of their actually hearing our request for them to pray for us. Charnock says:

As he observes millions of sins committed at the same time, by a vast number of persons, to record them in order to punishment, so he distinctly discerns an infinite number of cries, at the same moment, to register them in order to an answer. (Ibid., p.487)

This attribute should also be a motivation in us to sincerity in our lives and in our worship. Hypocrisy is useless folly; we may deceive men; we may even deceive ourselves to some degree, but how can we deceive God? Charnock writes:

Men are often flatterers of God, and think to bend him by formal [deceitfully pleasant] devotions, without the concurrence of their hearts; as though he could not pierce into the darkness of the mind, but did as little know us as one man knows another....As if God could be imposed upon by fawning pretences; and like old Isaac, take Jacob for Esau, and be [artfully deceived] by the smell of his garments: as if he could not discern the [black] heart under an angel’s garb....Who would come before God, with a careless and ignorant soul, under a sense of his infinite understanding, and prerogative of searching the heart?...Would we offer to God such raw and undigested petitions? would there be so much flatness in our services? should our hearts so often give us the slip? would any hang down their heads like a bulrush, by an affected or counterfeit humility, while the heart is filled with pride, if we did actuate faith in this attribute? (Ibid., p.481,495,496)

As Charnock goes on to suggest, it would be good if we used this as a motto, a little sign posted in our rooms, our offices, our cars—wherever we go—“GOD KNOWS.” He knows everything; He is infinite in knowledge; He is omniscient.

Leon Stump, Pastor of Victory Christian Center

Background from Greenfield Graphics.