The Attributes of God
by Arthur W. Pink
The Knowledge of God
God is omniscient. He knows everything: everything
possible, everything actual; all events and all creatures, of the past, the
present, and the future. He is perfectly acquainted with every detail in the
life of every being in heaven, in earth, and in hell. "He knows what is in
the darkness" (Dan 2:22). Nothing escapes His notice, nothing can be hidden
from Him, nothing is forgotten by Him. Well may we say with the Psalmist,
"Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto
it" (Psalm 139:6). His knowledge is perfect. He never errs, never changes,
never overlooks anything. "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" (Heb 4:13). Yes, such is the God "with whom we
have to do!"
"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" (Psalm 139:2-4). What a wondrous Being is the God of
Scripture! Each of His glorious attributes should render Him honorable in
our esteem. The apprehension of His omniscience ought to bow us in adoration
before Him. Yet how little do we meditate upon this divine perfection! Is it
because the very thought of it fills us with uneasiness?
How solemn is this fact: nothing can be concealed from
God! "For I know the things that come into your mind, everyone of them" (Eze
11:5). Though He is invisible to us, we are not so to Him. Neither the
darkness of night, the closest curtains, nor the deepest dungeon can hide
any sinner from the eyes of Omniscience. The trees of the garden were not
able to conceal our first parents. No human eye beheld Cain murder his
brother, but his Maker witnessed his crime. Sarah might laugh derisively in
the seclusion of her tent, yet was it heard by Jehovah. Achan stole a wedge
of gold and carefully hid it in the earth, but God brought it to light.
David was at much pains to cover up his wickedness, but before long the
all-seeing God sent one of His servants to say to him, "You are the man!"
And to writer and reader is also said, "Be sure your sin will find you out"
(Num 32:23).
Men would strip Deity of His omniscience if they
could—what a proof that "the carnal mind is enmity against God!" (Rom 8:7)
The wicked do as naturally hate this divine perfection as much as they are
naturally compelled to acknowledge it. They wish there might be no Witness
of their sins, no Searcher of their hearts, no Judge of their deeds. They
seek to banish such a God from their thoughts: "They consider not in their
hearts that I remember all their wickedness" (Hosea 7:2). How solemn is
Psalm 90:8! Good reason has every Christ-rejecter for trembling before it:
"You have set our iniquities before You, our secret sins in the light of
Your countenance."
But to the believer, the fact of God's omniscience is a
truth fraught with much comfort. In times of perplexity he says with job,
"But He knows the way that I take" (23:10). It may be profoundly mysterious
to me, quite incomprehensible to my friends, but "He knows!" In times of
weariness and weakness believers assure themselves, "He knows our frame; He
remembers that we are dust" (Psalm 103:14). In times of doubt and suspicion
they appeal to this very attribute, saying, "Search me, O God, and know my
heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in
me, and lead me in the way everlasting" (Psalm 139:23,24). In time of sad
failure, when our actions have belied our hearts, when our deeds have
repudiated our devotion, and the searching question comes to us, "So you
love you Me?", we say, as Peter did, "Lord, You know all things; You know
that I love You" (John 21:17).
Here is encouragement to prayer. There is no cause for
fearing that the petitions of the righteous will not be heard, or that their
sighs and tears shall escape the notice of God, since He knows the thoughts
and intents of the heart. There is no danger of the individual saint being
overlooked amidst the multitude of supplicants who daily and hourly present
their various petitions, for an infinite Mind is as capable of paying the
same attention to millions as if only one individual were seeking its
attention. So too the lack of appropriate language, the inability to give
expression to the deepest longing of the soul, will not jeopardize our
prayers, for "It shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer;
and while they are yet speaking, I will hear" (Isa 65:24).
"Great is our Lord, and of great power: His understanding
is infinite" (Psalm 147:5). God not only knows whatever has happened in the
past in every part of His vast domains, and He is not only thoroughly
acquainted with everything that is now transpiring throughout the entire
universe, but He is also perfectly cognizant of every event, from the least
to the greatest, that ever will happen in the ages to come. God's knowledge
of the future is as complete as is His knowledge of the past and the
present, and that, because the future depends entirely upon Himself. Were it
in any ways possible for something to occur apart from either the direct
agency or permission of God, then that something would be independent of
Him, and He would at once cease to be Supreme.
Now the divine knowledge of the future is not a mere
abstraction, but something which is inseparably connected with and
accompanied by His purpose. God has Himself designed whatever shall yet be,
and what He has designed must be effectuated. As His most sure Word affirms,
"He does according to His will in the army of heaven, and among the
inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay His hand" (Dan 4:35). And again,
"There are many devices in a man's heart; nevertheless the counsel of the
Lord, that shall stand" (Pro 19:21). The wisdom and power of God being alike
infinite, the accomplishment of whatever He has purposed is absolutely
guaranteed. It is no more possible for the divine counsels to fail in their
execution than it would be for the thrice holy God to lie.
Nothing relating to the future is in any ways uncertain
so far as the actualization of God's counsels are concerned. None of His
decrees are left contingent either on creatures or secondary causes. There
is no future event which is only a mere possibility, that is, something
which may or may not come to pass: "Known unto God are all His works from
the beginning" (Acts 15:18). Whatever God has decreed is inexorably certain,
for He is without variableness, or shadow of turning" (James 1:17).
Therefore we are told at the very beginning of that book, which unveils to
us so much of the future, of "Things which must shortly come to pass" (Rev
1:1).
The perfect knowledge of God is exemplified and
illustrated in every prophecy recorded in His Word. In the Old Testament are
to be found scores of predictions concerning the history of Israel, which
were fulfilled to their minutest detail, centuries after they were made. In
them too are scores more foretelling the earthly career of Christ, and they
too were accomplished literally and perfectly. Such prophecies could only
have been given by One who knew the end from the beginning, and whose
knowledge rested upon the unconditional certainty of the accomplishment of
everything foretold. In like manner, both Old and New Testament contain many
other announcements yet future, and they too "must be fulfilled" (Luke
24:44), must because foretold by Him who decreed them.
It should, however, be pointed out that neither God's
knowledge nor His cognition of the future, considered simply in themselves,
are causative. Nothing has ever come to pass, or ever will, merely because
God knew it. The cause of all things is the will of God. The man who really
believes the Scriptures knows beforehand that the seasons will continue to
follow each other with unfailing regularity to the end of earth's history
(Gen 8:22), yet his knowledge is not the cause of their succession. So
God's knowledge does not arise from things because they are or will be, but
because He has ordained them to be. God knew and foretold the
crucifixion of His Son many hundreds of years before He became incarnate,
and this, because in the divine purpose, He was a Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world: hence we read of His being "delivered by the
determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God" (Acts 2:23).
A word or two by way of application. The infinite
knowledge of God should fill us with amazement. How far exalted above the
wisest man is the Lord! None of us knows what a day may bring forth, but all
futurity is open to His omniscient gaze. The infinite knowledge of God ought
to fill us with holy awe. Nothing we do, say, or even think, escapes the
cognizance of Him with whom we have to do: "The eyes of the Lord are in
every place, beholding the evil and the good" (Pro 15:3). What a curb this
would be unto us, did we but meditate upon it more frequently! Instead of
acting recklessly, we should say with Hagar, "You God see me" (Gen 16:13).
The apprehension of God's infinite knowledge should fill the Christian with
adoration. The whole of my life stood open to His view from the beginning.
He foresaw my every fall, my every sin, my every backsliding; yet,
nevertheless, fixed His heart upon me. Oh, how the realization of this
should bow me in wonder and worship before Him!