. God Is Omniscient Series

Dr. Harold Bryson tells of the two boys who went to their

pastor to request his advice on what they could do to help people.

The pastor told them of a blind man who would love to have

someone come and read the Bible to him. The man was delighted

when the boys came and told him of their plan. "Where do you

want us to begin," they asked? "Well," he said, "Since you will

be coming back each week, let's start with Matthew, and read

through the New Testament." So the boys began their reading,

and as you recall, they first chapter of Matthew is full of begats.

"Let's skip this list of names," the boys suggested. "No, read

them all," the blind man urged. It was an effort, but they

ploughed through the list the best they could. When they finished

they noticed tears coming down the blind mans cheeks. "What is

so emotional about a list of names"? one of the boys asked. The

blind man said, "God knew everyone of those fellows, and he

knew them by name. Boys, that makes me feel important to know

that God knows me, and He knows my name." You don't have to

make a name for yourself to be known by God, for God knows the

least as well as the greatest by name. In fact, God not only knows

all persons by name.

He has even assigned names to His inanimate creation. Ps. 147:4 says,

"He has determined the number of the stars and calls them each

by name." The implications of this are amazing, for if God even

gives names to the billions and trillions of stars, then you can be

assured there has never been a nameless person ever conceived.

The unknown soldiers of the world are known to God. The John

and Jane Does of the world have a name to God. All of the

unknown and unnamed of history are known and named in the

mind of God, for God is omniscient, which means, He is

all-knowing.

Even the human mind can be amazing in what it can know.

One night just before the orchestra was to play, the bassoon

player rushed over to the famous conductor Arturo Toscanini

and said his instrument would not play E-flat. Toscanini held his

head in his hands a moment and said, "It will be all right-the note

E-flat does not appear in your music tonight." He was a genius,

and knew every detail of his music.

This is impressive, but it cannot compare to Gods knowing the

number of hairs on our heads. This is not very stable

information, and it changes with every combing, yet it is not

impossible for an omniscient God to be aware of this constant

variation.

It makes even our best computers primitive by comparison. But

our text takes us to that which is beyond the borders of

comprehension. Jesus takes us into the realm of God's

omniscience that is so mind-boggling and incomprehensible that

many theologian reject it as impossible.

Jesus goes beyond saying God knows everything that has ever

been, that is, and that will ever be. That sounds like a sufficient

body of knowledge to qualify God for being omniscient. But

Jesus goes one step further into a realm of knowing that man

cannot follow. Jesus says God can even know what might have

been. God can actually know the answer to all of the what if

questions of life. What if Jesus would have come into history

centuries earlier, and done His miracles in Tyre and Sidon, or

even the notorious Sodom? Jesus says not only does God know

what would have been, and how these wicked cities would have

responded, but He says His judgment of these people will be

modified by this knowing of what might have been. They will be

less severely judged because God knows that they would have

repented had they gotten the same chance as Bethsaida and

Capernaum.

Jesus takes Gods omniscience into a realm that is so beyond

the mind of man that as far as I can determine it is an

embarrassment to many theologians. You sometimes have to

choose between the God of the theologians and the God of Jesus,

and here is a case in point. Many theologians lock God into only

being able to know what He has foreordained or predestined. In

other words, they say the reason God knows all is because He has

decreed to be. Even the great Jonathan Edwards said, "Without

decree foreknowledge could not exist." In other words, all God

can know is what He has decreed to be. But Jesus says God not

only can know what He would do in all possible situations, but He

can know what men would do in all possible situations. It was not