Omniscience

Psalm 139

We are impressed when a person knows a lot of things. We are entertained when people showcase a vast scope of general trivia knowledge on gameshows like Jeopardy! and Who Wants to be a Millionare? We may also be impressed when a person knows a lot of things about sport stats and strategies, or when someone has mastered a challenging hobby, or is a whiz at chess. But such knowledge is – ironically – trivial. This kind of knowledge is fascinating and impressive, sure, but it doesn’t matter much in real life.

But there are other people who have a lot of knowledge, and their knowledge really matters. We expect doctors to know a lot of things about the human body, lawyers to know a lot of things about laws and prior cases, and financial advisors to know a lot of things about economics, investments, and the markets.

From air traffic controllers to astronauts, military generals to nuclear power plant operators, cybersecurity techs to university professors, we expect people who provide critical, specialized services that affect the lives of people in serious and widespread ways to know a lot more things than we do. Gaining this knowledge requires expensive and extensive education, experience, and training, in addition to good health.

But even the most knowledgeable people in the most demanding professions are only knowledgeable in specific, limited fields and kinds of knowledge. A neurosurgeon may be able to perform surgeries on brains and spinal cords, but he probably doesn’t also know how to build a bridge, lead an army, or design a car.

And here’s more key perspective about people with lots of knowledge. They aren’t born with this knowledge – they had to discover and learn it over time. And as they grow older, they tend to lose that knowledge as memory and health decline due to old age and other degenerative conditions.

Thankfully, there’s an exception to all this – that is God. Unlike any other being or person that exists, God not only knows far more than anyone else, but he also actually knows everything. On one hand, this concept that God knows everything may seem relatively easy to understand: there’s a lot of information out there and God knows all of it. But this concept is far more amazing and mind-blowing than you may realize.

Together, let’s consider three aspects of God’s universal knowledge – his omniscience. Then, we’ll consider how we should respond to God knowing everything.

God knows everything – past, present, and future.

This past week, I asked Grok to tell me how much electronic storage would be required to store all the knowledge in the universe. The answer it gave was limited in scope only to information that could, in theory, be recorded about the observable universe, including information like physical conditions, scientific laws, historical events, and human-generated data (like books, databases, etc.).

The answer Grok gave was difficult to understand because it used technical language about complicated forms of electronic storage combined with large, complicated numbers. In summary, though, Grok concluded that storing all the data in the observable universe would require an unimaginably huge amount of storage that no technology we have (or could ever dream of) could handle. Even all the computers, phones, and data centers on Earth today don’t begin to come close to being able to hold this amount of knowledge.

What makes this answer even more astounding is that it doesn’t include knowledge about the spiritual realm, or possibilities, or things before the world began, or the future, or human thoughts and feelings that are private or unexpressed. But God knows all these things. His knowledge of the past, present, and future is complete. He knows everything.

Job 37:16 says that God is “perfect in knowledge,” which means that his knowledge of everything is complete and entire. 1 John 3:20 says that God “knows all things.”

About knowing things in the future, Isaiah 46:9-10 says:

Remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done …

And Matt 6:8 says that God “knows what you need before you ask him.” Scripture is filled with statements like this, in fact, which indicate that God knows the past, present, and future with complete certainty and clarity.

God knows everything – actual and possible.

God also knows everything whether actual or possible. First, he knows everything the way it is, has been, and will be. He knows everything that is observable and real, whether physical or spiritual, visible or invisible. He doesn’t need to discover anything, learn anything, or find anything out. He already knows everything as it is.

There is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account. (Heb 4:13)

Psa 147:4 says that God knows and numbers every star in the universe and names each one. Matt 10:29-30 tells us that God knows about the death of every small bird and knows the exact number of hairs on your head at any given time.

To better appreciate how amazing this is, I’ll give you a simple thought experiment. How would you answer the following question: which is more impressive – that God knows everything about himself or that God knows everything about everything else?

At first blush, we might answer that God knowing everything about everything else is most impressive because there are a lot of things in the universe, to say the least. After all, if I didn’t understand myself completely but I knew everything about everything and everyone else in the universe, wouldn’t that be impressive?

But unlike everything and everyone else, which is finite and limited, God is infinite and unlimited. As such, he is impossible for anyone to know or figure out perfectly and he is greater, vaster, and far more complex to understand than both anything and everything else he has made.

Add to this the simple but perplexing fact that we don’t even know or understand our own selves accurately or well. We all live with at least three realities at once – the person that you think you are, the person that other people think you are, and the person that God knows you to be. Only God knows you perfectly, which means not even you understand yourself as well as God does.

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings. (Jer 17:9-10)

But God is not this way. God knows himself perfectly and completely, in all his infinite, unlimited glory – exactly as he truly is.

No one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. (1 Cor 2:11)

For God to know himself perfectly is far more impressive than him knowing everything about everything else.

