…God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. (I Jn 3:20)
Who has understood the mind of the Lord, or instructed him as his counselor? 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? (Is 40:13-14)
Lord, what do I know that You haven’t known from eternity? What You know surpasses me infinitely, for You know Yourself and You are infinite. Bless You. And You are intimately acquainted with the deepest thoughts of my heart. Yet You love me. Praise You.
We live in an information age. We have more information at our fingertips than people had in all the libraries of a hundred years ago. We worship information. We think that people who know are the people we should admire and follow. Why then do we not worship God? He has a billion billion times more knowledge than all our universities and computers combined. But we ignore Him. Sometimes we are too smart for God. We are proud of our knowledge, but next to God our knowledge is like the knowledge of a newborn. And the odd thing is that in real life newborns never think their parents ignorant, but we sometimes live as if we know more than God. We are just babies.
God knows all, and what He knows now is no different from what He knew when He formed the world. God does not, God cannot learn. He is perfect and unchangeable, and to speak of a god who has grown to be God (as Mormons teach) is to speak of no God at all. If God has grown in knowledge He is not God. Nothing is a mystery to God, nothing confounds Him, nothing surprises Him, nothing is new to Him. He knew from before the founding of the earth the inner most secrets of your heart right now — secrets which you do not fully understand. He knew then the decisions you shall make next year if, in fact, you get to live till next year. And if you do not live till then, He knew that, too. Everyone faces Him in the judgment, and when we face Him, we cannot hide. He knows.
We do not know. The more the sciences tell us about the universe, the more we see we do not know. We discover five facts but learn in the process that we have five hundred new questions that we have no answers for. Such is the immensity of truth. A body of knowledge as immeasurable as truth requires a capacity for knowledge that we cannot comprehend. Yet God, being infinite, can know infinitely. The things that puzzle scientists today do not puzzle God, and He knows now the answers to the questions that will puzzle science five hundred years in the future.
But He knows more than academic facts. He knows the secrets behind the important questions. Why are we here? What are we like? Where are we going? Why is there evil? The great questions of human existence neither surprise God nor stump Him. He has all knowledge about these issues and a perspective that we do not. God unchanging has always and will always know all things. You can hide secrets from your family, but you can hide nothing from God (Ps 139). He sees your secret lusts. He knows your fears of failure. He understands the real motives why you pursue the Phd you pursue. He sees your sin through and through. He knows you better than you know yourself. Might as well come straight with Him.
To the follower of Jesus, God’s knowledge is a great comfort. God loves us as we are. When Satan accuses, what can he say? “I’m going to tell God about this lust of yours!” God already knows and forgives in Jesus. The one person in the universe that we most need to be right with is willing to be right with us even though He knows every little detail of how we turn against Him. The knowledge of God highlights the greatness of His love and mercy.
To know God is to see that God knows. When we see this, we worship.
