ONE of the great truths concerning God and His glory, which is revealed in the Word of God and made known to His believing people in their experience, is the fact that He possesses a divine and unlimited understanding, by which He knows all things in the most perfect manner. And the saints of the Old Testament Church, as of the New, have left on record in the pages of the Holy Scriptures their belief in the omniscience of their God. This knowledge extends to all parts of His created universe, and to every conceivable matter relative to angels, men and devils. As Peter said to the Son of God, after His resurrection: “Lord, thou knowest all things” (John xxi. 17). And so let us refer to several particulars wherein the knowledge of the Lord applies to His people during their sojourn in this world.
He knoweth them that are His. He knew them before the foundations of the World were laid, and before they had a being, in the covenant of grace. But now He knoweth them as His regenerated, believing and justified people, distinct and apart from all others of their fellow beings in the world. Those who may profess to be believers and are not, and who may have but a form of godliness and appear righteous and God-fearing to men: such cannot deceive God into accepting them as His peculiar people. And however lowly, despised and unknown the Lord’s people are in the midst of worldly-wise and evil generation, He knoweth them as precious in His sight. And, although they themselves may be tried and deeply concerned at times as to whether, after all, they have a real, spiritual and saving interest in the Christ of the Gospel, they are well known to Him, who is the God of their salvation, who will never leave them nor forsake them.
He knoweth the indwelling and exercise of the graces of the Spirit in their hearts. When the Son of God questioned Peter once and again as follows: “Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me?” (John xxi. 15-17), Peter finally answered His Lord and Saviour thus: “Lord, thou knowest that I love thee.” Peter here, with a comfortable sense of heart and gracious affection for the Lord, when thus questioned and tried regarding his love, turns the whole matter back upon the Lord Himself, in a way honouring to the Lord and to settle this question. He therefore refers to that divine and penetrating knowledge the Lord had of the very secret workings and exercise of his heart under the influence of grace. And so it is that the Lord knows of every movement of genuine love to His person, His salvation, His Word, His commandments, etc., in the hearts of His people. He sees every inward tear of godly grief over sin, and discerns every groan and sigh after His mercy and presence. In a word, He knows where the life of faith is in exercise, although He may test and try it and even say to His disciples, “Will ye also go away?” that He may draw into special activity that same life of faith as when Peter again said, “Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life” (John vi. 67, 68).
He knoweth their folly and foolishness. In the 69th Psalm, a Psalm of David (although Messianic as well), the Psalmist acknowledges to God, “Thou knowest my foolishness; and my sins are not hid from thee” (v. 5). David had more than one severe and solemn experience with respect to what he here believes regarding God’s knowledge of his foolishness and sins. The Most High sent Nathan the prophet to remind and convince David of his foolishness and sins regarding Bathsheba, and to bring home upon him the solemn truth that God knew all concerning his every step in that course of sin and backsliding (II Sam. xii). The omniscience of God is indeed a solemn truth and reality in relation to even the heart and inward backslidings of His people. He searches the heart without cessation and that fully and perfectly. “He knoweth the way that I take,” saith Job (xxiii. 10), and whether the way is God honouring or dishonouring, it is known from heaven full well. The rod of correction is taken to God’s people for known folly, by Him who is their covenant God in Christ, and knoweth all things, and who exercises correcting and chastening love towards them. Indeed, frequently it is only when the Lord in His knowledge of His people’s folly corrects them that they are made aware of their particular folly. All this is truly a Covenant mercy.
He knoweth the downsitting and uprising, and every word, of His people. All their external activities and providential circumstances and experiences are known minutely and perfectly to the Lord, and also there is not a word which their tongues utter but the Lord hears it and knows it. When Hagar, Sarai’s maid, fled from her mistress into the wilderness, and when the Angel of the Lord met her and spoke to her, then Hagar “Called the name of the Lord that spake unto her, Thou God seest me” (Genesis xvi. 13). And when Peter was cast into prison by Herod, who intended to kill him, the Lord in answer to the prayers of the Church, sent His angel to release the Apostle out of the prison. And this was accomplished. The Lord knew well where and how His servant was circumstanced, and sent His angel to the very spot in the prison where Peter was, to command his deliverance.
Then every word spoken to man, spoken to God, spoken to one’s own soul, spoken in a right frame of mind, and spoken in a wrong spirit, is well known to God. The Son of God in His teaching declared, “But I say unto you that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned” (Matt. xii. 36-37). And so every word is noted by Him that is Most High. This is not, considered as carefully and seriously, even by the Christian, as it ought to be. David felt his personal need of divine keeping as to the employment of his lips, and therefore prayed, “Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips” (Ps. exli. 3). Nevertheless, when they that fear the Lord, and love the truth, and are exercised in soul about their spiritual case and condition, meet together and have fellowship one with another in gospel conversation—then the Lord hearkens and hears it, and a book of remembrance is written before Him, for them that fear the Lord and that think upon His name (Malachi, iii. 16). “Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off”: and “For there is not a word in my tongue but, lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether” (Ps. cxxxix. 2 and 4).
The Lord knows the counsel of the enemies of His Church and people. One of the most common experiences of the people of God throughout the history of the Church has been exposure to the enmity and hostility of worldly men by reason of faithful witness bearing according to the truth and mind of God, and against the iniquities of godless persons. Jeremiah was outstandingly destined to be a prophet of the Lord, who had to bear heavy tidings to the people of Judah and Jerusalem, in making known the anger of the Lord against them on account of their manifold sins and backslidings. He had to tell them that they would be driven and scattered before the enemy and carried away to Babylon. On one occasion when the prophet had delivered such a message, as he did time and again, we are told that the people said, “Come and let us devise devices against Jeremiah . . . Come and let us smite him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words” (Jeremiah xviii. 17-18). And later, Jeremiah, in addressing the Lord, says, “Yet, Lord, thou knowest all their counsel against me to slay me . . .” (Jeremiah xviii. 23). And so Jeremiah knew that the Lord knew all the evil and wicked devices of his enemies to hurt, harm and even kill him, if possible. And it thus appears that the Lord’s people may rest assured that the Lord himself sees and beholds full well all the wicked designs and devices of men against His Word and witnesses. It is true that the Lord in His inscrutable wisdom and for the fulfilling of the counsels and purposes of His own heart, permitted the enemies of His people to hurt, harm and even slay them in all ages. Of course, as Jesus said, such can only proceed as far as killing the body, and after that have no more that they can do. Whatever then is devised of mischief or evil against the children of God, it is unchangeably true, that He who sits upon His throne in heaven, has a perfect knowledge of it all; and rules and acts accordingly, for His own glory and the highest good of His children and His Church. On the other hand, we see in the history of King David how and in what manner the God of David took cognisance of the wicked designs of Absalom and Ahithophel to slay David, to the preservation of David and the overthrow of Absalom, his rebellious son. As the Apostle Peter writes, “The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished” (II Peter ii. 9).
Their Father knoweth what things they have need of. The disciples were instructed by their Lord and Saviour not to follow the practice and habit of the heathen, in their praying, and to avoid using vain repetitions, the heathen thinking that they would be heard for their much speaking. They were told by Jesus, “For your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask Him” (Matt. vi. 7-8). What a wide range this covers with respect to the needs of the Lord’s people! Do they need light, quickening, comfort, strength, preservation, help in time of need, etc.? Then their Father knoweth that they have need of these favours and blessings. What encouragement this is! What an incentive to enter into the secret chamber, and pray to their Father, in secret, for their Father, who seeth in secret, shall reward them openly! And He will be enquired of, to do it for them, although He knows perfectly what they need.