GOD KNOWS ALL THINGS
“Knowing God- Part V” Isaiah 40:21-27
Introduction:
Have you ever looked up to the sky on a
full moon, star light night and wondered at the stars? Have you ever tried to count the number of
stars? Well the astronomers make that job easy for us. Galaxies
are sprawling space systems composed of dust, gas, and countless stars. The
number of galaxies cannot be counted—the observable universe alone may contain
100 billion. Some of these distant systems are similar to our own Milky Way
galaxy, while others are quite different. Galaxies with less than a billion
stars are considered "small galaxies." In our own galaxy, the sun is
just one of about 100 billion stars.”[1]
How
many galaxies are there in the unobservable part of the universe? How many
total number of stars might be in all those galaxies? Another estimation was, 10 trillion galaxies in the universe. Multiplying that
by the Milky Way's estimated 100 billion stars results in a large number
indeed: 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars, or a "1" with 24
zeros after it. This number is likely a gross underestimation, the universe may
contain more galaxies. Who knows?
Is your head spinning, trying to
wrap your mind around these staggering number of stars in the universe? The
Astronomers couldn’t come up with accurate numbers, let alone giving each of
the star a name. But for someone this is nothing, because he created them, he
not only counts them, but calls them by name and the best part is that all
these trillions of stars come out marching as they receive the orders. The
Psalmist marveled at this mysterious wonder of God in creation. The prophet
Isaiah was amazed at the enormous power of God, his immense depth of knowledge
over the universe, precision to details and his close involvement with people
he has created for a relationship. We have read about it in Isaiah 40:21-27
We
have been on a journey of Knowing God. Last week we learned that God is all
powerful. Today we will learn that GOD KNOWS ALL THINGS. Before we go further
let me explain this difficult word “Omniscience” It comes from two medieval
Latin roots omnis (meaning
"all") and scientia (meaning
"knowledge"), you'll get omniscient, meaning "knowledge of
all." The Webster Dictionary meaning is:
“having infinite awareness, understanding, and insight.” Based on these
definitions the word omniscience of God is the principle that God is
all-knowing; that He encompasses all knowledge of the universe both the past,
present, and the future. God’s understanding
has no limits.
The scriptures rightly begin with
these three Hebrew words, “Bereshith,
Bara, Elohim” In the beginning, the Almighty God created the heavens and
the earth. As we know in the garden
there were two trees, one was the tree of knowledge of good and evil and the
other was the tree of life. The tree of knowledge was designed as a test of
obedience. Our first parents were to choose whether to obey God or break His commandments.
When they actually ate from the forbidden tree the consequences of their
actions became self-evident. Coming back to our study at first look, the idea
of the omniscience of God may seem to be a simple concept—God knows everything.
But the more we study the Bible, the more we come to understand what an
incredible truth it is.
I.
GOD’S KNOWLEDGE IS PERFECT
Last week we looked into Elihu’s discourse with Job. He closed his argument by asking Job, a few questions. Job 37:15-16, “Do you
know how God controls the clouds and makes his lightning flash? Do you know how
the clouds hang poised, those wonders of him who has perfect knowledge?” If Elihu were to ask you the same
question, do you know the wonders of the one who has perfect knowledge, what would
be your answer?
The God of
the Bible is portrayed as the God of all knowledge. The Hebrew noun Daath means: knowledge, insight, intelligence, understanding, and
wisdom. It occurs 93 times in the Hebrew OT. Consider these scriptures that
speak of God’s knowledge: Hannah after receiving the gift of a child in Samuel,
gave thanks to God. Her prayer included these words, “Boast no more so very
proudly, Do not let arrogance come out of your mouth; for the LORD is a God of
knowledge, and with Him actions are weighed.” I Samuel 2:3
Job in his
response to one of his friend’s argument about how fleeting is the triumph of
the wicked this is what he had to say, “Can anyone teach God knowledge, in that
He judges those on high? Job 21:22,
(NASB) In the Message Bible, it reads, “But who are we to tell God how to run
his affairs? He’s dealing with matters that are way over our heads. (The
Message)
The Psalmist
wondered about how bare and exposed his life has become before the God who
knows everything about him. “O Lord, you have searched me and known me. You
know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar.
You scrutinize
my path and my lying down, and are intimately acquainted with all my
ways. Even before there is a word on my tongue, Behold, O Lord, you know it
all. You have enclosed me behind and before, and laid Your hand upon me. Such
knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is too high, I cannot attain to it.”
Psalm 139:1-6
Can you imagine what would be the implications
of this scripture? When we know, that He knows how we spend our time, money,
our thoughts, words and actions, what should that do to us? It should certainly
put some fear of God in our hearts, isn’t it? This scripture also gives us a
reason to come out before God honestly and acknowledging our sins, and seeking
his mercy and forgiveness since he knows our sins anyway. Is there anything we
can hide from God?