That said, God not only knows everything about everything as it really is, but he also knows every possibility of what could have been instead. For instance, Jesus Christ (who is God) said this about two cities during his time on Earth:

Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. (Matt 11:21)

And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades; for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. (Matt 11:23)

He knew how the people in the ancient cities of Tyre, Sidon, Sodom, and Gomorrah would have responded if he had performed his miracles for them. He knew not only what did happen to these cities but what would have happened if certain factors had been different.

God knows truly knows everything that is possible to know and more. He knows all things actual and possible, and he knows all things past, present, and future as they really are.

How does this universal knowledge of God make you feel? As David said in Psa 139:6:

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain it.

It is impossible for us to comprehend such knowledge, and it is also impossible for us to achieve this sort of knowledge for ourselves. That is why we should stand in awe the God who knows everything.

God knows everything – all at once.

Finally, not only does God know everything past, present, and future, and actual and possible. He knows all these things all at once. In other words, he has always – for all eternity, without beginning or end – known everything accurately and completely.

Known to God from eternity are all His works. (Acts 15:18)

He doesn’t need biographies or history class because he knows the past. He doesn’t need news or social media because he knows the present. And he doesn’t need prophets or time travel machines because he knows the future. He never learns anything new.

God has never discovered anything, learned anything, or realized that he was mistaken or wrong about anything. He always knows everything all at once, with no change in his knowledge at any point in time or eternity. And not only does he never learn anything new which he didn’t know before, but he never forgets anything either – he never lets go or loses anything that he knew before. He always knows everything all at once. Another way of saying this is – as theologian Wayne Grudem says – “God is always fully aware of everything” and his “knowledge never changes or grows.”

So, how do you feel when you realize that God knows everything? Well, how do you feel when you imagine a world in which the government knows everything about everybody? Thanks to the internet, cell phones, personal assistant devices like Alexa, GPS tracking, surveillance cameras, satellite technology, and more, the U.S. government knows.

This week, I also asked Grok to tell me how much of my personal, private life is known to the government – in theory. It answered that the government has access to a vast majority of my personal and private data – potentially 80-90% or more of my digital footprint, financial history, and public interactions. Wow, that’s freaky, right?

But do we feel the same way about God knowing everything about our lives, including our thoughts, and knowing everything perfectly and accurately?

This is frightening for nonbelievers.

For people who do not submit to God as King and Savior, the omniscience of God is a frightening concept.

There is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account. (Heb 4:13)

Not only does God know all their thoughts, words, and actions, but he will judge them on the basis of those things, as well. Such knowledge can only mean an undesirable result – one that is not only embarrassing and humiliating, but terrifying and harmful.

Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away … I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books … anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire. (Rev 20:11-15)

How can anyone respond to God’s omniscience in any other way than anxiety and fear? The answer to this question is swapping places with the only person who has nothing evil or sinful about or within them to discover or know. That person is Jesus Christ.

This is comforting for believers.

For the person who has believed on Christ as God and Savior, God’s perfect, universal knowledge no longer guarantees a terrible and painful judgment. It guarantees more encouraging, positive things, instead.

God sees and understands you perfectly.

Consider how David, who believed on the Lord as his God and Savior, responded to God’s universal knowledge (Psa 136:1-4):

O Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up; you understand my thought afar off. You comprehend my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word on my tongue, but behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.

Here, David understands that God not only knows everything about him but pays close attention to him, as well. He understood that God knew everything he would do, when he would do it, and how he would do it, with no exceptions. He even knew everything David would ever say before David said it.

How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand; when I awake, I am still with You. (Psa 139:17-18)

Here, precious means valuable and weighty, which tells us that God’s thoughts about his children – those who believe on him – are incredibly personal and special. We also see that God’s has more thoughts about you than you will every be able to count. Because of how God thinks about those who believe on him, David welcomed God to search him:

Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my anxieties; and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. (Psa 139:23-24)

As human beings, we have a deep desire to be known. This is why we seek out friendships, pursue marriage, and so on. With God, you have someone who knows you completely, better than anyone else does. He knows you completely and perfectly and loves you still. You can even invite him to examine and reveal your “anxieties,” which refers to those disturbing, troubling, worrying thoughts that bother you, which you are afraid to reveal to anyone else. And you can even invite him to reveal anything within your thoughts which would be idolatrous or would be grieving or hurtful to God and know that he would not reject you over such thoughts but would rather help lead you to new and better thoughts – “in the way everlasting.”

Do you have this kind of close relationship with God that finds comfort in knowing that he knows everything about you and loves you still?

God forgives you permanently.

The key to having this kind of relationship with God is to know that you have been forgiven by God through Christ. But what does it mean to forgive? At least three times in Scripture, God says, “I will not remember your sins” (Isa 43:25; Jer 31:34; Heb 8:12). But how can God know all things at all times if he doesn’t “remember” your sins?

Since God is omniscient, he never forgets your sins in the sense that he no longer knows the bad you have done. But he does forget your sins in another way – he chooses to treat you differently in spite of your sins. Though he knows you did them, he will not hold them against you any longer because they have been judged and punished in Christ.

