“The Omniscience of God” Part I
Omniscience is defined as “the state of having total knowledge, the quality of knowing everything.” For God to be sovereign over His creation of all things, whether visible or invisible, He has to be all-knowing. His omniscience is not restricted to any one person in the Godhead—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all by nature omniscient. God knows everything (1 John 3:20).
Read and ponder an extraction from Great Doctrines of the Bible by Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1889-1991), a British pastor, teacher, and highly respected Theologian. This attribute of God is only one of many but we can see that many of those attributes hinge on His Sovereignty. You can see a list of God’s Attributes in the post Attributes of God from A-Z. This is by no means an exhaustive compilation but is a primer to understanding how great is He whom we serve.
“And that in turn brings me to His next great attribute: the Omniscience of God. God knows all things, and His knowledge is always absolute knowledge. It is perfect knowledge, a complete understanding of everything. There are very many statements of this, of course, in the Scriptures. Take, for instance, Psalm 147:5: ‘His understanding is infinite.’ Then in Proverbs 15:3 we read, ‘The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.’
So then, let us Divide it Up like this. The Bible tells us quite a lot in detail about this knowledge, this Omniscience of God.
(1) For instance, it tells us about God’s Knowledge of Nature: ‘He telleth the number of the stars; He calleth them all by their names’ (Psalm 147:4).
But let me give you another example. Do you remember those tender words of our Lord in which He tells us that not a single sparrow falls to the ground apart from our Father’s will (Matt. 10:29)? Everything in the Realm of Nature is Known to God. It is quite inconceivable to us, but the Bible asserts that it is true of God. Look up into the heavens on a starry night and see all that multiplicity of stars. He knows them, every one, and He has a name for every one. There is Nothing in Creation But That God Knows it in That Intimate and Personal Sense.
(2) But we are Obviously More Interested in God’s Knowledge of Us and of Our Human Experience, and here again Psalm 139 is very eloquent.
Incidentally, in this particular Psalm you get a Perfect Exposition of the Attributes of God; they all seem to have been grouped together. The Psalmist says, ‘Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, Thou understandeth my thoughts afar off’ (v.2). My very thought! He knows all about me. ‘Thou compassest my path . . . and art acquainted with all my ways’ (v.3). Indeed, he goes further in verse 4 and says this: ‘For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O Lord, Thou knowest it altogether.’ What an exact and detailed knowledge God has of us! We read of how He said to Moses, ‘I have surely seen the affliction of My people’ (Exodus 3:7). He knew what His people were suffering there in Egypt. He knew of their hardships.
Now God’s people, alas, in their lack of faith and of knowledge, are often tempted to think that God does not know. You will find that in many a Psalm. Does God not know? Asks the psalmist: ‘Has God forgotten to be gracious?’ (Psalm 77:9). Does He not realize what is happening to us? BUT WE MUST NEVER THINK THAT. It is our ignorance that makes us speak like that. God Knows All About Us. Let me again quote our blessed Lord; He says, ‘But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered’ (Luke 12:7). Can you think of a more detailed knowledge than that? God knows us in detail to that extent.
Then there is that Mighty Statement in Hebrews 4:13: ‘Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.’ There is not a more grand and more eloquent statement of the Omniscience of God than that. It sums it up perfectly. That is God’s knowledge of us and of our human experiences.
(3) But, further, of course, the Bible everywhere tells us That God Has a Perfect Knowledge of All Human History Past and Future.
Take the prophets, for instance, and the prophecies; take the second chapter of the book of Daniel, with its foretelling of the kingdoms that were to come. There God reveals His complete and perfect Foreknowledge. The eighth chapter of Daniel does exactly the same thing; and there are many other examples of this same principle. In Acts 15:18 you find this stated explicitly in these words: ‘Known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world.’ God sees the end from the beginning; HE KNOWS EVERYTHING FROM ETERNITY TO ETERNITY.
Now we have to use terms like foreknowledge, and so on. In a sense they are quite meaningless when you are speaking about God, for WITH GOD THERE IS NO TIME; THERE IS NO PAST, PRESENT and FUTURE where He is concerned, ALL IS ONE GREAT, LIVING ETERNAL PRESENT. We cannot grasp that, but the Bible teaches it. We are living in time and we think in such terms. BUT GOD IS ABOVE TIME. HE IS IN ETERNITY, and He sees everything in one, as it were. Thus, there is no difficulty about speaking of the foreknowledge of God. HE SEES THE WHOLE OF HISTORY AS HE LOOKS AT IT. HE IS IN IT ALWAYS. So, we are not surprised that Paul cries out saying, ‘O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!’ (Romans 11:33).” – Martyn Lloyd-Jones; ‘Great Doctrines of the Bible’; Vol.1, pages 63-64.