Let’s
see what we can find from the passage we read from Isaiah. A bit of background here would be helpful.
Prophet Isaiah began his prophetic career during a time of relative peace and
prosperity under Judah’s kings Uzaiah, and Jotham, but before long, conditions
deteriorated, especially on the international scene. Assyria became a
superpower and deported Judah’s sister kingdom Israel later on ravaged the
Judean country side, and Jerusalem itself almost fell.
During
such turmoil and unrest Isaiah preached a message of hope for a repentant Judah
who would trust in the LORD. Isaiah chapters 1-39 deals primarily with events
during his lifetime but the later part of the book is all concerned with the
future. Isaiah 40 begins a major section
that looks ahead to Judah’s return from Babylonian exile in the sixth century
B.C.
In
this passage, Isaiah describes the immense power and the in-depth knowledge of
God over nature and his people. In Vs 22, we read about the vantage point of
God and what should be the proper perspective of man. “It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.” Let me illustrate, during my air
travels I used to be fascinated by the take offs and landings of the Airplanes.
I would be amazed by the disappearing sights of cars, people, buildings, and
mountains as my Airplane was lifted off defying gravity and tearing through the
clouds. All of a sudden I find myself
above the ground and above the clouds.
From
that hight I would look down and hardly see anything except the mountains and clouds.
It was a great place to be in. All of a sudden, all those people who used to
trouble me were out of my sight. Nothing troubled me anymore. I seemed to be
floating above all the earthly pressures and problems. I felt like I was on top
of the world. During those moments, my heart was filled with gratitude and I felt
deeply connected with God. It was a wonderful, once in a while experience, that
came with a heavy price tag. It’s been a while since I flew last time!
But
you know what, you can have that experience daily, 24X7, and the best part is
that it is free, you don’t have to pay for it. I love the heavenly perspective
the Apostle Paul was giving to the Ephesian believers. Ephesians, 2:4-7 “But God, being rich in
mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead
in our transgressions, made us alive together
with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him,
and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the
ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness
toward us in Christ Jesus.”
God
is freely inviting us to come and sit with him where he is seated. From that place, sitting next to him now he
wants us to look down upon the earth and all our problems, all of a sudden you
will have a right perspective of how Great, Powerful and Knowledgeable our God
is and how small everything else is. Coming back to our passage here we see
God’s challenge to man. He is challenging us to lift up our eyes and see the
starry hosts, the display of his power and the scope of his knowledge. He counts the stars, he calls each of them by
name, he leads them by number and he keeps them together. He further challenges
us with these words, Vs 25“To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?”
says the Holy One.”
In
the passage, after the display of God’s depth of knowledge, he kind of rebukes
his people for their lack of understanding and perception. Vs, 27 “Why do you
complain, Jacob? Why do you say, Israel, my way is hidden from the LORD; my
cause is disregarded by my God”? Let me bring this to our context. Just like
Judah and Israel, it is natural for us to forget the greatness, the power and
the knowledge of God when we are steeped in problems. They seem to be like huge
mountains trying to drown our heavenly perspective. We grumble and complain to
God saying, God, do you really know my situation? Can you see my problems?
Do
you even care what I am going through? and so on. God’s response to us is, what
do you mean I don’t care? What do you mean I don’t know your situation and see
your problems? Of course, I do! But do you know, that I have the perfect
knowledge of your situation? Do you know that I have all the power to get you
out of your trouble? That is the real challenge. Do you remember, what God said
to Job when first confronted him? We read it in Job 38:1-2, “Then the LORD
spoke to Job out of the storm. He said, “Who is this that obscures my plans
with words without knowledge? Then he goes on to bombard him with “do you know questions”
At the end of the grueling questioning, Job had nothing else to say except
this.
Job
42: 1-6 “I know that You can do all things, and that no purpose of Yours can be
thwarted. ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore, I have
declared that which I did not understand, Things too wonderful for me, which I
did not know.” ‘Hear, now, and I will speak; I will ask You, and You instruct
me.’ “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; But now my eye sees You; Therefore,
I retract, And I repent in dust and ashes.”
I want to conclude with the following statements:
No matter whatever problems you might be going through, be assured that God has
perfect knowledge of your situation. If you are given to complaining, grumbling
and questioning God without knowledge, like the children of Israel and Job, you
need to stop, repent and ask God forgiveness. God knows all your struggles,
your fears, and your overwhelming challenges, and he wants you to know that he
deeply loves you and cares for you. Finally, God is inviting you and I to come
and be seated next to Him in the heavenly places and work with him, taking his
wise counsel to overcome our troubles. My prayer for all of us is that we will
run to our God by faith and find refuge in Him. Amen
