Tag: Omniscience

What Does Omniscience Mean?

Psalm 139 has David talking about how God sees everything he does (sitting, standing, laying, speaking!) and even knows his motives. This is exactly what omniscience means (“Omni” being “all” and “science” being “knowledge”); God has all knowledge. There are two things we can take away from the fact that God knows everything.

  1. We can take comfort in the fact that God can see us and is with us anywhere and everywhere we might go. He can always lead us and guide us.
  2. We can take caution in the fact that God knows all our sins. There is nothing hidden from us. He watched us commit them!
  3. God knows how many days you have left, and when your last day on this earth is.

So then, in terms of definition omniscience means all-knowing… but in terms of implication it means that God cannot be fooled, He knows literally everything. Everything we have ever done and will ever do. And what does that mean? Look at David’s request toward the end of the Psalm. David asks God to help him avoid becoming an enemy of the Lord. We should do the same. Sin can lead any of us astray. And God knows that, He knows where we are weak, and He knows where we are being attacked, and He WANTS to help us, but He is not going to go against our will to do so.

If God already knows our failings, let’s embrace that all-knowing-ness and ask him to help us deal with them.

Love in the Trenches

Job is a righteous and prosperous man. He fears God and loves his children. He would offer sacrifices on behalf of his children, in case they had sinned incidentally or accidentally. It was common belief among the worshippers of pagans gods that those deities were capricious and easily offended, so it is not clear if Job is trying to stay on God’s good side, or if he recognizes the need to sacrifice because of the holiness of the one true God.

So the accuser (we should not assume this person is Satan) says that Job is not worshipping God, but rather trying to appease Him. God — being omniscient — already know Job’s heart, but for reasons not revealed to us here He consents to have tragedy befall Job. And it does.

In a matter of minutes everything is taken away from Job, including all of his children. This absolutely devastating turn of events would be enough to push anyone to brink of despair. Surely this would be enough to push Job over the edge. But his reply is as humbling as it is shocking… upon losing everything Job remarks:

“I came naked from my mother’s womb, and I will be made naked when I leave. The LORD gave me what I had, and the LORD has taken it away. Praise the name of the LORD!”

I’ve heard the story too many times to count. People love and worship God so long as things are going well for them. They look at the misery and destruction around the world and it phases them not. But when that misery and/or destruction knocks on their door… God must not exist. It’s okay when it happens to others, but when it happens to me it is proof that God cannot be real.

This is the epitome of self-centredness. Like we’ve talked about before, an eternal perspective is key. It won’t make these things easier to bear, but it will help us understand that when calamity befalls us that God is still in charge, and that this life is but a breath. Those among us who have MUCH can all-too-easily find ourselves worshipping a God of good times and convenience. But those among us who have little, find all their hope in God.

Maybe in some cases those of us who are well-off, are poorer than those who have nothing.

Job 1-4 | 019/365

Whose Will Be Done?

“I admit the deed! — tear up the planks! — here, here! — it is the beating of his hideous heart!” The satisfying release can almost be felt as we reading the thrilling conclusion of Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’. It is the story of a man whose guilt consumes him, until he can do nothing other than admit the deed. His conscience haunted him. It is a similar condition in which we find Joseph’s brothers during today’s reading.

They are struck by the famine Joseph predicted, and so make the trek to Egypt where food has been stored for exactly this occasion. Joseph’s Brothers bring money to Egypt to purchase food as their own supplies have nearly run out. They do not recognize Joseph when they come before him to request to purchase food. Joseph questions the brothers extensively before telling them that unless they bring their youngest brother, they’ll not be allowed to purchase any additional food. So they pay for their portion and head back to Canaan.

Along the way, they find that they have not only the food they purchased, but also the money paid in their bags. A secret blessing from Joseph. But they cannot even receive the blessing, they were still, after all these years, consumed with guilt about what they had done to their brother. It is a curse! they thought, God was surely punishing them. They could never go back.

But eventually they were forced to return. Now we pull God’s careful positioning of Joseph back out of the pocket from yesterday. Because it was during this trip that Jacob revealed himself saying, “God has sent me ahead of you to keep you and your families alive and to preserve many survivors” (Gen 45:7, NLT). Does this mean that God orchestrates evil events to bring about good? Some faithful Christians would say that He does. But I would say that God, in His omniscience, knows what each of us would do in any given circumstance and that He factored in the evil free-will choices of mankind when he providentially arranged the world.

Is it good that you did a bad thing because it achieved God’s Will? No. But God’s Will cannot be defeated by the works of mankind either. His Will be done. Amen.

Genesis 42:1-45:15 | 016/365