By “not remember,” God means that he will not longer “bring up” your sins or treat you the way you deserve to be treated for your sins. Though he will always know about your sins, he will no longer bring them up or treat you the way you deserve to be treated because of your sins. He will, instead, forgive you and remember to treat you as his fully forgiven, fully known, and fully loved child. “Whoever believes in him will receive forgiveness of sins” (Acts 10:43). Have you believed on Christ for salvation?

God acts in harmony with what he knows.

When we know that God knows everything, including every possibility and how it would play out, then we can have the assurance that no matter what happens, it was allowed or chosen by God to occur that way in light of everything else that he knows. And this means that even the difficult things that happen are the best possible thing that could have happened knowing all that God knows.

We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. (Rom 8:28)

Here we see that all who believe on Christ have a guarantee from God that no matter what happens, it will “work together for good.” “Work together” means to assist, to enhance, to help, to coordinate with other things that happen. This means that though not everything that happens is good all by itself – in fact, many things which happen are indeed bad, often very bad – even bad things, very bad things, will end up working out together to accomplish some greater good which only God knows how to accomplish.

From our limited perspectives, we cannot see the big picture, the many possibilities, and the alternate realities which do or could have happened. We can only see, know, and experience what is happening in the present to a limited degree. But since we know that God knows everything – including every possibility as well as what will happen – we can rest assured knowing that whatever happens has been permitted by the God who knows everything and that he is – knowing all things – working those things out to the best possible end for his children.

We’re familiar, for example, with how this occurs in a chess match. A player may give up a valuable piece, like a queen or rook, on purpose to gain a bigger advantage and win the game. Here’s how this works in simple terms:

• Set Up a Trap: The player sees a chance to create a strong attack or trap the opponent’s king. They might notice a weakness, like an exposed king or a key piece that’s not well protected.
• Give Up the Piece: Instead of protecting their valuable piece, they let the opponent capture it. For example, they might move their queen where it can be taken, but this move opens a path to attack.
• Gain a Bigger Advantage: After the sacrifice, the player uses the position to launch a powerful attack, often checkmating the opponent’s king or winning back even more material. The sacrifice distracts or forces the opponent into a bad position.

A player might sacrifice a bishop to open up the opponent’s king, then use their other pieces to checkmate before the opponent can recover. In such cases, because the better chess player knows more things about the game, he or she is willing to give up something good now to get something even better later.

Another good example of a strategic sacrifice is when someone gives up a high-paying job to start their own business. Imagine a person working a stable, well-paid job but feeling unfulfilled. They might "sacrifice" that job—giving up security and income—to start a small bakery because they love baking and want to build something meaningful. This move is risky, possibly even putting them into short-term debt, like sacrificing a piece in chess, but it can lead to a bigger "win," such as greater personal fulfillment or financial success if the business thrives. The sacrifice trades short-term comfort for a shot at a long-term goal.

Because God knows all things, he is able to function as the all-powerful, sovereign God who works all things out to an ultimate win for his children. This means that due to knowledge and reasons beyond our ability to know or understand, he may call or permit us to experience bad, difficult, or painful things which feel like setbacks and losses. But because he knows all things, we can trust that he is working out the best possible plan.

What God says is entirely reliable.

Finally, it is important to remind ourselves that since God knows everything, we can trust what he says. What God says is based upon who he is and everything that he knows – which is everything. As such, his Word is more reliable and informed than anything else that anyone else has ever said or written. For this reason, we should consult, meditate on, and put into practice the teaching and wisdom of God from his Word (Psa 1:1-6).

Blessed is the man
Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,
Nor stands in the path of sinners,
Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;
But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
And in His law he meditates day and night.
He shall be like a tree Planted by the rivers of water,
That brings forth its fruit in its season,
Whose leaf also shall not wither;
And whatever he does shall prosper.
The ungodly are not so,
But are like the chaff which the wind drives away.
Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment,
Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
For the LORD knows the way of the righteous,
But the way of the ungodly shall perish.

As you reflect on the awe-inspiring truth of God’s omniscience, and in some cases – as you discuss this further in Life Group this week, let us be filled with both amazement and comfort. Our God, who knows all things—past, present, future, actual, and possible—knows and views us with his perfect understanding and unchanging love.

For those who trust in Christ, this knowledge is not a cause for fear but a source of deep encouragement. God sees you completely, forgives you fully – in spite of everything he knows about you, and works all things for your ultimate good, even when life feels like a sacrifice or a loss.

Like a master chess player or a bold business owner, God uses what seems risky or painful to bring about his perfect plan, knowing all things at every point in time. So, let us rest in His infinite wisdom, trust His reliable Word, and invite Him to search our hearts, knowing that the One who knows all things loves us still and leads us in the way everlasting. May we live boldly in this truth, anchored by the God who knows and cares for us beyond measure.